This blog is called “Real Sports – True Faith” because of the subjects it will focus on: sports and my Christian faith. Not surprisingly, those are also the two subjects I get most worked up about and the two I enjoy discussing the most.
First off, I love debate. Heck, that’s an understatement. I like to argue and debate, but it helps to have an audience that knows what is going on. You can’t debate with an uninformed person. Again, not surprisingly, sports and Christianity are two subjects where many people think they know a lot, but in reality they are pretty ignorant.
Regarding my faith, I am a born again Christian. What does that mean? Well, I guess to some people that term is meaningless. I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and have faith in Him for my salvation. I have a biblical world view. What that means is that I believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God and the ultimate authority in the universe. My faith holds that the Holy Spirit Himself inspired men to write the books of the Bible, thus creating a coherent and seamless treatise that spans thousands of years. I hold that the Bible is without error in its original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek). I believe that what the Bible says is true – absolutely true – in all areas. Yes, I believe in a six-day creation. (In case you were wondering, I do understand evolution and realize its flaw but also its lure – more on that later.) I also believe that the Bible’s moral code is unchanging. For example, homosexuality was a sin in the time of Sodom and Gomorrah and it is still a sin today. My world view is based upon the Bible, and that means that God created man in His own image, but man rebelled by sinning and exists in a fallen state. Man is inherently evil and deserves punishment. It is only by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ that man can be saved.
All right, for the sports portion of this blog. My focus will be upon three sports: NBA basketball, NFL football, and men’s tennis. Those are the three sports I follow closely. All others, not too much. I don’t watch any baseball or college basketball until playoffs come around. I watch golf occasionally, but not when Tiger Woods is not playing. I watch minimal amounts of college football. No NASCAR, boxing, MMA, or hockey whatsoever; they just don’t interest me.
My guess is that I’ll concentrate on the NBA. I consider myself a crusader for understanding in the area of the NBA. My personal crusade is for the greats of the 1980’s – specifically, for Larry Bird. It is my opinion that Bird is the best NBA player of all time. Yeah, all time. That means I think he’s better than Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, and yes, even Michael Jordan. I feel that the era in which Bird played was the NBA’s most glorious one. The league was not watered down by expansion or poisoned with players with virtually no college experience. The pace was fast and the shooting was good. Players knew how to set a pick, catch and shoot, box out, shoot a midrange shot, and make a quick back-to-the-basket decision. By the time the Jordan’s Chicago Bulls got good, the league was already declining. True, Michael Jordan helped keep it going, but it would never again reach the level of its glory days in the 1980’s.
I’ll present plenty of cases for Bird and the great teams of the 1980’s. Let me conclude this post by saying that I have little respect for the Bulls of the 1990’s. Oh, they were a great team, but by no means on the level of the Celtics or Lakers of the 1980’s. I’d say the Bulls would have been overmatched. Line up the 1985-86 Celtics against the 1995-96 Bulls and you will see what I’m talking about. The Bulls had Luc Longley and Bill Wennington at center; the Celtics had Robert Parish and Bill Walton. The Bulls had Dennis Rodman; the Celtics had Kevin McHale. The Bulls had Scottie Pippen; the Celtics had Larry Bird.
