I am in need of an analogy, and this is a rough recollection, so bare with me. Back To The Future Part III: Marty is in a bar in the ‘ole west, and let it slip that he is from the future. In obvious jest, his cowboy counterparts asked what people do for fun in the 1980’s. Marty answered that people run for entertainment. The grisly man retorted “They run? For fun!?”

I sometimes feel like Marty when I find myself justifying following a Jazz pre-season game by staring at a box score being updated every few seconds. How absurd must that sound to fans from a generation ago? It used to be bad enough that kids had evolved such that “playing basketball” meant sitting down in front of the play station and putting in the latest NBA game. I think I, and many like me, have reached a new low. I’m certainly not playing basketball (in either sense). It cannot be reasonably considered “watching” basketball. I’m not even listening to basketball. There is no discussing basketball with friends. Rather, I am sitting quietly, staring at a computer screen showing various stat lines with numbers that change (hopefully) every few seconds. In fact, I cannot even tear myself away for the few seconds between each update! Heaven forbid I miss seeing Brewer’s “steals” box go from a “4” to a “5.”

What would folks have thought of that twenty years ago? Comparatively, playing video games for 11 hours straight is arguably a healthier alternative. While both activities encourage uncomfortable stretches of infrequent blinking, at least video games keep your fingers lean and incorporate exciting dashes of color.

Such is the plight of those of us who have to rely on limited national television exposure of the Jazz to catch the live action. Now, as much as I enjoy being intimately familiar with box score averages of the entire roster, I know that there are methods for me to watch the actual games on my computer or elsewhere. So, what are they? Where do I go from here? What can recent technological advancements offer me in the form of closing the gap between myself and seeing the bear silly string an unsuspecting fan (unfortunately not represented in the nightly box scores). Hook me up. Dial me in. Just get me some live action!!!