Enough With the Negatives Already

Why the Losers and Under Achievers Catch the Media's Interest


by Missy Zielinski

After talking with some of my friends about recent championship games something very similar came up in each conversation...why are we-the fans, media and even sports analysts constantly focusing on a team's miscues or how a player under performed from the losing side rather than what went right on the winning side? It's not only frustrating from a fans perspective, but as a sports journalist who's job is to find the real story I have to beg the question, are we focusing on the right story?

The Unexpected Heroes 

My most recent example of this theory can be drawn on from the NBA Finals in which according to the media, the under dog crept in and stole the trophy in what was an incredible finish to their season. They were far from perfect, but had the perfect ending.

Yet, Were they really the "under dogs" or were they just the better team?

A constant cloud seemed to loom over the very idea that Dallas had made it as far as they had in each and every series, but in the end they proved to be the better team. This culminated in Game 5 and Game 6 when the Mavericks relied heavily on their team's depth. When a team has only one "big name" in Dirk compared with three in the Heat (need I repeat?), a team must rely heavily on their bench and that Dallas did, something Nowitzki must have preached after the first four games against Miami.

By the Numbers

In the final two games of the series his supporting cast combined for an average of 75 points and a field-goal percentage of 52.1. This was up from 54.5 and 35.7, respectively. Also, Jason Terry entered Game 5 shooting less than 40 percent from 15 or more feet in the finals, but managed to shoot more baskets from 15+ in that game than in the previous four combined. As for the rest of the bench, they scored 43 points in Game 6 as the Mavs were also 36-9 when the bench scored 40 or more points.

On the other hand, as far as the "Big Three's" concerned, LeBron James averaged 26.7 points per game during the regular season, but only 17.8 during the 2011 NBA Finals. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the discrepancy between regular season scoring average and finals scoring average is the largest in NBA history. Also during the finals LeBron James and Dwanye Wade combined for 62 points in the fourth quarter, while Nowitzki was more than capable of accomplishing the feat alone. Lastly, when we talk about Bosh everyone thought when he was traded to Miami that he'd be on the same caliber as LeBron and Wade, but during the regular season he was very up and down. During the whole playoff run I feel the only memorable performance was in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals when he had a 30-point, nine rebound night, but even that was overshadowed by Miami's loss.

So does it really matter if your team has one headliner, three headliners or a bunch of no-names on their roster that are so common that they are referred to as table talk at your next family's dinner? In my opinion no, but the media seemed to eat up the Big Three this season.

What Another Coach Had to Say

Now this may seem a little off topic, but the message is there...I've also just taken on a position with the Washingtion Capitals this summer and as I was scrummaging through some articles I found one about the Caps coach Bruce Boudreau that really caught my attention. For his team the history has been very up and down. Washington started at the bottom of the bucket and I mean the bottom, having the worst season on record during their first season in franchise history in the NHL (no need to dish out the laughable record), but then steadily progressing year after year and even making it to the Stanley Cup Finals in the 1997-98 season. Still with all the talent they have (Ovy, Backstrom, Green, etc.) they have yet to make it past the second round in the playoffs.

Boudreau said that everyone needs patience and that the media's expectations are too high of a team who's core has not had one person to reach the age of 26 yet. Hockey is all about development there are far less super stars that come at the age of 18 and 19 like the NBA because in hockey it's all about progression.

He drew this into the current series in the Stanley Cup Finals where everyone was expecting Vancouver to win even though their netminder Robert Luongo had a few faulty performances. A few? He let the Bruins score on seven of 21 shots in the final two games of the series...I'm not going to even find out the percentages on that one, but the fact still remains and Boudreau called it- maybe instead of focusing on what went wrong they should be focusing on what went right.

The Bruins' goaltender Tim Thomas, who more than deserved the MVP trophy, had a stellar performance during the finals and the rest of the team didn't do too bad themselves. But as Luongo dropped goal after goal during his games in Boston, the media, the fans and everyone I could think of had the same thing on their minds...it was just a bad performance by Luongo and he'd bounce back at home. Still Boudreau stood strong, saying no maybe Boston is just that good.

This seems like another case of the negatives.

So Stop Already

So the next time you're watching a championship, a playoff series or even a meaningless game (when in my opinion no game is meaningless) remember in some cases the unexpected hero may not always be the under dog. While there are obvious examples of such, sometimes it's just the better team winning and it is hard for anyone and everyone to say it.

It seems that the media will always look toward Hollywood when making their headlines and as I told my friend before, they're trying to attract the most people possible and the way to do it is by making the headline something everybody knows. Instead why don't we teach those out there something they don't know...like in the Mavericks case, that they were the better team.