Wow, did you watch that game last night??? I don't think I've ever seen another human want something as badly as Giannis obviously wanted to win Game Six so he wouldn't have to go back to Phoenix and try to win on the road. Travalon and I started watching the game at Bierock. The Bucks were so dominant in the first quarter, then they were outscored 31-13 in the second quarter, and then we went home to watch the second half. What blew my mind is how Giannis (who is a great player, but not always great at free throws) made almost every one of his free throws, so the Suns' strategy of continually fouling him backfired on them. I do feel a little bad for them, since they have never won (but hey, it's been fifty years for Milwaukee), and I do like how they are a team without a superstar, just a bunch of hard workers. Maybe they can win it all next year. Right now I'm just in awe of Giannis and his amazing plays on both ends of the court. It's always breathtaking to watch him play (especially in person), but I don't think I'll ever see anything like his performance last night again.
It's interesting how the arc of this story differs for Travalon and me. For Travalon, this is a very long story going back to when the Bucks were good, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and how he remembers going to Game Two when they were in the finals but didn't win. He has been a Bucks fan his entire life, so he has been waiting patiently for this day for almost his entire life. I, on the other hand, only became aware of the Bucks after meeting Travalon, so right around the time they drafted Giannis. For me, it's not the story of one team waiting patiently to win again, but the story of a player so loyal and grateful to the team who took a chance on him that he vowed he would stay there and win the championship for them. And he did!! He's only 26, so he may have a lot more championships in him, and he probably could have gotten a ring earlier if he'd gone to play with a team that has more stars on it, but he insisted on doing it his way: staying with a small-market Midwestern city with bitter winters, and with teammates he also felt loyal to. Maybe it's because his family is from Nigeria and he grew up in Greece, because I feel like that kind of loyalty and gratitude and long-term thinking is in short supply in this country sometimes. How many players would have left years ago for a team with more marquee names on it? But not Giannis: he didn't want just any ring, he wanted a ring with the Bucks. And that is why I love him so much.
Today I had to work in the office all day again, so I brought a couple of kawaii buddies: the little octopus from Chicago's Chinatown, and the stuffed bubble tea from Maxwell Street Days. I thought, who cares, nobody is ever here to see them. And then wouldn't you know not one but two faculty members stopped by to talk to me? I guess this place is starting to come back to life, just like the rest of Madtown. Live music is back, and of course the Mallards - another great thing about the Bucks winning in six and not having to go to a Game Seven in Phoenix is that now Travalon and I can just go to the Mallards game tomorrow evening without having to decide between history-respecting baseball and history-making basketball. Looking forward to the game honoring the Negro Leagues tomorrow! And we already got our Negro League baseball cards when I went there a couple of weeks ago without knowing they had changed the date of that game, which is good because I couldn't go early to get them when Travalon need my car to get to and from work. So it all worked out beautifully!
Famous Hat
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