NBA playoffs

I've only been keeping up with the NBA playoffs by reading about games the next morning in the paper. Few of the first-round playoff series - now up to seven games, like in the later rounds - were momentous (except perhaps for Utah tossing Dallas, which got Coach Johnson fired). But the second round includes a bunch of interesting matchups, including one whose Game 3 I watched a bit of last night: four-time champions San Antonio Spurs vs. the New Orleans Hornets. I tend to root for teams with a lot of veterans (like Boston) or long-time champion teams (like Detroit, LA, or San Antonio) or teams in areas in which I used to live (Minnesota or perhaps New York or Chicago) or teams with coaches I like (Miami). It's hard to get used to the idea that New Orleans (formerly home of the Jazz) or even Oklahoma City (where the Hornets spent much of the first season after Katrina) has an NBA team, and it's been so long ago since the old Charlotte Hornets (before they moved to New Orleans) were good and division rivals vs. the Knicks (I watched a classic Knicks vs. Hornets playoff game in person in Madison Square Garden with the New School dean I was courting for my dissertation committee - with tickets I got from Darra and her brothers, who I went to games with occasionally). Well, I wasn't in the Garden, and I wasn't even staying up late with Vincent in my old Victorian Village (Columbus) apartment during the trial watching the Spurs vs. Knicks finals (or watching Andrew "warm" up shooting Nerf hoops in Andrew and Jan's kitchen before a Lakers playoff game on TV). But it was fun to catch up with a little NBA playoff action (and root for Tim Duncan). I explained to Vincent this evening that one of the reasons they're building a $500 million new downtown arena in Louisville, on the waterfront just across 2nd street/the 2nd Street bridge from my building (in fact, that's why the street between my building and the parking garage is all torn up right now - as they prepare the utilities for the arena) - is to try to lure an NBA team here to Louisville. They still remember the few years that the old ABA's Kentucky Colonels used to play in the old Louisville Garden. I personally think this is too small a market (greater San Antonio - one of hte smallest NBA markets - has twice as many people as greater Louisville/Kentuckiana - with its 1 million or so people) and too much of a college sports town for that to happen. (We missed - thanks to the rain, which scared us off - from going to a AAA minor league baseball Louisville Bats game tonight, and we've never sen the indoor football league Louisville Fire.) Still, I like Coach Pitino, and I bet if the Cardinals really are playing every few nights every winter less than a block from my house, maybe we will scrape together the money to go see them, even if you won't be able to see them as well as you could in the old Freedom Hall, out at the fairgrounds, where they play now and where we've seen Bob Seger and Def Leppard (no bad seats in the house).