Always take the shot

I hate to say I knew it.

Indiana Pacers star guard Tyrese Haliburton strained his calf muscle in game 5 of the NBA Finals. When he then decided to play in game 6, I remarked to my friend that he is playing with fire. A strained calf is an easy gateway to blowing out the supporting achilles tendon.

Sure enough, during this evening’s game 7, Haliburton tore his achilles in a non-contact play. Absolutely devastating. With their star player out, the Pacers predictably lost the game. The Oklahoma City Thunder is your 2025 NBA champions of the world.

We can obviously understand why Haliburton chose to play on a bum calf. Making it to the NBA Finals is incredibly difficult, needing a ton skill and a decent amount of luck. There are no guarantees for any player that they will make it back in the future. So this Finals might be Haliburton’s only shot at the gold. Of course he would throw all caution into the proverbial wind.

He’s made enough money in his career that any jeopardy to Haliburton’s future earnings is not as salient as giving it his all to win a championship. The older him would probably look back at it with regret if he sat out the last two games and the Pacers lost. That’s not an alternative timeline he wishes to live.

The key here is that Haliburton took the risk. Certain opportunities in life only shows up once at a given time. If you don’t take the shot (no pun), that’s it. It won’t ever come back around again. Crushed as he might be at the injury, I doubt Haliburton would do it any differently.

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Digital coke.

Go watch Ted Lasso

Hello there! Strange to be writing the first blog entry of June in the middle of June. I am sad to report that I’ve suffered a right-hand injury two weeks back. Naturally, that makes it slightly difficult to do hand-related activities, such as typing (washing my hair was an inarticulate mess). I’m glad my BMW M2 has an automatic transmission, because were it the manual, I wouldn’t have been able to drive.

I am on the mend, obviously, and therefore able to type on these pages again. Nothing will make you value your overall health like when it’s taken away from you. With an injured hand, I haven’t been able to workout with weights. Shame, because I just bought a 40 pound kettlebell to replace the measly 26 pounder I’ve been using the past few years. I ordered from Amazon because it was the cheapest, though the poor delivery person had to schlep that 40 pounds from the truck to our front door step. Sorry!

In the meantime, I’ve been lounging on the couch and watching episodes of Ted Lasso. What a wonderfully fantastic series! I’ve heard people refer it as a happy go-lucky show, but there’s so much layers to that cake. You don’t get that happiness and positivity without being emotionally vulnerable and dealing with your demons. The second season especially, shows the titular character finally confronting the darkness stemming from the lost of his father. Ted Lasso narrates all of that in a wrapper that reminds audiences to be kind and selfless towards others, and ourselves.

The series is an easy recommendation, well worth the $7 to subscribe to Apple TV+ (for one month) to watch all three seasons in one go.

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Alcatraz is an island.