Spiegel & Goff Today: For The Overlappers
By Matt Spiegel--
(CBS) "Who's got it better than us?!"
"Nobody!"
That was the rallying cry in the Harbaugh family car, as the parents up front would ask Jim and John in their car seats in back.
But it could stand for Chicago sports fans of a certain age.
Let's say you're smack dab in the middle of our station's target demographic: You're 40.
And let's say you're an overlapper. You appreciate and watch both basketball and hockey.
That means you were 9 years old when Michael Jordan got drafted. You watched him explode onto the scene, get hurt, come back better than ever, lose and spend years as the incredibly obvious "next big thing." He evolved, got help and eventually found those perfect partners in Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson. You were 16 when the Bulls won that first title, and you got to enjoy six championship in an eight-year span. You reveled, you loved it and you gloated.
Then you were 31 when Jonathan Toews was drafted No. 3 overall, 32 when Patrick Kane went No. 1 the next year. You may have been a hockey fan or maybe not. If you weren't, you became one.
You knew something was special by the end of the 2008 season, when Toews and Kane finished two-three in goal scoring for a suddenly interesting Blackhawks team.
You watched them grow, evolve, stop drinking to embarassment (one guy), find perfect partners in Marian Hossa, Duncan Keith and Joel Quenneville, then spend a couple years as the incredibly obvious "next big thing." You were 35 when they won that first Stanley Cup. You've now watched them make it to the Western Conference Final in five of the past seven seasons.
As it sits, both our basketball and hockey team this year have realistic championship aspirations.
What other generation, in any other city with a pro hoops and hockey team, can say they've gotten to watch stars on their winter sports team be this good and win this much?
Which city has hockey and hoops fan overlappers who have experienced anything close to this much good fortune?
We'll discuss it today on Spiegel and Goff from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.
Matt Spiegel is a host on the Spiegel and Goff Show on 670 The Score from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on weekdays. Follow him on Twitter @MattSpiegel670.
