Mortality and Other Lessons from Sports by Prospero Pulma Jr.

Mortality and Other Lessons from Sports

Yesterday’s champions are today’s whipping boys or worse…doormats. That is one additional lesson that can be picked from sports and be added to the usual lessons on teamwork, sportsmanship, professionalism, etc. The current NBA Playoffs is one good classroom where the value of mortality even among sports supermen can be picked up.
In the early half of the decade, the Pistons and Spurs were feared clubs. Woe to the team that faced them early in the playoffs for they would surely be taken to school, the school of no-nonsense basketball defense that is. Back then, it was much accepted that they were some of the biggest humps that an ambitious team had to hurdle, the Mr. Everests of the world’s basketball premier league. And where are they now? The Cavaliers routed the Motown boys in four games while it took the Mavs, another fading team, five games to kick the Spurs out of the playoffs.
On examination of the rosters of Detroit and San Antonio, one thing is evident: it is populated by old warhorses like Duncan, Parker, Wallace, and Hamilton. Billups, one of the anchors of the Piston franchise that won Detroit its third title and an old man by NBA standards, was spared from spending the last years of his career in an aging team by his timely shipment to the much younger and more dynamic Denver Nuggets. Sure, they are veterans that could still a kick a cocky young player’s ass but against well-oiled machines like the Cavs, they huff and they puff and still could not blow the opposition away. Even the Boston Celtics, itself staffed by geriatric cagers, had to endure a drawn-out hardcourt brawl with the rising Chicago Bulls before winning their series and advancing only to face another young club, the Orlando Magic.
Aside from the dropping statistics and more frequent injuries, the NBA’s aging champions have to swallow the bitter truth that their feared day when another team would easily sweep them away has arrived. But looking back at their careers, maybe they will not be so saddened by their current state because when they were young and strong, they too beat their fading sports heroes. Perhaps, they could share this with the youth who worship them.


- Prospero Pulma Jr. -

The Gatekeepers of the East by Prospero Pulma Jr.

The Gatekeepers of the East

For the past five seasons, any team in the NBA Eastern Conference has to add the Detroit Pistons to their playoffs plans. Michigan's Bad Boys don't only own the record of humiliating a star-studded L.A. Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals, they also earned the distinction of making five consecutive appearances in the Eastern Conference Finals with little changes in its lineup, with Ben Wallace's defection to Chicago as the most prominent. So, if any club is dead serious in displaying the Larry O'Brien trophy in its cabinet, it must solve the Detroit puzzle first. Okay, the Miami Heat solved that one last year but the Heat got drubbed by the Chicago Bulls in this season's first round elimination. In turn, Detroit sent the Bulls packing after six games and are now facing a resurgent Cleveland Cavaliers under King James. The Pistons are battle-scarred veterans while the Cavaliers are relatively green in the playoffs department, so the Bad Boys (a misnomer because the Pistons are mild mannered, with the exception of Rasheed Wallace, compared to other teams,) are the natural favorites.

Is Detroit destined to receive a second ring after three years? Hopefully. But upsets do happen. Just remember the 2004 NBA Finals. And oh, yes, the huge kick in the butt that the Dallas Mavericks got from the Golden State Warriors and, of course, the Bull run that gored the defending champions.

By Prospero E. Pulma Jr.

The Giant Killers Part 3 by Prospero Pulma Jr.

The Giant Killers Part 3

Puny but not helpless are the words that best describe the Chicago Bulls as they face the Miami Heat in the first round of the NBA's 2007 Eastern Conference Playoffs. The Bulls apparently don't believe in all those publicity about the Shaquille O'Neal-Dwayne Wade tandem that has brought Miami its first NBA crown as unstoppable. And they have proven that with two consecutive drubbing of the defending champions. To win one game against the Heat is good enough, but to rack up two victories is very impressive, given the relative youth of Chicago's roster. Okay, they played at home, but still they have done enough damage that the series will certainly stretch to six games at the least, if Miami is lucky enough to win four consecutive games and if Chicago is stupid enough to lose all four outings. Even if the Heat will eventually win the series, the Bulls have already softened them for their next opponent, who might last the seven-game series, until the Heat runs on a dry tank when they face the Pistons. And it will be the clash of the titans, a rematch of last year's Eastern Conference Finals that Detroit sadly lost.

-by Prospero Pulma Jr.

For Whom the Big Ben Tolls by Prospero Pulma Jr.

For Whom the Big Ben Tolls

After trailing the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA’s Eastern Conference, the Chicago Bulls finally earned a slot in the playoffs. Okay, the Bulls seemed to roll into the playoffs this year, unlike last season when they had to huff and puff for the last 10 games just to make the trip, but they had to beat the Pistons just to play for a couple of weeks more after the regular season ends. Any NBA fan knows that the Beasts from the East, as what the Pistons are called other than that infamous tag, Bad Boys, are no pushovers, even if Ben Wallace has relocated to Chicago because they have gained Michael Finley, and proof that they were not crippled with Wallace’s resignation is their possession of the best record in the East. And in that game, Ben pulled down close to 20 rebounds (he would not be crowned Defensive Player of the Year several times if he is not a rebounding and shot-blocking demon). Now, the Bulls are chasing Cleveland for the second top spot in the East. Recruiting Big Ben has certainly helped Chicago land in its lofty spot, but the real test will come in the playoffs, especially when the Bulls clashes again with the Miami Heat which used brute force to kick Kirk Hinrich et al. out of competition . Will Big Ben’s muscles work seamlessly with the skills of his youthful teammates? Or will Chicago pirate another big man again to add more muscle?
-Prospero Pulma Jr.-