A love letter to Garbage Time All-Stars

Sports are too human to take seriously. They ultimately prop us up for failure; unless, of course, your team is one of 32 that wins, you’re going to be disappointed in how your season ends – and take it from me, even if your team wins, you’re sure to be disappointed the next season. Or the one after that.

Ultimately, sports are a series of agonizing stories of potential gone wrong, spiked intermittently (if you’re lucky) with stories of success.

Now, I’m not saying sports aren’t fun. I’m just saying we shouldn’t take them seriously.

Yeah right. This coming from the dude that about flipped his wife and unborn child off the couch yesterday in disgust after a particularly egregious mistake by Paul Pierce.

I say this because, every once in a while, we need to step back and enjoy sport for what it is – entertainment, a sense of belonging, action, fitness and, most of all, fun.

Which is why I love Garbage Time All-Stars.

It might be not only the best sports comic, but the best comic overall. It might not be the best basketball blog, but the best sports blog in general. I’ve loved it since I discovered it on Yahoo!’s Ball Don’t Lie. I continue to love it, and wish they’d just quit their jobs and draw Kevin Garnett as “monster freakazoid baby-eater” for the rest of their lives.

It’s not for the non-fan – it’s chock full of NBA inside jokes and third-tier knowledge. It’s Free Darko with a pen, Questionable Content with basketball shorts. It’s funny, clever and – most of all – awesome.

And the best part: the dudes are humble.

A recent GTAS strip came equipped with a bonus panel. Attached was a contest asking for comments. It was a pretty awesome one-panel strip – a throwaway, it seemed – featuring Kevin Garnett as, you know, crazy. Below it was a little comment from the artist. The strip:

Via: Garbage Time All-Stars

Mimicking the punch line, I said, indeed, that they sucked. Meaning it in jest of course, despite knowing the fact that sarcasm is lost on the Internet. Something about not being able to hear the tone or something.

A day or so later, I receive an e-mail filled with genuine concern. I had the type of blog that he’d hoped would be a fan of GTAS. Did I really think GTAS sucked?

Sheepishly, I explained myself, feeling awful for wrongly piercing the fragile armor of artist-hood. I know better.

On the contrary. I love GTAS. Seriously. Love it. A lot.

Which made it even cooler that I won the contest.

Thanks guys. Keep up the awesomeness.