Bringing Up Bebe Week 20: Why Be Mad?

One of the best athlete interviews of all time — one that should be set for mandatory viewing every time you feel the rage building in your mind, for whatever reason, towards your favourite team — belongs to NHL goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. Here he is on the Score (RIP), talking first about Chris Pronger’s return to Edmonton, and then going into a discussion of relative temperatures between said city (it’s a cold one) and his home town in Russia (somehow not as cold).

Let’s play that opener again and consider it. Why you have to be mad? (With Ilya’s accent, this sounds more like “heff” but you get the point.)

Such a simple rhetorical question, applicable to so much anger generated from the sports fan community. Look, I get being fired up about your team. We want the people involved, from the top on down, to make good decisions in all the things that they do — be it in managing, coaching, or playing. When things go sour, or when decisions are made that perhaps differ from what we’d like — even in times of relative prosperity — there may be a twinge of hurt there, some undefinable itch that brings irritation. I understand.

But hear me out on this: resist the urge to allow said irritation to flower into rage. There’s just no point and no way to win. The team will continue to try to do what it will do. Management may be dumb, the coach may be clueless, the players may being trying their hardest to no avail. It happens. You can let it all in, really open the floodgates of your soul to a crushing sense of disappointment and despair, or you can take the Bryzgalov approach and remember his words: it’s only a game.

(By the by, there are things to get mad about in professional sports, like, say, publicly financed stadiums, which are a scam. For that subject, get as damn well upset as you’d like. But I digress.)

In any case, I hope Lucas Nogueira sees the court soon.

Happy

Not much to report here, guys. Nogueira did not get into one single solitary second of a professional basketball game this week. And the team’s been on the road so I haven’t even been able to observe any fun anecdotes as of late. For whatever reason, rookie Jakob Poeltl is now getting the handful of backup centre minutes which are available. It’s not the best time for Bebe.

That said, the team did just spend a few days down in Miami practicing. So, I mean, life could be worse, I guess.

Not Happy

Let noted philosopher and musician Mac DeMarco carry you on your way to the next high point in your life. It will come. There will be... another one.

(Forgive the odd video; we’re talking about DeMarco here. Such is life.)

Level of High Level

Bryzgalov, like Bebe, was a bit of a joker too in his day. He’s 36 now, and out of the NHL, but he had a good run for a couple of years there in Phoenix before ping-ponging between Philly (where goalies go to die), Moscow, and the AHL. I like to believe he tried to stay as un-mad as possible, even as those insane Flyers fans were yelling at him. It is, after all, a game, one we should all try to enjoy, lest it destroy us. Words to keep in mind, Bebe.

High Level Result: 2 out of 10 — Notwithstanding the trip to Miami, this has got to be a low moment in the season of Bebe. He’s out of the rotation and it looks likely it could stay that way for some time. A bummer, but, remember, don’t get mad.