I never thought the 1987 NBA All-Star Game could be topped. On its 20th anniversary, my retroactive running diary included this paragraph:
"For the love of God, LOOK at those lineups again. You had Magic and Bird in their absolute primes. You had MJ during the season when he won the dunk contest, averaged 37 a game and put himself on the map as The Next Great Guy. You had Barkley and Hakeem in their breakout seasons.
PG: Rose versus Paul (battle for the point guard title)
SG: Wade versus Kobe (battle for "Best 2-Guard" status)
SF: LeBron versus Melo ('03 draft retro-rivalry)
PF: Garnett versus Durant (old school versus new school)
C: Howard versus Duncan (new school versus old school)
That's a monster crunch time, my friends. Just for kicks, here was 1987's crunch time:
PG: Isiah versus Magic
SG: Jordan versus Blackman
SF: Bird versus Worthy
PF: McHale versus Chambers
C: Moses versus Hakeem
Let's be honest: Tom Chambers and Rolando Blackman would be fetching water for any of this season's crunch-timers.
So yeah, 2011 has a chance to "approach" 1987. We'll see whether it happens. But with a calamitous lockout looming, it looks like we're going out with a bang: great regular season, great playoffs, great All-Star Game.
Call it a Viking funeral.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/110120&sportCat=nba
"For the love of God, LOOK at those lineups again. You had Magic and Bird in their absolute primes. You had MJ during the season when he won the dunk contest, averaged 37 a game and put himself on the map as The Next Great Guy. You had Barkley and Hakeem in their breakout seasons.
PG: Rose versus Paul (battle for the point guard title)
SG: Wade versus Kobe (battle for "Best 2-Guard" status)
SF: LeBron versus Melo ('03 draft retro-rivalry)
PF: Garnett versus Durant (old school versus new school)
C: Howard versus Duncan (new school versus old school)
That's a monster crunch time, my friends. Just for kicks, here was 1987's crunch time:
PG: Isiah versus Magic
SG: Jordan versus Blackman
SF: Bird versus Worthy
PF: McHale versus Chambers
C: Moses versus Hakeem
Let's be honest: Tom Chambers and Rolando Blackman would be fetching water for any of this season's crunch-timers.
So yeah, 2011 has a chance to "approach" 1987. We'll see whether it happens. But with a calamitous lockout looming, it looks like we're going out with a bang: great regular season, great playoffs, great All-Star Game.
Call it a Viking funeral.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/110120&sportCat=nba
