It's fair to say that the most fun I've had watching anything National Basketball Association-related came not on the court, but in a commercial.
It's the one where legendary coach Phil Jackson tells a chef who is yelling at his employees that "anger is the enemy of instruction."
The chef retorts that this big gray-haired man has never had to work with the egos he's had to.
The look on Jackson's face is wonderful. It's a great commercial, though I'm not entirely certain what it's for.
But with the Cleveland Cavaliers lottery bound again and LeBron James and the Miami Heat back in the finals, this NBA season has left me cold.
It's tempting to watch this year's finals, between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Heat, and throw my full support behind the former.
Kevin Durant appears to be a great and modest player. Oklahoma City is anything but a big market. And most of all, James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh don't play for it.
But there's more to it than that.
Not too long ago, the Thunder had a different name and a different location. It also had a different fanbase, and a history.
The Thunder were once the Seattle Supersonics, a franchise that began play the same year The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released - 1967.
The franchise abandoned its fans 41 years later. It fortunes have improved greatly since moving east.
It's a story to which many of us can relate.
The Browns left Cleveland in 1995, shifting operations to Baltimore and becoming the Ravens.
For three years, my town didn't have a professional football team. But the most difficult part of the whole thing came after an expansion team named the Browns returned in 1999.
For years, many of us in Ohio had comforted ourselves by saying that Baltimore may have the team, but it will never win as long as it was owned by Art Modell, who we perceived to be bumbling and bordering on incompetent.
But by 2000, things began to change. Modell did something he seemed so unwilling to do when he was here - sell the team. Even so, Modell still was the face of the franchise in 2000, when the Ravens plowed their way to a Super Bowl trophy.
When the Ravens won the Super Bowl, it was like a nightmare. The new Browns went 3-13 in 2000. Not only was our team awful, but here was our old owner, with some of our players, celebrating what they could never do in Cleveland.
It was no tragedy. But it wasn't fun.
And in reality, the basketball fans of Seattle have it worse than the football fans of Ohio ever did.
There's no promise the city will get an NBA team back. While I can relate to what the fans in the Northwest are feeling, I don't think I can completely relate to it. At least when the Ravens won, my city had, well, something of a team.
My anger towards LeBron James isn't what it once was. Don't get me wrong, I don't cheer for the guy, but my anger now is more toward those in the media who tell me how I should feel, how I should appreciate his talent and forgive him for "The Decision."
I'm still not thrilled with LeBron for leaving the way he did. But people who aren't from Ohio, who don't root for Cleveland teams, can't really understand our frustration. That's just the way it is.
But cheering for someone to fail doesn't strike me as healthy (unless it's the Steelers). Jackson said anger is the enemy of instruction. I think it's also the enemy of really enjoying things.
I suppose I want the Thunder to win, if only to put another dent in the Heat's hype.
But LeBron losing won't make me enjoy the league again. That only will happen when a team from Cleveland is back in the finals.
And, although it's secondary, when Seattle has a team again.
Zach Baker is the sports editor for The Advertiser-Tribune
Contact him at:
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