47/82 L Brooklyn Nets 116-120
48/82 W Memphis Grizzlies 122-120
49/82 W Toronto Raptors 129-117
50/82 W Oklahoma City Thunder 128-120
51/82 L Minnesota Timberwolves 114-119 in OT
52/82 L Denver Nuggets 117-134
53/82 W Dallas Mavericks 119-113
We are so good at hanging out at .500. Some good wins, some hard losses, all ending up in the same place. The Timberwolves was the first game all year where I thought “Oh no. We might just be a mediocre team of NBA All Stars.”
When we lose it’s the same playbook - turnovers and scoring droughts. Not just any turnovers. Bad turnovers. Like this one from Steph
And scoring droughts not from the reserves, but from the veterans. Where last year the Warriors were famous for scoring drives in the 3rd quarter, now the Warriors are known for letting teams back into the game, making no lead safe for them. Far too often, the veteran Warriors have given the game away.
When we win, it’s because the Warriors are playing better defense. Not even great defense, just better defense. There are some other good trends. Klay is on it. January was his best month of his NBA career. Wiggins is slowly getting back his game–his offense is shaky but his defense has been back in form. And Kuminga! Jonathan Kuminga is a force to be reckoned with, guarding the best players when he’s on the floor and managing to have a few stunning plays on offense in every game, whether it’s a dunk or spin move or four consecutive 3s.
A few other milestones - Steph passed Wilt Chamberlain in having the most all-time points for a Warrior. Steph also premiered the documentary of his life at Sundance. And Happy Birthday to Andre Iguodala, who turned 39 last week. He has played very little this year–clearly the plan is to give him just enough playing experience during the regular season so that he’s ready for some targeted minutes in the playoffs. But truly, if all he did was help Kuminga to be so strong on defense—job well done.
The Warriors, with their 27-26 record are far from out of it because most of the teams in the Western Conference are right there with them. It is also a precarious place to be–2 games out of 4th place (home court advantage for the playoffs) and 2 games away from the last spot in the play-in tournament.
This makes their upcoming games very important which is unfortunate because February before the All-Star Game is also one of the hardest times to play. They will play 5 games before the break, 4 of them against Western Conference opponents. And they might need to play those games without Steph. There’s only 29 games until the playoffs. There might not be enough time to turn things around.
Now it’s time for my unpopular opinion. Every year when the Super Bowl comes around, I get newly angry. I think that we have proven that we should not have professional football.
Football is by far the most popular sport and it is wildly entertaining. The players are fast, they are strong, many games are exciting. Everything about it is designed to be entertaining. The announcing is loud, they turn the volume up on the sound of the hits and the crowd noise, everything is amplified.
But doesn’t it feel a little too Roman arena? A little…people are maiming themselves while we applaud? A little too dangerous–a lot too dangerous. Football seems like a blood sport and in the last few years I’ve grown increasingly disgusted by it. True confession - I do still watch Michigan football, but I can’t say I enjoy it. Maybe next year I’ll quit entirely. There have been calls to make football safer by changing the helmets, changing the penalties for hitting, but the thing is that I don’t think it can be made safe enough. Or rather, that we don’t want it to be safe enough. There’s a part of the audience, or a part of us, that likes the brutality of it. Or is convinced that the violence is what makes it football.
I know a fair number of people who have had concussions - not athletes - just people. It’s astonishing how challenging the recovery from concussions can be. Some people never get their brain back to what it was. The idea that we applaud a sport where concussions are an expected and regular part of something that we call “playing” is gross to me. (I’ve now learned that NHL players get even more concussions on average, but I can’t take on every sport tonight). The average NFL player’s career is 3.3 years, the shortest of the four major professional sports. If a football player plays for 3 seasons, he gets 5 years of medical insurance after retirement. However, many football injuries develop later in life, not when players are still in their 20s. Many players don’t make it to 3 years and are left with chronic injuries and no coverage while those with coverage are denied claims. In one study by the American Academy of Neurology, more than 40% of retired NFL players had signs of brain injuries, and had on average 8.2 concussions in their career.
The violence is baked into the sport, in a way that is inseparable and irredeemable. I’m willing to be wrong on this but it does seem like primarily Black athletes get injured in both immediate and chronic ways while mostly white audiences watch and owners and broadcast networks make millions. While a similar dynamic is also there in basketball, the degree and severity of injury for NFL players makes far riskier.
I don’t think the answer is better health care - because although that should absolutely happen, when 40% of football players experience brain injury, better health care doesn’t change the underlying problem.
I’m asking all of us to reconsider our relationship to professional football, especially with the Super Bowl looming. If you are a lifelong fan, it’s probably hard to not watch the Super Bowl. So I’m not asking you to. Yet. But if you are a casual fan or a non-fan, and you watch just for the halftime show or because you’ve been invited to a Super Bowl party, consider not going. Consider not participating in the global event. It will be ok. You will be surprised by how ok it’s going to be. Sunday will be a day where you get to do whatever you want. Or if the part you like about the Super Bowl is hanging out with friends and eating and drinking—you can do that without football.
If you are only tuning in for the Halftime Show (which probably I will also do, because, well, Rihanna), then you should know this. Rihanna is not paid for performing. The NFL pays for the costs of the show and travel, but the artist is not paid. Rihanna, and every artist who has ever played the Super Bowl, gets exposure. In an era when people bought music, maybe exposure was valuable, but now it is less so when the average Spotify stream gives .003 cents to the artist. If you are going to tune in just for Rihanna–maybe buy something of hers also. If you are thinking Rihanna has enough money, you could give money to a different artist you listen to who isn’t making Rihanna-sized money. Or you could give to Rihanna’s foundation, which is about climate justice in the Caribbean.
To recap, please don’t invite me to your Super Bowl party. Think about whether it’s ok to watch televised concussions on a weekly basis. I remember the winter days of my younger years, curled up on a couch on a Sunday watching football with friends or family. It was comforting. There can be other things that will feel this way—it doesn’t have to be football. And if you do have a Super Bowl party, wouldn’t it be cool to have some Covid precautions? It’s so easy to rapid test ahead of time.
It’s hard to know when to end a rant because one of the characteristics of a rant is that it goes on much longer than anyone wants to hear. I have probably overstayed my welcome. Please know I did spare you from these other football rants in my head-Jim Harbaugh: Take Your Pro-Life I Will Raise Your Baby Nonsense Outta Here, and Tom Brady: Not a Good Guy. In the meantime, I’m dreaming of a future that maybe has an entirely different sport to replace football that athletes can play and kids can dream of becoming them.
Here’s the Timeout Books for these games. By total coincidence, these two books were sort of about the same thing—the oil sands in Canada and how Big Oil has been running the same playbook as Big Tobacco. One is a graphic memoir which means I liked it better and was perfect for Timeout Reading.
P.S. here’s the rereleased video for De La Soul’s “Eye Know”. All of De La Soul’s early albums were not available for decades, but they will be back next month.