Go read Bruce Arthur's fantastic look back at The Decision for some perspective acquired over time.
Speaking of time, this isn't basketball related, but it is sports related at least. Today's the 10th anniversary of Mario Lemieux's comeback after retiring from the NHL in 1997 to battle Hodgkin's lymphoma. Watch this clip from his comeback game and be ready to get hit with a sonic wave of applause when he first skates onto the ice:
Lemieux notched an assist just 33 seconds into the game, then scored the brilliant goal you see at 3:10 in this clip en route to a 1 goal, 3 assist outing. Not bad for a guy who hadn't played competitive hockey in three years and was just coming back from friggin' cancer. If you aren't terribly familiar with hockey, Lemieux is easily the second greatest player in history, and if he didn't have such a string of health issues (spinal disc herniation, Hodgkin's lymphoma, chronic tendinitis of a hip-flexor muscle, chronic back pain, and atrial fibrillation), he perhaps would have matched or beaten many of Wayne Gretzky's records despite playing quite a bit of his career in the "dead puck" era when scoring paces were much lower than the mid 1980s or today. Oh, and fun fact: Lemieux is the only person ever to win the Stanley Cup as both a player and an owner. Woo.
Worst of Christmas Weekend in Pictures:
Nationally Televised Games:
Craptors at Grizzlies, NBA TV, 8pm: Zach Randolph has more double-doubles this season than the entire Craptors team. I just died a little inside.
All The Other Games:
Magic at Nyets, 7pm: Now that the Magic have taken down the mighty Celtics in a super ugly game, do they actually show up for this one, or do we have a hilarious letdown game? Even Stan Van Gundy said "Hopefully we don't get full of ourselves."
Pistons at Bobcraps, 7pm: The Charlotte Bobcraps may suck, but at least they'll be entertaingly sucky from now on. New coach Paul Silas had this to say: "I want to bring some energy to this ball club. I want us to get up and down and let it all hang out. If they don't want to get up and down, they can come sit down by me."
Hawks at Bucks, 8pm: Are you ready for more Earl Boykins playing time? Enjoy it while it lasts, because the time he gets to play seriously meaningful minutes may be (wait for it...) short.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Hornets at Timberwolves, 8pm: The 863rd sign your team sucks: STATS LLC adds the qualifier "only" in this sentence from the game preview: "Minnesota has lost six straight to New Orleans by an average of only 7.5 points since a 116-108 home victory on Jan. 23, 2009."
Mavericks at Thunder, 8pm: Did you know Dirk Nowitzki has passed Larry Bird for 25th on the NBA's all-time scoring list? Unreal.
Frail Blazers at Jazz, 9pm: The Blazers are a crappy road team, and their two wins in the entire past decade in Salt Lake City don't bode well for tonight's game.
Clippers at Kings, 10pm: Chris passed along this great link: Tom Ziller compares age versus success, considering only meaningful players to avoid artifically skewing the numbers. In general (with Oklahoma being a major exception), young teams suck. And yep, the Purple Paupers are young. And they definitely suck. And yet, as Chris also noted, front row tickets to this game will set you back just over $1000 apiece. Mind... reeling...
76ers at Warriors, 10:30pm: The Warriors haven't won three games in a row since April 1-5, 2009. Hey Philly, this would be a nice late Christmas gift for the Warriors organization, just FYI.
Labels: Bawful After Dark, nightmare fuel, Stan Van Gundy
24 Comments:
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Eh, what the hell. I haven't been around in awhile, and my team just had their annual Christmas Day Home loss to Lebron's team, so I will help shoulder some of the a$$holery.
BTW, Yams, how long before anonymous commentor shows up with the Kobe "Rape of The Day" joke?
Anyway, as a Laker fan I will hold out hope that we will decide to actually try now. Or at least, somebody besides Kobe will actually try.
Could be worse, L.A. could be the vikings.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/LeBron-didn-t-mean-contraction-when-talking-ab?urn=nba-300875
Check out the quotes. They're pretty funny.
LeBron says now:
"That's crazy, because I had no idea what the word 'contraction' meant before I saw it on the Internet," James said after the Miami Heat's practice Monday. "I never even mentioned that. That word never even came out of my mouth. I was just saying how the league was back in the '80s and how it could be good again. I never said, 'Let's take some of the teams out.'"
LeBron said then:
"Imagine if you could take Kevin Love off Minnesota and add him to another team and you shrink the [league]. Looking at some of the teams that aren't that great, you take Brook Lopez or you take Devin Harris off these teams that aren't that good right now and you add him to a team that could be really good. Not saying let's take New Jersey and let's take Minnesota out of the league. But hey, you guys are not stupid, I'm not stupid, it would be great for the league."
THE FAKERS WON'T WIN WITH THE RAPIST HOBE CRYANT AND PAU GASOFT. THE 3 KINGS BITCHES!!!!!1111 LEBRON IS THE BEST HJADSHKLSDKLSDJFLAS
but yeah honestly, I just wanna see if the Lakers DO wake up or end up like the 06-07 heat (unlikely but this is worth a read) http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_basketball_heat/2010/12/lakers-offering-vibe-of-2006-07-heat.html#more-5417
Ladies and Gentlemen, your face of the NBA.
Today "Hooked on Phonics" and Lebron James team up to create "The King's Reader" to help kids who are fans (and only kids who are fans) of Lebron James learn to read.
This book will feature many simple yet helpful phrases such as:
"See Lebron Run"
"See Lebron lead with shoulder"
"See Lebron hit with shoulder"
"See Lebron rinse, repeat,"
"See Lebron throw up shot"
"See Lebron shoot free-throw"
Due to contractual obligations this book will not be sold in ohio or any state containing an NBA Team with a winning record.
Wow.
And if certain politicians and businessmen have their way, the Vikings could always leave collapsed-roof Minneapolis for A Yet To Be Built Overpriced Stadium In The City of Industry!!!!!!!!
:facepalm:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyeekvRkcRs&feature=related
Yeah, I assume this is referring to the rumored move to L.A. for the Vikings? I can't believe the roof didn't collapse sooner, given it snows a lot in Minnesota and they only had a roof made up of teflon and prayers trying to hold all the snow up. Would think it is cool to have Kobe and Brett Favre in the same city, but then again, Brett would probably just get blamed for that too....
"So when Andy Petite was on the stand and claimed you had used steriods in the past, he was lying?"
"I don't think Andy was lying per se, I believe he 'misremembered'"
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Clippers stupidly foul him behind the three point line with 2 seconds left in the game, and a three-point lead.
'Reke makes free throw #1. And #2.
AND BRICKS THE THIRD ONE, with the followup shot also being bricked.
Clippers now have a WINNING STREAK against the Purple Paupers. It's official, the PP are the biggest embarassment in basketball history, now and forever. You do NOT lose three straight games to the Clippers, a franchise whose only purpose is to exist to give the Lakers two extra home games (and make Seattle fans cringe that such a joke of a team exists, while they couldn't even hang on to Kevin Durant thanks to the machinations of Stern/Bennett/et al.).
Yeah, this game can be pretty cruel.
Yeah, I assume this is referring to the rumored move to L.A. for the Vikings? I can't believe the roof didn't collapse sooner, given it snows a lot in Minnesota and they only had a roof made up of teflon and prayers trying to hold all the snow up. Would think it is cool to have Kobe and Brett Favre in the same city, but then again, Brett would probably just get blamed for that too....
LOL, talk about increasing the hateability factor for one city. which in a strange way is exciting.
CAPTCHA: "mouse," i.e. "Earl Boykins could probably be guarded by a mouse."
I don't even know where to begin with that stat.
I'm sure deep down King Crab fantasizes about having the Kings auctioned off and dismantled in his dream of a no-mid-market-Association though. ugh
1) The downtown/AEG plan is in an area that shuts down traffic wise before every major event at Staples Center. A football game will require roughly 3x-4x as many cars as a concert or basketball/hockey game, combined with the fact that Monday night games would push up against LA rush hour. This area is one of the worst areas for traffic in LA, this is a bad idea.
2) The City of Industry plan is a worse idea. Traffic is almost as bad as downtown is here, with the added benefit being surrounded by areas that are completely unfit to handle pro football. The entire immediate area would have to be equipped for a stadium + surrounding infrastructure and I guarantee you that we can't do it.
On behalf of LA when we get the Jaguars or Vikings or Chargers I can 100% guarantee you a train wreck.
He said a few things I thought were crazy (short incomplete list: suggesting the Lakers would have problems in the 2nd round of the playoffs, suggesting Orlando's new additions have already "figure[d] it all out," taking a shot at Ron Artest pretty much mocking him for raffling his championship ring to raise money to support mental health charities), but my favorite part was how Blinebury's seemed to actually buy into the Doug Collins coach of the year campaign.
He writes, "This is exactly what Doug Collins does: Goes into a downtrodden situation, gets the players to buy into his system, puts a premium on defense and, after a slow start, gets them going in the right direction. He's done it in Chicago, Detroit, Washington and now Philly. Even though the Nuggets were without Carmelo Anthony, winning in Denver is another step in the process."
Um, ok. The 76ers then go out and let GSW drain 15 of 23 three pointers (65.2%) on their way to 110 points. Doesn't exactly sound like a "premium on defense" to me.
Great hockey memory. Lemieux and Jagr were one hell of a combo for a while there. I couldn't help but notice that Jagr drew the entire defense (including the goalie) and set up a streaking Lemieux for a quality shot opportunity on that play. It's always nice to have one of the all-time best individual goal scorers on your line.
And yeah- Lemieux's scoring was ultra-impressive considering all the neutral-zone trapping that teams like NJ and PHI were doing in the mid-90's, as well as that stupid (and thankfully gone) 2-line passing rule. So many turnovers near the redline, so many 1-0 or 0-0 games... ugh.
As for Mario: the man had a nose for the net and was just so crafty in getting shots off around, under, over, and through people. Plus: he LOOKED like Mario from the SMB games with his gigantic nose :-)
Good stuff man.