About Sports Dramas on Broadway

In re "Magic / Bird", the new play on Broadway that deals with the relationship between the two signature stars of the 1980s NBA...

If you are watching a drama about something sports related, you are not, in fact, watching sports.

You are, in fact, watching something that has *nothing* to do with sports, in that the nature of drama is that the outcome is scripted, there is nothing random or unexpected that is likely to happen, and that it ends the same way every time.

If that sort of thing appeals to you, please stop telling me how much of a sports fan you are. Since it's obvious to everyone but you that you are much more interested in drama, rather than game.

Game, you see, doesn't care about the personalities involved. Game does not have to be great, or epic, or spectacular, or life-changing, or any of the other labels you want to give to your leisure time viewing.

Game can happen at any time, at any place, for any stakes. It does not need to be plucky underdogs against arrogant pretty boys. It does not need to be aging superstar in his last chance for glory, or rookie phenom ascending to greatness. It just, well, has to be Game.

Game is what you catch as you stand by the stream of sport, casting your line in for a period of time, drinking deep of the moment, the present, the here and the now, the reason why sports are the only live event that requires appointment television.

(Though the fact that the Shooter Brother is watching 15+ hour old highlights of a playoff hockey game right now, and reacting as if real time, with the ref baiting and happiness that you'd expect from someone in the front row? Adorable, really. But besides the point.)

Game can be boring. Frequently is, actually. Game requires, nay demands, you to be humble, since you will get boring much more than exciting. Game will also create loss much more than win, especially if you want win at the end of the season, when it matters.

Game, in short, is everything that Drama is not. It's also why I love Game, and Drama people, well, do not.

So, no, "Magic/Bird" isn't something you need to know about. And it's also telling, so telling, that it comes from the poisoned well of the World Wide Lemur, really. And the fact that it will make money, just like all of the other moments of Drama over Game...

Is the single biggest reason why you should hate ESPN.

Because they are Drama people. And they are ruining our Game.