Alternative Sport

Okay, the draft is behind us, and the Las Vegas summer league is about to begin this weekend.

Before that happens, lemme throw out a quick word in support of a sport that never gets any love: volleyball.

This is a great team game on the hardwood, and an excellent excuse to see women in bikinis jumping up and down. Mmmm ...

Sorry, I got distracted for a moment. Where was I?

Oh yeah. So, the missus and I are out and about last night and stopped at a pub for some fish and chips. The cute waitress looked like Linda Fiorentino, but when I mentioned the actress to her, the girl had no idea who I was talking about.

Hellooooo, Men in Black? Jade? Dogma? She'd heard of Dogma but never watched it.

Anyway, I'm looking around the room and see a dozen TVs. There seemed to be only three programs on, with the same baseball game seen all over the room so no one could miss it.

But where I was sitting, the closest TV showed the U.S. volleyball team stomping Finland three sets to one. And in fact, I was glad of that.

Baseball was my sport of choice in grade school, but once I was too old for Little League and not good enough for anything more, baseball began to seem boring on TV. Now I can barely stand to watch it.

But volleyball has action, speeding balls that often smash a guy in the head (and occasionally in the face). Heck my first wife had her nose crunched playing volleyball.

Tennis players throw the ball up in the air and wait for it to come down. Volleyball players throw the ball up and then get a running start to jump up and meet the ball halfway.

They do that so they get a better angle to hit the ball down and keep it in play. Imagine if Roger Federer tried that! Wonder if some young muscular tennis player could hit a 150 mph serve like that.

So with the Olympic Games coming up, try to watch a few minutes of a game and see if it hooks you.