A trip down memory lane, compliments of the NBA finals
Submitted by jcht2010 on
By Lisa Shapiro,
Staff Writer
I don’t normally watch the NBA, but this year the Spurs gave me an excuse to actually watch it.
I haven’t gotten excited about basketball since the 90s. With the talent of stars Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and less known players Danny Green and Gary Neal makes the game exciting again. Especially, playing against defending champions Miami Heat who has gotten so much hype through the last couple of years.
Let’s face it folks, LeBron James is no Michael Jordan. He only has one championship ring and isn’t getting any younger. Jordan has six championship rings, was named NBA Finals Most Valuable Player six times and NBA Most Valuable Player five times. It’s ridiculous how highly people think of James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. They don’t have anything to brag about or to compare. To think that James would compare himself with Jordan is laughable.
There have been a number of NBA players, including Los Angeles Laker star Kobe Bryant, claiming they were better than Michael Jordan. Many of today’s stars said if they made up a team they could beat the 1992 United States men’s Olympic basketball team aka Dream Team. That’s complete nonsense.
Many of today’s NBA stars are very egotistical, all-knowing and aren’t nearly as entertaining as past stars.
During the glory years of NBA when a number of NBA Hall of Famers played basketball, my eyes were glued to the television set. Thanks to Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, David Robinson and others, basketball was cool during the late 80s and all throughout the 90s. They had charisma, tremendous talent and extreme athleticism.
There was never a dull moment when watching intense match-ups in between famous rivals such as the Chicago Bulls against the Boston Celtics. It was an amazing display of talent vs. talent in each of the games. Everyone wanted to see what Larry Bird or Michael Jordan would do in each match up.
Jordan was so good that I didn’t know a single person who didn’t like him. The man was everywhere. He was on cereal boxes, commercials, music videos and movies. I remember when Nike first brought out Air Jordans and how much of a frenzy it started. Almost everyone had to have Air Jordans and wanted to play just like Michael Jordan.
I played basketball constantly during my younger days. It was the only sport my family would play together. We loved to play the basketball game H-O-R-S-E. We would take it to the extreme by coming up with all kinds of crazy shots, such as shooting the ball above the telephone wire, backwards, bounce it off the wall then shoot it and with our eyes closed.
I actually got into the NBA enough to purchase and collect basketball cards. My brother and I spent a lot of time opening up packages of basketball cards to see who got what. I learned just about every basketball player’s names and I knew what the players strengths and weaknesses were.
Watching the Spurs play the Heat takes me down memory lane. Each game in this year’s NBA Finals has been exciting and unpredictable as it was in the past. Go Spurs, Go!
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