Let's talk about.

Here I am, watching the championship game of The Basketball Tournament, an event that allows basketball players who also aren’t doing anything else at the moment to get together, form a team, and compete for a million bucks. A couple years back, the alumni team from my alma mater, Marquette University, won the whole enchilada, with each player taking home about a bag of tube socks.

That’s how far a million dollars goes these days.

That’s not my problem. I’ll never have a million dollars. But I will have a serious problem when this game is over, and that’s no basketball on TV.

Why basketball

I don’t want you to think that I’m some fanatical fan, someone who can actually explain the difference between a charge and a block. If they’re not the same I will eat my shoe.

No, I’m a fan who’s got an unnatural attachment to one team (Marquette), a brain that needs some sort of noise and movement in the background (but no actual people), and one dog who seems to like watching the back-and-forth of the game (oh, Ralph).

Yes, I could watch the NBL on ESPN. That’s the New Zealand Basketball League to you, and now that you’ve learned that New Zealand is not part of Australia, you’ve also learned that they’re capable of having a professional basketball league. Not necessarily pro players, though. (I know; one of them now plays for Marquette.) But there’s bouncing and that sneaker squeak. It could serve.

I could subscribe to FIBA programming and watch the World Cup and Olympic Qualifiers. Some of those games are real dogs, though. Just let me finish my registration, though. It was cheap.

I could sign up Euroleague.tv, and I might. It’s more expensive than the FIBA programming, but until American basketball starts again, what’s a girl to do?

Other sports

First, let’s talk about what’s being played right now in the summer: baseball. This is not a sport. There is little movement and a lot of mullets. This does not serve my needs and frankly, should go away entirely. Which it won’t, now that ESPN is running Little League, Junior League, and Senior League baseball and softball. Oh, and also obscure minor leagues, like Wisconsin’s own Northwoods League. I have to say I see virtually no difference between the pros and the minors. Either way, no one’s doing anything.

I do enjoy a good rugby match, but good rugby matches are getting hard to find. SupeRugby, NRL, Guinness 14…where do you people go every year? If I have to sign up for Peacock to access rugby, I’m not doing it. A girl’s gotta have standards.

The Basketball Tournament is over

Team Heartfire beat Team Bleed Green in the final to take home their very own packs of tube socks. To be fair, each time did play for a cause, with a great deal of the winnings going to charity. It was a good game; the TBT gets better every year. I’m sad it’s over. Now I have to fend for myself.