WATERCOOLER CHAT: AFC OVER NFC, ROSE MISSES, DJOKOVIC 5TH GRAND SLAM
FOOTBALL
In the NFL, the league’s best and brightest stars took the field in Honolulu. The game under the sun had most players playing at half speed. Nobody was hitting each other; nobody was trying all that hard, except for the one man who set a Pro Bowl-record four touchdown passes — Brandon Marshall. Marshall was crowned the MVP in the AFC’s 59 – 41 win over the NFC. With the win, each AFC player earned $50,000 and the NFC players received $25,000 for participating.
BASKETBALL
In the NBA, the Chicago Bulls went down to South Beach to play the Miami Heat and just couldn’t quite get their job done. The Bulls made the game extremely close, coming to within two points of the Heat with under 30-seconds to play. Derrick Rose, the reigning MVP, who had hit a perfect 12 – 12 from the line for the night, missed both free throws that would have tied the game. Rose’s miss were his first two misses in the 4th quarter of any game this season after previously hitting 29 free throws. But, the game wasn’t over as quickly as that. LeBron James was fouled and sent to the line. He also missed his two shots at the charity stripe. James missed six straight points at the end of the fourth quarter, which kept hope alive for the Bulls. But, Chicago just couldn’t get over the hump in the game. Rose had 34 points, six rebounds and six assists in the game, while James topped him with 35 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.
 TENNIS
The Australian Open finals were what some analysts call the best Open era finals ever. Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal volleyed back and forth for almost 6 hours. This final was the longest Grand Slam singles final in the history of the sport. Last year, Djokovic beat Nadal all six times they played on the tour. The match went five sets, where most sets went at least one hour. This is Djokovic’s 5th grand slam win and 3rd consecutive finals win.
