March Madness where are you?

It’s been barely two weeks, yet it feels like two months. Is February the barren landscape of sports? I guess it could be argued May and June are worse, but at least then it’s pleasant to be outside. I’m not nearly as desperate for sports entertainment then as I am now.

My massive let down has been most evident during my 45-minute commute to and from work. Sports radio is my companion. It’s when I not only hear different perspectives on key sports stories and figures – something I feel helps strengthen my own opinion by hearing two sides to every story – but become informed on areas I’m unable to or chose not pay close attention to, such as the NBA, golf and tennis. However, I don’t ever remember a time when it’s been this bad.

I mean, this week in particular I’ve heard at least three days worth of nonstop Michael Jordan. Count downs of his greatest moments. Debates of whether he could play today or if so and so can reach Jordan’s level of superiority. It reached a pinnacle, well more appropriately a pit, following the UNC vs. Duke game. I continued to watch ESPN hoping for … God forbid … highlights of other games. It was 11:30 p.m., and there are a handful of college basketball matchups I wanted updated on. Twitter can't do it all, although I’m starting to believe it’s more relevant than ESPN. What did I see? ESPN’s creative story preview list along the left margin giving me a heads up, a guide per se for me to plan out my bathroom break and target the highlight I preferred … Miami vs. Florida State. I scanned the list. Then it jumped out to me. I see as the No. 4 story … which I assumed was supposed to be the fourth most important story at this time – 11:30 p.m. on a Thursday night, basically mid-week. There it was … Jordan’s 50^th. Um, it was still four days away. I promptly turned off the television. I had enough. I listened to music to and from work on Friday. I’ve given up.

I get it. Football season is over, so sports radio and sports television assume fans don’t care anymore. But come one … all this attention on Jordan, because he’s turning 50! I don’t remember this much fuss being made when he entered the Hall of Fame. When was that anyway? That was far more of a sports story than him turning another year older, grant it’s a signature year. Seriously though, sports fans deserve better.

I sympathize. I understand college basketball is not overly important until March when conference tournaments begin leading into the big tourney. I understand the NHL regular season is ho-hum, since more than 50 percent of the league makes the playoffs anyway. MLB is just warming up, and the NBA is … well, the NBA. However, these sports hosts, pundits, commentators and analysts surely can find a story out there. Hmm … how about the NHL’s reigning defenseman of the year suffering a season-ending injury, or Kentucky star freshman suffering the same igniting the one-and-done NBA debate or maybe, just maybe have some spring training chatter? Justin sayin’ What are these folks going to do next year? Jordan isn’t turning 50 every year.

 — Jaime North