Last time I looked, San Antonio was way down in southeastern Texas. It can get mighty hot down there starting about this time of year. Turns out, they also had a basketball game going on. Game one of the NBA Finals to be exact. But that was played indoors, so sunstroke and tumbleweeds of mass destruction were not likely to be a problem.
The problem was the air conditioning inside the Spurs' arena. It broke. Wait a minute. NBA arenas are air-conditioned? It's bad enough fans have to pay the ridiculous multi-million dollar salaries of these guys, along with their private team planes and staying at 5 star hotels while on the road. Now we have to dig even deeper to make sure the poor dears play in a climate-controlled atmosphere? Get outta here. What's next? Making sure the on-field temperature at Lambeau Field never dips below 60 after Thanksgiving? That would take some kind of furnace, but please. Some things are meant to be. It's supposed to be cold in Green Bay during January and February.
It's also supposed to be hot in places like San Antonio. And after all, the Miami team calls itself the Heat -- right? So why would they wilt playing a basketball game because an air conditioner called a time-out? But wilt they did in the fourth quarter against the Spurs. Lebron James was so gassed he had to sit out the last several minutes of the game.
Reports say the temperature "soared" to a torrid 90 degrees in the second half. Sure, that's hot, but these guys are supposed to be in world class shape too. And let's get real. Even the most relied upon starters for NBA teams seldom actually play more than 30 minutes, while a game typically takes close to 3 hours (180 minutes). At that, there are countless stoppages in play for breathers. Every time a turnover happens or a foul is called, play stops. Throw in all the time-outs between worshipping the TV gods and those the teams take themselves, sometimes approaching 20, combined. Also, there's a long break between quarters and an even longer one at halftime. And it's not like these guys are in the octagon beating each other to death in a cage match. It's a basketball game, with a little contact here and there.
Yet it appears some of them, like Lebron, are akin to thoroughbred race horses. Amazing at what they can do for short periods of time, given the right conditions they've become accustomed to, but very fragile if circumstances take an unexpected turn.
And let's face it. When it comes to wimpiness, despite all the tattoos and their other pseudo macho bravado, NBA players are tougher than major league baseball players, pro golfers, and tennis stars -- maybe. (And wouldn't a tag-team wrestling match between the Williams sisters and Lebron/D-Wade be interesting?)
NFL players would scoff at all this, of course. Those guys have to play in heat, rain, wind, snow, and sometimes freezing temperatures while colliding at high rates of speed. Climate control is not an option. But they get plenty of breaks between plays, only have to play on either offense or defense, and get plenty of time-outs too, you say?
True enough, and only in the NFL, and maybe a starting pitcher here or there, are big "beer-bellies" tolerated, as long as the player remains better than average at his specialty. You won't see any rolls of fat hanging over the waistlines of NHL players. A huge difference in conditioning.
Nevertheless, everything's relative when it comes to conditioning. Some sports require much more than others of the athletes that participate. Marathoners, not to mention tri-athletes (swimming, cycling, and running a marathon to boot) have to have some serious endurance. A designated hitter or place kicker? Not so much.
But it's almost inexcusable that someone like Lebron James, at the peak of physicality at age 29, would wither because an air conditioner failed.
So it was 90 degrees. Good thing he's not a world-class soccer player. They play that sport very well in places like Ghana and Nigeria where it's a helluva lot hotter than what it was inside San Antonio's arena. And those folks run, run, run, and run some more, with about the same amount of contact (and flopping) as happens in the NBA. The clock only stops for halftime.
The World Cup is set to happen in Brazil -- in the heat of this summer. How hot will THAT be for the players running miles up and down the field during any game?
Lebron and the Heat may or may not come back from their opening game defeat to 3-peat as NBA champions. But please stop with all the whining because an air conditioner failed and the arena wasn't just perfectly climate-controlled for him in Game 1. If he seized up, it's because he wasn't in good enough shape to begin with.
Maybe James should forego the dopey endorsements for money he doesn't need, stop mugging up the TV cameras, and gravitating to the microphones to spout platitudes your average third grader can see through as no more than typical jock-talk, and spend some serious time getting himself into better shape. Aerobics, swimming, other cross-training, a couple hours a day mud wrestling with Oprah, whatever.
Because this is no time to run out of gas.
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