Tuesday, February 05, 2013

2/05 (Very) Quickie

I turn 40 in a few weeks, so I'm sort of obsessed with Grant Hill, who turned 40 in October but is still chugging along in the NBA. He had a DC homecoming last night when the Clippers were in town to play the Wizards, and I lament not heading down to the arena to watch him in person.

For my money (and clearly for wildly personal reasons), the rarity of watching a 40-year-old pro athlete is way more interesting than watching the young phenom -- or even the superstar in his prime. There is no level at which I can relate to LeBron -- that is part of his appeal: That he feels superhuman to me.

But Grant Hill? Hell, we might as well have been in the same high school class. However, while he is still contributing meaningfully at an NBA level, I'm struggling to keep pace with a slowing metabolism -- the best I can do is hope to make a few shots in my weekly "Old Man Hoops" run.

Grant, you're welcome anytime, but I am more than happy to keep watching you, Kurt Thomas (ironically, born just one day before Hill), Jason Kidd (40 in March) or Steve Nash (turning 39 on Thursday) in the NBA. It keeps me feeling younger, because there is an underrated "life stage" point -- "when there are no longer any NBA/MLB/NFL/NHL players as old as you."

More:

*Did people know in advance that the Superdome might suffer a blackout? You sorta knew that kind of day-after-day-after leak was coming.

*Do you buy the Knicks as contenders? Because I don't. Oh, sure, they're good. But good enough to beat the Heat? Come on.

*Indiana is college hoops' latest new No. 1, and as a Florida fan, I would love to get a shot at them in the Final Four, because IU doesn't seem so dominant.

*CFB: This is an absurd lament, but I wish they had Signing Day for high school seniors who are specialists in engineering or journalism or pre-med.  (Oh, yes, my Northwestern journalism "recruiting class" would have been top-ranked, for sure.) Still surprised an enterprising marketing department at a university wouldn't try to create an admissions campaign around that.

*ICYMI: The entire "scorecard" of how every Super Bowl ad rated on USA TODAY's Ad Meter.

-- D.S.




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