Wagering On The King….or So I Thought
2007-03-14
Two more days before the tournament, and I decided to wager a little money on the Cavaliers. With no Knicks game to distract me, I thought I should take advantage of the free time and watch Lebron play. Along with the Knicks, college b’ball has taken up so much of my time that I haven’t been able to fully enjoy the NBA package and catch some of the games of the league’s stars. So, with the Cavs giving only 6 points to a lowly Sacramento squad, I put some money on them to cover and got ready to watch the King take on the Kings. It was looking like it could be an enjoyable Tuesday night.
When I turned on my TV to catch the tail end of the pre-game, I nearly cried as I heard the announcers say that Lebron James was not going to be play tonight due to back spasms. What had started out as a great opportunity to watch a great player in action, as well as make some money had suddenly turned into a disaster. No Lebron to watch? No Lebron to help the Cavs cover? I was doomed. I quickly put some money on some later games to hopefully recoup the money I was sure to lose on this game. The Cavs without Lebron are incredibly awful and even the Kings were going to take advantage of that situation. So, instead of a 2 ˝ hour Lebron-a-thon, I decided to watch some TV shows I had TiVo’d instead. I wanted no part of watching that dreaded game.
As I flipped to check the score of the game halfway through my episode of 24, I noticed that Cleveland was up exactly by 6 points, 25-19, after the first quarter. Having seen no part of the game, I thought that maybe Cleveland had simply shot out of their minds in the first frame and that they surely would come back to Earth for the rest of the game. So, not wanting to get my hopes up, I went back to watching Jack Bauer and company. Curiosity naturally took over a little later, so I decided to check the score of the game once again. This time, as I had assumed, the score read Kings 49-Cavs 48, with just 25 seconds left in the half. With my hopes all but sealed, I decided to turn the channel and not watch another minute of the game. Although being a Knicks fan does make one masochistic, this was just way too much to handle.
About an hour and a half later, I went on to ESPN.com to see the updated Eastern Conference Standings to see if the Knicks were now mathematically tied for the 7th spot (they were). As I glanced through, I noticed that it had listed Cleveland as having won 6 straight games. Thinking that they either hadn’t updated the standings or the Cavs had won a nail biter, I went to the scoreboard to check out the dreaded result. As I saw the score, it was so unbelievable to me that I refreshed the browser to make sure it wasn’t a mistake. It wasn’t: Cavs won the game 124-100, thanks to a 35 point outburst in the 3rd. I was so excited, I jumped up and down as if my alma mater had just won the NCAA Tournament (being a Northwestern grad, however, we know that will never be the case). The improbable had occurred and the Cavs blew a team out, minus King James. Wow. As pleasantly surprised as I was, I thought back to a number of games in the past couple of weeks that were “sure bets” that had gone completely awry. Any twinge of guilt I felt from winning a bet I wasn’t supposed to, was completely erased by the memories of Texas, UNC, and the Mavs. In gambling, you know you should never dwell on what could’ve been, and you surely should never feel guilty for making some money on a bet which shouldn’t have been. Case closed.
Till tomorrow, may all your bets be winners.
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