In lieu of a rally in Grant Park, or a ticker-tape parade down Michigan Avenue, many around here are celebrating the championship series collapses of the Miami Heat and Vancouver Canucks this week.
I’m usually a willing participant whenever glasses are hoisted, but I’m passing on this party. It’s a hollow “victory” when the genesis of one’s joy is from failure instead of success.
There hasn’t been much “Way to go, Dirk Nowitzki!” or “Tim Thomas, you da man!” Instead, it’s a celebration of LeBron James remaining ringless, of Roberto Luongo still needing a therapist on speed dial.
Knock yourself out if that does it for you. I’ll never begrudge a fan his ample expressions of negative energy.
It just doesn’t do it for me.
What would do it is feeling that the Bulls and Blackhawks can take down the evil Heat and the devilish Canucks. I don’t believe that.
James spit the bit in the biggest series of his life and deserves all the criticism he has received, not only for his disappearing act in fourth quarters, but also for his churlish comments about his detractors after Sunday’s curtain closer in Miami.
As constructed today, however, there is no reason to believe the Bulls can leapfrog the Heat in a best-of-seven series. The Mavericks won the title because they have a second scorer in Jason Terry. The names I’ve heard kicked around as potential help for Derrick Rose — Jason Richardson, O.J. Mayo, etc. — don’t push Team Thibs past Miami.
It’s easy to understand why some Blackhawks fans did cartwheels after Luongo was pulled in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals. It’s the fragile psyche of the Canucks’ flaky goaltender that gives every opponent a shot against Vancouver.
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And those nasty Canucks are cheap-shot artists. They bite and pull hair. They agitate and offend the hockey sensibilities of “real fans.”
Thing is, Vancouver has a better team than the Hawks have. As close as the Hawks came to dumping the Canucks in the first round, taking them seven after losing the first three, the Western Conference champs have more offensive threats and are deeper at the blue line.
One of those Canucks defensemen, Kevin Bieksa, is an unrestricted free agent. He’d look good in a Hawks uniform. Or in any sweater that doesn’t have “Vancouver” on it.
But for one week, don’t let reality interfere with your party. I’ll join in the dancing when our United Center tenants dethrone the Heat and Canucks.
*Driving home Thursday afternoon, I received a perfect, 10-second encapsulation of the first 2 1/2 months of Chicago baseball. After White Sox play-by-play man Ed Farmer dejectedly threw it to a break as the Sox stranded another man in scoring position, I punched into the Cubs radio broadcast, where Pat Hughes vividly was describing Ryan Braun’s two-run homer to put the Brewers on the board first.
*Remember Wednesday night, when Sox third baseman Brent Morel singled home second baseman Gordon Beckham in the sixth? That was awesome.
*Nobody expects Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts to take the blade to general manager Jim Hendry for the mess he has made, but it would be refreshing if Ricketts would give a little insight on the team’s long-term direction. When he spoke with reporters Wednesday afternoon, almost every word Ricketts uttered was about “winning” this season. Not once did Ricketts admit that this season is really about next season.
*With the Bruins winning their first Stanley Cup since 1972, that makes the Patriots the Boston franchise with the longest championship “drought.” Poor Boston.
Dan McNeil hosts “The Danny Mac Show” weekdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on WSCR-AM 670.