Basketball Jesus

[Joe Tall]

Brought me to tears...
http://espn.go.com/page2/s/simmons/030425.html

[Your Mom]

Got to love the sports guy and his unintentional comedy scale.

[M2d]

Damn whiney-ass self-important Celtics fans. Go Lakers!!!

[DanS]

Matt,
I think this may be the year that the Celts go further than the Lakers in the playoffs!!!

Larry,
Thanks for the article. It reminds me of the Chief battling Laimbeer, Mchale battling Worthy, Larry calling his shot on the X-man, "D.J. steals the balls!," Walton coming in for the last hurrah in '86, Red firing up the victory stogie, and the Lenny Bias tragedy. All I have to say on that is that if he hadn't O.D.'ed, the Celtics would have been THE team of the '80s. Period.

Unfortunately, basketball was at its best for me from '86-89, from the ripe old ages of 7-10. By the lockout of '94-95, I was done with hoops.
I watched Bull Durham yesterday, and the Moonlight Graham scene made me cry for the first time in a long time. The article came really close. Thanks.

Dan

[TJSWAN]

Are you sure you didn't mean Field of Dreams ????
Burt Lancaster was great. Ease his pain.......

[Cyrus]

White, ugly, with ugly and clumsy body,
versus
Black, beautiful, with body to match.

There is just no way that being born Michael Jordan can be considered a better achievement than getting to be Larry Bird, positively (negatively?) the ugliest guy to grace the wooden floors or ashpalt of basketball.

I threw "white vs black" in there because the sophisticated audience of this website I consider capable of accepting the obvious in genetics without resorting to (or shying in fear of) crass racism.

And the magnificent Lakers were only afraid of one man, down the stretch. I remember a game, and I wish I remembered which game it was, but it was the last minutes of the last quarter of the last game of the last series of the finals of the season, and the Celtics were not gonna make it. Larry was stationary with the ball a little after mid-court (even if he had made a three from there, the game was gone, such was the score) and the TV shot had Cooper lined up on the Lakers' bench and he had his hands cupped round his mouth to better shout abuse and taunts to Bird. Cooper was not a player who was phazed by anyone, not even Magic, but it was clear that night that he had been rattled all through the series and now he was relieved.

Thanks, Larry, for everything.

--Cyrus

[Not a Celtics fan]

[DanS]

Ya, I meant Field of Dreams. Duh. /forums/images/icons/grin.gif I was watching it on TBS or something, even though I have the DVD, and they mentioned it was Burt Lancaster's last feature film appearance. Man, that's poignant.

Dan

[beernutz]

Quick quiz: who has a better life-time field goal percentage: Larry Bird or Michael Jordan?

Don't look it up, just answer the question! /forums/images/icons/grin.gif

[DanS]

Bird. No question.

Dan

[Joe Tall]

I could only think Larry Joe does...Jordan use to huck up 30 shots a game his first few years. Larry was known to pick his spots...easily giving it up for the benefit of the team.

[beernutz]

You'd better go look because LB career FG% = .496 and MJ career FG% = .497
(confirm at www.nba.com (http://www.nba.com))

Not bad for a ball hog.