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Sports are great, aren't they?!? We're celebrating the Blues Cup win here. Congrats to the Raptors!

At the beginning of the year I figured like most the Warriors would win again easily after adding Cousins for peanuts.. a bit surreal to me that they actually might lose and it is the Raptors I've been following since the early painful expansion years who could do it.

Indeed, first time champs, finally! I'm tired and hoarse but on cloud nine.

There is no blood or violence in any sport... There are injuries. Some of those injuries ARE violent. Sports are physical and fast paced and collisions of all types do happen so yes...it can get violent but for the most part...that violence is NOT malicious. It does happen that one player could be malicious towards another player, but sports do mirror real life...and real life, can be malicious and violent... But...in the sports community, its less violent and malicious than in real life... Hockey gets a bad rap...because hockey players do beat the shyte of each other...they fight, hit each other over the head with their sticks... But its still not as violent as most people think it is. Im sure there are people that enjoy the gore that comes with playing a hard physical game. All teams sports remain team sports and Im not seeing what you are seeing with me me me players with high egos, There are athletes with huge egos....always been that way since the dawn of time...arrogance is a human trait... But its probably the sensational journalism that you read about certain athletes that makes you believe that modern sports is inflicted by this...But its really not. There are many beautiful story lines in all 4 major sports in North America that does NOT make the news... I bet you read about the women's soccer team...but I bet you have no idea what this picture is all about. Over paid, huge ego sports guys? TRUE! There are plenty of those. I will NOT argue... But no different than some CEOs in the corporate world.

@dfelt I wasnt offended. It came out that way. I decided to start a thread, just so we dont derail the other thread. And it may be an interesting topic for everyone to discuss. Not in particular order 1. I watch sports because I played sports when I was a kid. I was quite good at playing sports and I loved the competition from playing, so I continued enjoying that passion while watching professionals play on TV or live at a sporting event. 2. I also watched sports as a kid, just to get pointers and ideas and strategies on how I could improve my game. 3. Its drama. Its comedy. Its a thriller. Its action. Its romance. (A different type of romance but love is definitely there.) Its a storyline. Its history. Its heroics. Its heroic. (two different things) Its passion. Its glory. Its gory. Its pain. Its humanity. Its the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Its the original reality TV. And its REAL... Its difficult but rewarding. And many more.... PS: as an athlete and as a spectator. This photo below, not even 24 hours ago...is EXACTLY what Im talking about... 4. As an athlete, that I once was, playing sports pushed my limits physically, mentally, spiritually. I learned how to push myself to get better. I learned my strengths, my weaknesses. I learned who I was. I got to know myself and I learned to love myself no matter what. On the flip side, I learned to work with others to reach a common goal. I learned to listen to others' advice concerning me, not easy to take advice when others critique you. I learned to teach and be taught. I learned how to lose and how to get better and more importantly, I learned how to win. How to compete. How to win...(yes I said it twice. How to win gracefully.) I learned that the agony of defeat could be as sweet as the thrill of victory. Its sucks losing, especially in the moment, but as time goes by, those losing moments are cherished by me as much as those glorious wins. I learned how to work in a team as a team. I learned about brotherhood. I learned to love others. To respect others. 5. Watching sports now, all those things I said, all those emotions come flooding back to me and I feel the athletes agony of defeat, or happiness, or pain when they get hurt. In other words, I can relate. 6. Watching a spectacular play, knowing how hard it is to achieve through my own personal experiences, I have a profound respect for it and I find it extremely entertaining seeing it happen, and I always envision myself in that particular spectacular situation and I question my abilities and my former team's abilities if we and I could have replicated that. 7. That adrenaline rush. By pushing myself. By competing. By playing. By losing and winning. Those butterflies in my stomach just before an important game. That feeling not wanting to lose to a particular team. That feeling WANTING to WIN against a particular team. (two different feelings. Similar, but quite different.) Those feeling get transferred by watching my favorite team on TV 8. Losing. Yes losing. I hated losing. But its with losing that I got to be a strong minded, strong character person. I miss that sentiment when I lost a game. Because that sentiment pushed me to be better the next time around. Its that fire after the loss that I miss. That competitive nature. And so I craved playing sports all the time. Because I craved that inner fire I had. And so watching sports, watching all the in-game and out-game scenes brings me back to when I was competing. Like I said, its the original reality TV and its the honest to goodness truth about it! 9. Winning. I loved winning. There are a few things in life that rival that feeling you get when you win a big game. If you live in St Louis, and it does not matter if you watch hockey or not, what a feeling it is today!!! Same for Toronto...maybe...hopefully!!! These are some reasons why I watch sports and why I used to play sports.

Good news is I hope to join in on a 1 million+ person street party tonight for an hour or so should the Raptors win.. bad news is i will get there around midnight and will surely be woken up by the little one at 6:30am tomorrow for his school and my work day.

I really couldn't have put that in any better of a way. You nailed so many important points. I'll be attending the parade Saturday! It's been such a wild ride...

Part of the reason mercedes’ minivan failed.

^ Ya- '64s & '65s had them available. '70-71 got rear-exit quads, then the side splitters made a return for '72 & '74.

My reasons why I loved to play hockey and to watch hockey Not in a particular order 1. Its a fast paced game. The fastest of all sports. Transitions happen instantly, frequently, on the fly. In fact, attacking, counterattacking and defending all in the blink of an eye is what hockey is all about and is what makes hockey such an interesting and fun sport to watch. 2. Its a physical game. As in hitting you opponent trying to get the puck from him being allowed as long as you hit him "legally" and "safely". You could "bodycheck" your opponent to separate him from the puck. (The bolded part is the correct terminology) Its great to see an awesome bodycheck just as its great to see a player avoid a bodycheck. Just as it is great to see a game with a lot of bodychecks dictating the pace just as it is exciting to see a game being paced by fast plays and cool maneuvers with players spinning, skating and dancing on the ice. But a nice placed bodycheck stopping a guy dead in his tracks...is in fact...entertaining. 3. Its an intimidation sport. All sports you could say, have a level of intimidation to them, but hockey, you really really do bully your opponent. But...your opponent most of the time does not get scared too often and sometimes, the bullied becomes THE bully instantaneously. Through various plays during the game, and it may not even be by pushing back psychically that turns the tide. Because the game is fast paced, awesome plays on the ice that gets the bullied to control the pace of the game turns the tide and the bully loses his grip and the tide is turned. 4. Contrary to popular belief...fighting is not exactly permitted in the game....especially in today's version of the game. Fighting was not even permitted in the "Rock 'em Sock 'em days of the 1970s and 1980s. Old time hockey of the 1920s and 1930s neither. (which was more rough than the '70s and '80s) BUT...its not frowned upon nor discouraged either. WHY? Because North American hockey...the ORIGINAL hockey game...ALLOWS the players to police themselves. Not so much in today's game...(but the refs have to do a BETTER job seeing the dirty hits on the ice (its an intimidation game...hence the dirty hits still present in today's game) and the suspensions have to be more frequent and more just to STOP and ELIMINATE the dirty hits from the game...but as long as the game will allow hits, the game will be about intimidation, and the refs and player safety WILL miss a few calls here and there....the game will ALWAYS allow the players to police themselves and THAT alone allows the bad blood between players and teams to dissipate quickly preventing worse outcomes. I think today's game, allowing some fights to happen, and more or less getting it right with head shots and the like, prevents worse stupid actions taken by players later. It was very common from the 1920s all the way to the 1980s for players to swing their sticks at each other's heads... It even happened (more than) a couple of times from the 1990s to the mid 2000s. Yes I like a good fight from time to time....THAT is not the reason why I like hockey...its the fact that players could police themselves. 5. Its a very hard game to play. All sports are hard. But hockey, you need 2 skills to perfect. a) The actual game of hockey. Its fast paced. So a participant needs to acquire and perfect hockey knowledge. (No different for a soccer player to learn soccer knowledge...) b) But...an ICE hockey player needs to learn how to...skate. That is a different set of skills...and he/she needs to skate perfectly while playing hockey 6. Small guys dictate the plays. Big guys dictate the plays. Big guys steamrolling along is fun to watch. Small guys avoiding the big guys is also fun to watch and all that leads to the transitions to happen fast and smoothly. Strategies often happen on the fly. Coaches do use the old "x' and "o" method but its more of a suggestion. There are many set plays that hockey players practice defending and attacking....but when the game is on, and you are in the moment, yes there are systems being followed, but its more likely that "in the moment" decisions dictate the pace. Hockey HAS lost that individual, artistic, spontaneous flow it once had, because systems and calculations have taken over, but hockey is still a more free flowing game than most other sports. Baseball will always be free flowing, but I have come to the understanding that baseball too, is succumbing to systems and number crunching, strategical thinking...more than allowing its players individuality... 7. Hockey players are tough as nails. Yes...athletes in general are all tough and strong. But hockey players are just one level above. Even football players dont play through their injuries as much a hockey guys do. Granted, football used to be a very tough grueling sport that did not allow injured athletes to continue...but hockey guys are known to be playing with broken jaws, lost teeth, broken toes, legs, punctured lungs. OK...Rugby players are on that level as well... Some call that stupid. They maybe correct. But...you got to admire that determination... 8. Its a simple game....to follow. And there is continuous action making it fun to follow. And there are high scoring games and there are low scoring games, each with their own excitement. Im not talking about game 45-50 in the middle of the season which happens to be in January or February after the holidays where the games SEEM to not mean as much because even the players are holiday fatigued, and Football seems to get all the attention, because of the Superbowl and usually the NHL all star game is around the corner even the players are bored with that...so in January and February, the games tend to be boring because their is no passion being displayed...but when passion and emotions are involved, especially a nice rivalry game or in the play offs...hockey is just out of this world fun.

^ Sounds like a good thing in general. - - - - -

Didn't play on a sports team. Would play 'baseball' with 5 others on occasion as a kid. Played catch (ball & frisbee), liked to do batting practice in the back yard with the dog playing outfield. Went to a handful of pro baseball games growing up. Now I cast an occasional eye on the baseball standings (15 years ago I would often catch games on the radio while I was doing other stuff; background noise), and I'll watch the Super Bowl every year (maybe the last 7 yrs or so). No other pro sports or the Olympics- doesn't hold my interest.

I’ll take one in silver, please.

Hope they win... tired of seeing the Warriors win.. and the prospect of a team winning their 1st championship is really cool.

I'm a casual sports fan, watch mostly motorsports and football on TV. I find I generally enjoy sports more in person at an event than on TV. I used to go to Colorado Avalanche hockey games when I lived in Denver w/ friends, and enjoyed them. A big part of going to live sporting events I enjoy is the social aspect..friends, beer, hot dogs, popcorn, pretzels, etc. Same with baseball (Rockies, Diamondbacks, Indians) , basketball (Nuggets, Suns, Cavaliers), and football (Broncos, Cardinals, Browns).. went to a few pro soccer matches in Denver that were fun also.. I do know from my Canadian friends in the US that hockey in Canada is a Big Deal, really the national sport more than others. I have heard about Hockey Night in Canada (actually watched some) and Don Cherry.

Not so great any more after Obama's "win".

Macabre.

Boat rental time to get away from the masses. Bad News Trump just made you a Terrorist for Visiting Cuba. Good News, They have Social Health Care in Prison.

Maybe you could have chosen another past victor other than Obama... Quite honestly, most of these awards are just for the elite to give kudos to themselves...but you targeting Obama, shows how divisive you wanna be with your country and countrymen... YOU would be part of the problem... If you and others like yourself will NOT change... Washington DC will eventually burn and Trump's future successor dont matter if Blue or Red, will be playing the fiddle...

I am sure there are others who did not "deserve" it. Obama is the one who came to mind at that juncture. Cheapens it for some important hysterical historical figures who've won it in the more distant past.

Haha... bull$h!