The Day After

You Can't Do These Things By Yourself. You Need Some Help - to kind of quote The Boss.

I'm not going to pretend like I know what I'm writing about but the Cavs elimination shouldn't really come as a surprise. Sure, Cleveland was nasty this past season and throughout the first two rounds of the playoffs but winning a title with only one great player doesn't happen too often. 

Michael Jordan only won titles with Scottie Pippen (and Pippen with Jordan) and help from Dennis Rodman later on. Kobe had Shaq still in his prime. Duncan at first had Robinson, Ginobli, and Parker as well as the help to get the job done. The Celtics had Bird, Parish, McHale and a bunch of great supporting players and the Lakers of the 80's had Magic, Worthy and Kareem. 

Cleveland needs to acquire a true all star because LBJ can't do it all himself. Of course, the fact that they haven't done that yet makes it all the more likely that Cleveland loses its MVP when that contract expires.

I Had A Hard Run...

Recently I began listening to the Grateful Dead again. One of the quirks I got myself into was listening to a run whether it be a grouping of a week of shows or a multi engagement stay at a specific venue. My interest got sparked because the band via Dead.net have been releasing a series of sets, entitled Road Trips which are a best of of certain runs.

Lately, with the NBA Playoffs going on, I've been reminiscing about playoff games from back in the day. Particularly the Knicks-Bulls games from the early to mid nineties. In light of all the foul calls and technicals the refs have been handing down this season, I got to thinking about how intense and muscular those 90's games were. Remember the Knicks were a bunch of heavy hitters. We had Oak, Ewing, X-man, Mason, and Starks to name a few. Not to mention Derek Harper who took no shit from no one. People talk about the Pistons as the Bad Boys but really the Knicks of the mid-90's would've made those guys cry. And Mase would've made Bill L shave the Knicks logo into both sides of his huge head. 

So I got to thinking about how great it would be to track down DVD's of those playoff games. Like with Road Trips, we'd get a Playoff run, or series, of those awesome games where the bodies were knocking and everything was on the line. As far as I can tell it's not possible to buy them from the NBA but how great would it be to settle down with those games and your boys and watch basketball as it was played by some of the all time greats with no referee interference?

Here's Bertha from June 9, 1977 - from the best run the Dead ever had which provided us with the penultimate Cornell show. This Bertha is super slow. It reminds me of those commercials they keep showing where two players are on the court and slowly the rest of the teams and arena fade in. Amazing