I was all excited, because I had been spinning, in my mind, an awesome blog post about Kevin Garnett’s post-game interview on ABC after the Celtics had won the championship. The Celtics win went over with a rather dull thud at this house, but I watched the 2nd half of the game because, hell, if a Boston sports team has a chance to win a championship, I have to watch. I’m glad I did! Not for the utter destruction of the L.A. Lakers, but for this single interview after the game. I must hand it to Mr. Garnett, he doesn’t just stand there and give the stock answers. I think the man very well might be certified bat-shit crazy. The whole thing really had me laughing.
So anyway, I had prepared to post the video, with comments from each bizarre moment, until my friend Leo graciously sent me this link, where a professional writer does all the work for me, and probably with much more amusing flair. Enjoy – you won’t regret seeing this if you want a good laugh today.
Here’s the video, but you should click the link and read the blow-by-blow.
I’m on a roll this weekend! Up again late (see post below), Stanley Cup Finals on TV and I have to post because the thing I might love most about the NHL playoffs are how in some cities, the fans ALL put the same color shirt on. It looks like a scene out of Mad Max or an Apple commercial or something. It’s awfully Orwellian, but when you remember it’s the NHL playoffs, it becomes very damn cool! I remember the first time I saw this – it was in Winnipeg when the Jets played up there (now the Phoenix Coyotes) and it must have been the early 1990s. I was totally flummoxed! Bruins fans don’t do this, but Penguins fans do…..
After Steph and I watched the season finale of Lost last night (great episode, BTW), she went off to bed and I found myself with the rare opportunity to sit on the couch by myself and flip around the TV. This just doesn’t happen that much anymore – before the population of our house doubled, most of my channel surfing was done from 10pm-1am when Steph was in bed. Now I’m in bed by 10pm too! So it was mildly exciting to settle in and hit remote buttons. Here’s the problem: there was nothing on worth watching. The Red Sox were in extra innings, but I just can’t invest myself in it until July or August. Comedy Central wasn’t offering up much. The news channels were spewing the same thing they always do – robotic talking heads arguing about stuff.
That left me with one option. Gulp. The Celtics. There. I said it. I watched basketball. Good heavens, is THAT what it came to? Apparently so. It wasn’t just any basketball game, it was a chance for the Celtics to reach the NBA Finals against the Lakers. Old school! I can already see CBS saying stuff like “a generation ago, these two teams engaged in some…….blah blah blah.” Then they’ll show the old video and it will look like it was shot 100 years ago but when we watched it live back then, it looked so much better. Ah, tape degradation. And it really was a generation ago now. Cripes.
Now, with the Celtics winning it and all of our shows having aired their season finales and the Cup finals just about done, will I do it again? I don’t know. I think it’s super cool to have Boston-L.A. series, but I’d have to be pretty desperate to do anything but periodically check the score. Unless they start allowing checking or something in basketball.
Of course, we could always watch movies, but come on now. We’d be challenged to find time where both of us had that kind of time available to us concurrently. Movies have gone by the wayside since June 4, 2007. We’ll come around again.
Whatever happened to boxing, anyway? Up until about 1992 or thereabouts, boxing was just HUGE. When I was in grade school and high school, whenever Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Ray Mancini, Larry Holmes or even Mike Tyson fought, it was an EVENT. Those Leonard-Duran fights – was there better sports theatre than those fights? You just didn’t miss it, no questions asked. Nowadays, there’s no excitement at all about any boxing matches. I can’t even name the heavyweight champion of the world and I think many others would be hard-pressed to do so. Now, you might respond by saying that perhaps my tastes have simply changed and I’m not dialed in like I used to be. I actually don’t think so. I think what boxing lacks these days are the true gatekeepers – the guys who were not just excellent boxers, but personalities with marketing potential. I think Sugar Ray was pitching Sprite for a while! (Quick search proves me wrong: it was 7-Up he did commercials for.)
Anyway, I DO know that I can get into boxing. I came across a match one night while I was flipping channels and I was entranced by two no-names slugging the living hell out of each other. Seriously – I had nothing invested in either of these guys and there I was on the couch, biting my nails and holding my breath. So it’s still in me. I just need someone to latch onto and it’s not Oscar De La Hoya, so don’t tell me that. Is there another young Mike Tyson out there (the BOXER, not the person) that will put boxing back on the map? Or is it really all about Ultimate Fighting or whatever that is?
The great Warren Zevon wrote a song about Boom Boom Mancini back in his glory days. Here he is performing it on Letterman back in 1997. Love the guitar riffs in this and also love the song because I remember each and every one of the fights Zevon is singing about in each verse. Great stuff. What happened to boxing?
There are times when being a professional baseball player must really suck. I mean, despite that they all make obscene amounts of money, the travel and tediousness of playing 162 games every season must be exhausting. Yes, you get to stay at 5-star palaces and yes, you eat the best of food and yes, you play a game for a living, but just imagine being away from your family 8 out of 12 months. There are indeed worse jobs, but I think any major leaguer past 30 would tell you it can get old quick. Alas, spring training must be a blast – you get to see your buddies again, you don’t have to travel, the weather is nice and everyone except Kansas City and Pittsburgh are drenched with optimism. Oh yeah, it’s also a a great time for a good prank.
I also dig logos of all kind, such as corporate logos, sports logos (one of my faves here) and I especially dig automobile logos. So I was psyched to find a blog post where someone logged the evolution automobile logos. Neat-o. Some of those old ones are killer – they should bring them back.
