NBA: It's Fantastic!

My goodness. Someone pinch me. Is this weekend seriously going to happen? I might have to bash my head against the wall to see if I’m dreaming here. It’s a blessing in disguise, thanks to none other than The Boston Sports Guy. He gets to run the greatest TV channel there is, NBATV. Starting at 6:00 PM tonight and ending on Monday afternoon at 3:00, it’s nonstop NBA action of past games. My VCR might catch on fire this weekend due to this insanity. I’m about to go into a zone here, so sorry to the non-NBA fans. If you’re a non-NBA fan, you depress me already. Out of that time span, I’m taping 22½ hours to add to my collection. I’m sure you could care less what I’m watching, but I’m going to type it all out for you anyways:

Friday 6:00 PM: Lakers vs Clippers, 1979 Regular Season. Magic Johnson’s first NBA game.

Friday 8:00 PM: Sonics vs Warriors, 1992 1st Round, Game 3. 129-128 Thriller n which Shawn Kemp makes his name known to the world with a sick oop from Gary Payton and he swings around on the rim and hangs there.

Saturday 12:00 PM: Suns vs Warriors, 1994 1st Round, Game 3. Barkley in the prime of his career, as he drops 56 points on the Warriors, 27 of which come in the 1st Quarter.

Saturday 4:00 PM: Lakers vs Warriors, 1987 Semis, Game 4, 4th Quarter. The Sleepy Floyd Game. Sleepy drops 34 points in 11 minutes on the NBA Champions of that year. Warriors were down 98-83 towards the end of the 3rd Quarter and 14 to start the 4th Quarter. Sleepy scores 26 of the Warriors’ last 28 points. That doesn’t even happen in video games. Sleepy ends with 47 points. As Sports Guy would say, “He could have gone for 55, maybe even 60. But he just wanted to win the game and go home. That's why they call him Sleepy."

Saturday 4:30 PM: Nets vs Celtics, 2002 East Finals, Game 3, 4th Quarter. Greatest comeback in the history of the NBA, woooo!



Saturday 5:00 PM: Jazz vs Lakers, 1988 Semis, Game 5. Stockton with 24 assists and him and Magic show the world how true point guards play the game. Dwyane Wade, you need to watch this game. That has become a lost art in today’s era.

Saturday 7:00 PM: Lakers vs Sixers, 1983 Regular Season. OT game which features my favorite dunk ever. What’s that one? It’s the Rock-the-Baby dunk by Dr. J on Michael Cooper’s head, who in my opinion is the greatest defender ever.

Saturday 9:00 PM: Nets vs Knicks, 1984 Christmas. Bernard King unloads 60 on the MSG crowd. Bernard King for a stretch in the mid 1980s until he got hurt was one of the best players of all time.

Sunday 3:30 PM: 1988 3-Point Shootout. This is the one you’ve all seen a million times in highlights. Bird is down 1 on the very last ball of the last rack. He misses it, he loses. He hits it, he’s a 3-peat champ. He fires up the red, white, and blue ball (worth 2) and before it lands, he walks off and puts up a finger in the air to signify he’s The Basketball Jesus. One of my favorite keepsakes is a figurine I have in a glass globe of Bird shooting that last shot. And he does this all in his warmup jacket.

Sunday 6:00 PM: Celtics vs Pistons, 1985 Semis, Game 5. Bird goes off for 43 points, 17 of which come in the 4th Quarter.

Sunday 8:00 PM: Knicks vs Celtics, 1984 Semis, Game 7. Bird goes head-to-head against Bernard King. Bird has 29 points in the 1st half and ends the game with 39 points and a triple double. Not to mention the crowd was going insane, chanting “MVP!..” As Sports Guy says about Bird in this game, “This was the game when he went from Superstar to Superduperduperstar.”

Monday 4:00 AM: Celtics vs Bucks, 1987 Semis, Game 4. 138-137 Double OT intensity here. With Bill Walton out with injury, Kevin McHale playing with a broken foot (read that again), and both Danny Ainge and Robert Parish playing with sprained ankles, this one is still a classic. I said he played with a broken foot.



Monday 10:00 AM: Celtics vs Sonics, 1987 Regular Season, 4th Quarter. The X-Man Game. What’s that? There was a timeout late in the game and during the timeout, Bird walks over to Xavier McDaniel. He tells X-Man exactly what he’s going to do to. He points out the spot that he’s going to hit the game winner at and also says that he’ll do it in X-Man’s face for emphasis. And what happened? Exactly that. Can the man walk on water? I believe so.

Monday 10:30 AM: Celtics vs Mavericks, 1988 Regular Season, 4th Quarter & OT. Bird with one of his best buzzer beaters in this one.

Monday 12:00 PM: Blazers vs Celtics, 1992 Regular Season. This may be the most impressive stat of the day. Bird ends up with 49 points. That’s big in itself, but he does this with a 15 POUND BACK BRACE on. You want to talk about a team that Bird feasted on? The Blazers are it. His stats against Portland in the mid 1980s is just unbelievable. He put up many 40+ games and triple doubles against Portland.

Hold me now, for I’m shaking in anticipation. I can barely contain myself over this stuff, for real with the NBA action. I had a huge workout earlier today too, so that added to my great mood. I’m rarely in a bad mood. What fun is it to be in a bad mood? I don’t get how some of these people freak out over little things and get so depressed. Relax people, be laid back, and just enjoy it as it happens. We all hit our bumps in the road, but don’t cry about it. Anyways, I set another record today at the gym. A few weeks ago as you all read, I wanted to see what I could get a 10-rep bench for. I got 195 pounds up a few weeks ago for 10 and it was rough. Today I was feeling good and wanted to get to the 200-mark. I was able to get this up for 10 reps and it was a lot easier than 195 for some reason. I almost buried myself on 195 (remember a few months ago when I buried myself on the 235 going for 2? I didn’t want to do that again), but 200 was a better lift. I know you think a 5 pound difference isn’t much, but it honestly is when it comes to this. 45 pounds more than my weight I was able to put up for 10 times. I have to be happy for myself on that one. Most bigger guys in town can’t do that one, but then again, my town is bums for the most part.

I had some Chinese earlier with Spank. For only $10, that fed both of us. You can’t go wrong at that price. When all else fails, if you’re cheap, order water. That’ll shave a few bucks on your bill. And as Cork’s boss would say, if you want lemonade, just order water with lemon and crank it around in there. Then again, he’s a stingy Italian like myself, so we learn to save most of the time, but he’s the man. Cork needs to post some stories about his boss in his Blog, for that’d be quality times.

After hitting up General Tso’s Chicken, I came home to watch the USA Basketball Team play Argentina. Argentina was an impressive squad indeed. They were led by Manu Ginobili of the Spurs. They also had quite a few other NBA players, so that can’t hurt. Why can’t the current NBA game feature fundamentals like this? Do our players not understand the concept of team ball anymore? I just answered my own question there, so not a lot can be said. Hats off to Argentina, who played a very smooth game out there, while our guys cried over the refs and whatever else. Boo hoo. If you’re going to blame the refs, get on that plane as soon as possible and get back home so the rest of America can laugh at you for being the bums that you really are, egotistical players who only want to make the highlight reel.

I just got some pong games in with Dad. I’m now up in the series, 44-36, so I hope I can hold things down tight going for #50. Tonight we’re taking Dad out for his birthday dinner. His birthday is tomorrow in which he turns the big Double Nickel, 55. Also tomorrow, outside of the NBA games of course, we have a family reunion to attend, so that should be some great eating. I’ll weigh in to you guys again soon. If you don’t hear from me for a while, I’m hibernating in my recliner watching NBA.