Daylight SavingsTime begins today. Alone among creatures walking upright on two legs, apparently, only I am sad to see it come. I suppose there was a time when a young Coach, understanding that DST signified the end of a long Midwestern winter, was pleased with the confusing adult discussions about springing forward and the changing of clocks. This day was also a signpost, the quarterpole if you will, indicating that the end was in sight for another tedious school year — only two months to go. Summer camp was just around the bend. Cool. Since moving to Texas 30 years ago, where “winter” is a few days below 40 degrees and “spring” is a redundancy, the concept of winter and the rebirth of the world in spring is only an abstraction, having lost all conventional meaning. Daylight Savings Time does indeed continue to herald the coming of summer, a ghastly inferno I’ve come to dread. Since everyone seems giddy about this day, I feel guilty about these feelings. But I’m a person who thrives on structure, and these additional hours of daylight leave me confused. I’m home from work at 6pm. The thermometer is at 101 — and still rising. My internal clock tells me to be hungry when it looks like darkness is at least a possibility. This is still hours away. I don’t have any crops to plant. The relentless bright, hot hours between 5-7:30 have been known to trigger bouts of depression. Looking on the bright side, normal time is only … what … six months away.
Basketball odds and ends: Austin did a nice job supporting the NCAA regionals. The entire tournament was a sellout. Despite the complete conflagration of the glamour teams from what looked like the tourney’s best bracket, the games were enthusiastically attended. But don’t get the impression Austin is anything but a football town. Within two days after the Longhorns’ depressing loss to LSU in the West Regional, the game had disappeared from the consciousness of the city as if it had never happened at all. A football occurrence — win or lose — dominates the airwaves and the newspaper until the next game is played. By Tuesday, Talkradioland and the daily sports section had moved on to the non-event of spring football practice. Even The Daily Texan, the school’s own paper, had placed a six-month season in a sealed coffin, expending not a single word of analysis or post mortem capping off a sweet & sour 24-9 season. Were I part of the team, I’d find that more depressing than the loss to LSU…
The NBA season is so long it’s easy to snooze in and out until you wake up to realize the playoffs are finally about to start. With the regular season now in single digits, here are some early playoff thoughts: Even when the Bulls were the Bulls, the Western Conference (excluding Chicago) was dominant. This trend continues to accelerate. The Lakers were supposed to struggle this year learning the ways of Phil Jackson. (Though I told you, as they began an early season roll, L.A. looked more comfortable in their new offense than was anticipated and Shaq looked like the MVP he was supposed to be. The team appeared very dangerous … and this was before Kobe Bryant, recovering from knee surgery, had played a minute.) Los Angeles finished the season with the best winning percentage — a staggering .868 — any Western Conference team has ever put up against the East. This ridiculously young team turned a tight division battle against veteran, star-studded Portland into a Bullish blowout, up on Sunday by eight games over the Blazers. L.A. will start a multiple championship run this year. I’d be surprised if they lose three games this playoff season. The sleeping monster that Laker/Shaq haters feared is wide awake and quite hungry… To further highlight the Western dominance, consider this: The top team in the East, Indiana, would be a 4 seed in the West, a distant 15 games behind L.A. Philadelphia, today’s 4 seed in the East, would be a 7, maybe an 8 in the West… The disappointments in the league far outweigh the pleasant surprises. On the bright side, I give you the controversy-a-day 76ers, who will win close to 50 games. They could be the Knicks of 2000. I’d call Utah — a solid third in the West, who ended last season and began this one looking as Jimmy Buffett once wrote, “wrinkled and leaning on a crutch” — a surprise. Ditto for the Miami Heat, for whom 50 wins is a miracle. Pat Riley is annoying, but the man can coach. On the other hand, Sacramento, last team in the pool in ’99, is at about the same place this year. More was promised. They won’t ambush any unsuspecting teams this time. The Boy-Scout/treehouse gang that’s been the World Champion Spurs struggled with all kinds of problems. They may be jelling now… but it won’t be enough. The Hornets, pick of many to win the East, are a dissension-wracked team, with star Eddie Jones wanting out. Milwaukee, New Jersey, and Boston, all homeward bound, expected much more.
Next week: a report from Los Angeles on the renewed American interest in Davis Cup.
This article appears in April 7 • 2000.