I thought they had it. I was sure the Heat would do it. If my current income included a non-zero digit I would have bet it all on the Heat breaking the Lakers all-time streak.1 In fact, I was eagerly looking foward to witnessing the Heat break one of the most unbreakable records in sports. So needless to say I was absolutely devastated sitting in the bar with my roommates and tons of other kids as they all gleefully cheered every Bull’s basket. The Miami Heat went into Chicago as the winners of 27 straight NBA games, already 15% closer than any team had ever come to equaling the 1971- 1972 Lakers all time longest streak of 33 in the over 40 years since they set it. The Heat, just 7 wins away with the best player on the planet, had a legitimate shot at setting a new bar for consecutive incidences of excellence in sport. Yet there I was once again the only one wanting to witness history more than hate the team trying to achieve it. This is the most disappointed I’ve been since the 2007-08 NFL season sitting with a group of my peers, all of whom were relegated to rooting for the rival New York Giants rather than having to witnessing Tom Brady and the New England Patriots hoist another Lombardi Trophy, even if that meant cheering against historical perfection.
The reason that the people at the bar this week, and those kids at the super bowl party in 2008 irked me so is that it seems that they didn’t realize the significance of history. Do you know what the records that the Heat and Patriots were trying to break had in common? NO ONE MY AGE WAS AROUND TO SEE THEM SET. So when you think about it, the records being broken is the most utilitarian thing that could happen. Everyone that’s around today would have been able to say for the rest of their lives that they witnessed truly amazing sports history.2 Instead what we get is a pair of historical footnotes. A couple of Tuesday night trivia questions at some dive bar. Questions that only those of us that were supremely disappointed about the outcome of those sporting events are going to remember in 15 or 20 years.
I know the Heat and the Patriots have tons of detractors, but when the next generation comes up we’ll want to claim our sports era as the greatest of all time, we missed out on a lot of future clout folks. The one bright spot of our generations fallen short streaks is that those records don’t look so unbreakable anymore.
