Why Me?

As you all know, this past weekend I went to the L.A. Clippers game against the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center. And although a lot of the big name players (Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Baron Davis) had been traded long after I got these tickets, I was still excited to go to the game, mainly because of my favorite player - Arron Afflalo - as well as to see Blake Griffin, who is obviously good for at least 2.5 dunks/game (or at least that was our over/under bet walking into the arena).

Well, after an abnormally fast drive up to L.A. and a wonderful dinner at Roscoe's House of Chicken 'n Waffles (I got the "Scoe's #1" - Fried Chicken and 2 waffles and a side of fries with some awesome seasoning salt), we made our way to Staples.

(*EDITOR'S NOTE - I hate the "L" in the Staples wording. For those of you who haven't noticed, it's supposed to look like a staple:

Well, not only does it look like some sort of mix between a candy cane with a handle and the top of a "Hangman" game, it totally ruins the logo. I know otherwise this would be a boring text logo, but man that staple-L kills me. Thus ends my rant.)

Back to the game...

The game started off fast-paced (complete with lame-ass music being played during the possessions, another NBA pet peeve of mine), with the Nuggets getting out to an early lead before the Clippers battled back. During this time, I focused on Afflalo on offense and defense, with an occasional quick glance at Griffin on offense to see how he moved without the ball to set up all these dunks he's been showcasing in 2010-11. I cheered every time Afflalo touched the ball, yelled shoot every time he passed, and got generally frustrated that the Nuggets were content running their offense through Nene and Ty Lawson to start the game.

Arron started off BAD. He was woefully short on his first two attempts, barely drawing front-rim, and then was long on another 3-point attempt. After a brief stint on the bench, he came back in the second quarter and nailed a 3-pointer with that picture-perfect form, causing me to sit on the edge of my seat and get excited for the offensive clinic he was about to unleash.


Now, his team knew he was hot, and the next possession they found him in the corner, and he faked his defender up in the air, put the ball on the floor and took it hard to the rack, and then got fouled hard as he tried to slam it home, hit the deck, and came up limping...

He missed the first free throw badly, then after noticeably limping and trying to fight off the pain, he sunk the second one and went back on defense. After a Clippers turnover, Nuggets coach George Karl called a timeout, Arron walked from the court to the locker room...

And never came back.

That's right. Arron Afflalo, the one player on either team I actually cared about (and my FAVORITE player at that), the one guy who hadn't been traded, the only reason I came to the game...was out for the game.

It came out later that he didn't hurt himself on the fall to the court, he actually strained a hamstring on the dribble-drive to the hoop. And just like that, he was done. Injured and unable to play. And in the first half? That sucked. But the hell he was about to go through didn't even come close to mine. Why?

Because, I now had to sit through an entire half of an NBA basketball game, with no reason to watch. That's like watching "Two and a Half Men", Charlie Sheen OD'ing in the first 5 minutes of the show, then realizing you still have another 25 minutes of watching just the gay guy and the fat kid.

So there you go. My day had turned so bad that it caused me to make a topical Charlie Sheen joke. I hate Charlie Sheen jokes.

Thank goodness we went to Roscoe's, cuz otherwise, the trip would have been a total bust.

Oh, and by the way....BLAKE GRIFFIN DIDN'T HAVE A SINGLE DUNK.

FML.