In the opening round NBA playoff series, few would doubt the Chicago Bulls are a superior team to the Milwaukee Bucks. Though not total blow-outs, the Chitowners pretty well handled the Beermeisters during the first three games. Then came Game 4 in Milwaukee and something strange happened at the very end to decide it.
It should be noted that Bulls' guard Derrrick Rose is a great player -- on the rare occasions of late that he isn't on sick leave for one reason or another. This guy's made more money while NOT playing over the last couple years than many other players will make in their careers, but I digress.
At any rate, in Game 4 of the series at Milwaukee the score was tied with time winding down and Rose in possession of the ball. The shot clock was off. Time for one last play and Rose had many options. He could create his own shot, pass to a teammate, or drive to the basket in the hope of either making it or drawing a foul. Mysteriously, Rose tried to dribble between two defenders, and had the ball stripped from him. No last shot in regulation for the Bulls to possible win it. A turnover Rose was squarely responsible for with 2 seconds to go. Bucks ball and time out is called.
Now two seconds might seem like an eternity when it comes to drag racing or a man having caught a certain, ahem, appendage in his zipper, but it's not a whole lot of time for a pro basketball team to inbounds the ball and hope to put it in the basket. Yes, miracle half-court or longer shots happen, but they're rare. One thing that NEVER happens is the defenders allowing the ball to be inbounded from the sideline straight to a player waiting underneath the basket for an easy lay-up. But happen it did. The culprit? The same Derrick Rose that had committed the turnover seconds before. Normally a terrific defender, Rose appeared lost -- almost like he let it happen. Bucks win. There will be a Game 5 back in Chicago.
Nobody, probably even the Bucks themselves, really think they have a chance at coming back from a 3-0 deficit to win the series against an obviously superior team. But Rose's last second miscues on both ends of the court allowing Milwaukee to win a game raise an interesting scenario. Could it have been on purpose? Before you say pshaw, no way, and this author has totally lost his mind (too late for that anyway), consider the ramifications of Rose's unusual bone-headed plays.
For the sake of argument, let's say a typical NBA arena seats about 20,000. It's a flat-out guarantee Chicago's United Center will be sold out for Game 5. At playoff prices, tickets aren't exactly cheap, even if one can get them. They range from the nosebleed $60 variety all the way up to well over $1000 a pop. Let's assume a rather conservative overall average of $200 per seat. Do the math. That's $4 million in tickets sales alone. Cha-ching. Let's further assume that between parking fees and ridiculous concession stand prices, ranging from food, drinks, programs, team paraphernalia, etc., they rack up another million at least.
And that's not even counting the mega-bucks that will be paid by the TV folks for the rights to broadcast it. Add it all up, and your guess is as good as mine, but $10 million doesn't seem too far-fetched. For one more game.
If Derrick Rose had taken the shot or passed off to an open teammate, maybe the game -- and series -- would have been over, and maybe not. And if Rose hadn't gone into brain-lock on the defensive end to allow the winning bucket, at least there would have been overtime.
You know who's happy about this? The TV people and their sponsors (commercials) of course. The players on both teams as well. They get extra pay for another playoff game. But who's REALLY ecstatic are the owners of the Chicago Bulls, the United Center, parking attendants, and the various concessionaires mentioned above. This is another huge cha-ching that just fell in their lap.
So maybe it was meant to be. Then again, maybe Derrick's late-game actions in Game 4 don't exactly paint him as smelling like a Rose either. I wonder if he's any relation to Pete? Didn't he get in trouble for....
Hmmm.......
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