—Talk about a tale of two completely different championship celebrations. Last Thursday night, the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup. The very next night, on Friday, the Golden State Warriors won the NBA Title.
Both teams held their championship parades on Tuesday. Only one lived up to the hype. All you really have to do is search “Alex Ovechkin” on social media, and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Chances are, as you read this, Ovechkin is walking around with the Stanley Cup in his hands. I highly doubt anybody on the Golden State Warriors even knows where the Larry O’Brien trophy is. Heck, they give away the NBA Finals MVP trophy after they give out the Larry O’Brien trophy. That’s the equivalent of Gary Bettman giving the Capitals the Stanley Cup before giving Ovechkin the Conn Smythe trophy.
The NHL gets it right. It saves the best for last. And the Cup is the greatest trophy in all of sports. So, it makes sense that the celebration that comes with it is also great to watch. The NBA? Not so much. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching the NBA, especially the NBA Finals, but its championship celebration can’t touch the NHL’s Stanley Cup ceremony. And it’s not even close.
But this year, it was especially tough to watch the NBA’s championship celebration because it took place the night after the Capitals stormed around Las Vegas with the Stanley Cup. That, and the Warriors swept the Cleveland Cavaliers, and in the clinching game, the Cavs basically gave up midway through the third quarter. Also, Golden State was expected to win it all, so it had all the makings of a watered-down celebration. Maybe I’ll be singing a different tune next year when LeBron James is helping the Boston Celtics win the NBA Title, but I doubt it. Nothing will ever top the sight of the Cup being hoisted, even if it isn’t the Bruins doing the hoisting.
—You know we’ve lost our minds when we’re believing anonymous reports on message boards. That’s what Reddit is, right? It’s a message board? I won’t lie, this week marked the first time I had ever gone on Reddit. And I was initially surprised at what I found. Because I always thought Reddit was more of a Facebook-style site. But it’s actually just a glorified message board.
Anyways, some anonymous Reddit user posted a rumor that there was huge Patriots news coming earlier this week. This person called it a “negative” story and said it would be worse than the news of Julian Edelman testing positive for PEDs. The reason people started to believe this anonymous Reddit user was because this same person apparently “broke” the news of Edelman’s four-game suspension on Reddit. So, when this person made another post that teased an even bigger story, people in New England took the bait.
Next thing you know, you have rumors swirling that the Patriots were trying to trade Rob Gronkowski. Reports then had Tom Brady threatening retirement if Gronkowski was traded, so Robert Kraft made Bill Belichick nix the deal. It’s the type of rumor that’s perfect for sports-talk radio. But because of that, it took on a life of its own. Those rumors turned into “facts” and the anonymous Reddit user suddenly became a credible source, until that Gronkowski trade never happened.
Unless Gronkowski is traded in between the time I write this and the time you read this, I’m not going to sit here and call an anonymous Reddit user a credible source for information. In fact, it pisses me off that anybody would even take an anonymous post on Reddit seriously. It’s the equivalent of believing an anonymous Twitter troll when they tweet you with a potential fantasy trade. Some people want to see the world burn. I’d like to think those people only exist in the form of anonymous users on message boards and social media. But what I’ve learned — in New England at least — is that some people also want to see the Patriots’ organization fall apart at the seams. So much so, that they’re willing to believe an anonymous Reddit user’s Patriots reports.
That’s insane. And I’m all set with it. Let me know when Gronkowski gets traded. Or when Brady retires. Or when the sky falls down in Foxboro. Because I guarantee that you won’t first hear about it from an anonymous donkey on Reddit.
To steal a line from LeBron: Be better.
Listen to “The Danny Picard Show” at dannypicard.com. Also available on iTunes, Tunein, Google Play, iHeartRadio, and Spotify. Subscribe to his YouTube channel at youtube.com/dannypicard.
