There is a time to flip the channel

MEMPHIS – Last night, I was flipping through the channels trying to find something to watch. I was going to settle for some late-night “Golden Girls” until I saw NBA TV was replaying the NBA playoffs.

Specifically, the Lakers-Rockets series. I was intrigued. I didn’t get to watch most of the playoffs while I was in London, and I’d love to see how Kobe & Co. managed to eventually dismantle Houston on their way to the conference finals.

But for some reason, I had the urge to flip the channel. My mom stopped me. Even though she had seen every Lakers game – including pre- and post-game commentary, highlights and interviews – she wanted to watch. I didn’t understand it.  

“What’s the point in watching if you already know the end result?” I asked her.

“So you don’t have to worry about the end result,” she said.

I thought about her comments. She and my dad both get very nervous and uptight – well, so do I – when they watch Lakers games. Sometimes I worry whether my dad will have a heart attack. When it gets really bad, they turn off the TV so they don’t have to watch a loss.

But that’s what I love about sports. It’s what most people love about sports. You never know whether your team will demolish an opponent by 20 points or whether the star player goes out with an injury late into the second quarter.

You never know what will happen in sports. That’s why it’s boring for me to watch a game when, even if I might not remember the final score or how many points Kobe had, I still know which team won. Where’s the fun, excitement and adrenaline there? How can you really appreciate a game when you know how it’s going to end?

I noticed later that NBA TV was only showing the games the Lakers won, skipping over the defeats that made me and other fans question whether they would win or even make it to the finals.

That also bothered me. I am a true fan. I will see my team through losses and wins, through games that make me scream and cry to games that make me jump so hard I hit my roommate (sorry, Katie). As painful as it is to watch my team suffer, without those losses, we wouldn’t be able to appreciate the wins.

Without the largest comeback in playoff history by the Celtics in 2008, I wouldn’t be able to relish the Lakers’ 15th franchise win. Without them not making the playoffs in 2004, I wouldn’t be able to watch Andrew Bynum blossom into a possible young Shaq.

And without those losses NBA TV is choosing not to show, I won’t be able to appreciate how much my team grew over the course of a series.

You can’t filter sports. You can’t take away the steroids scandal in baseball or the “basketbrawl” from the Pacers. But you can appreciate the good moments, the next win, the rebuilding process.

Or you can flip the channel.