Do a Little Paintng
Really, I had no idea the decade was ending. Perhaps that's because, like most people with brains, I subscribe to the notion that decades are a fairly useless way of demarcating stretches of time and tend to get in the way of defining epochs. Except when it comes to the NBA, where history splits itself up into ten year chunks. More on that when the book comes out. So it's only natural, like the hair on my arms, that my personal favorite sports moment of the decade is the 2000's at their fulcrum: T-Mac/Bron on Xmas 2003.
Also, Ty Keenan busts loose with an exciting, sad, and definitive BELIEVE reminiscence.
Labels: lebron james, links, magic, tracy mcgrady, warriors
posted by Bethlehem Shoals @ 12/28/2009 08:11:00 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Both great posts.
Obviously as a Warriors fan I'm partial to We Believe run as the biggest "moment" of the decade...
Just to further combat the presentism of many of these lists, a few other moments that I haven't seen mentioned as much:
1. The 2001 Sixers NBA Finals run, stealing Game 1 in LA, Iverson stepping over Lue in overtime. The entire Brown-Iverson tension, the idea that a high usage/low efficiency player could win with a team built entirely around him, and oh yeah 48 points... against the Lakers who everyone assumed would win. It was maybe not as shocking a Finals as the Pistons dominating the Lakers later in the decade, but was the pinnacle of Iverson's career in more ways than one.
2. Kings-Lakers 2000: How different would the entire NBA landscape have been over the decade if Horry misses that three...or Divac knocks it somewhere else? One could argue that a very good Kings team never recovered from that and it catalyzed a 3 yr run at the top for the Lakers...easily one of the most exciting series of the decade.
3. Doc Rivers' Heart and Hustle Magic in 1999-2000: That pre-McGrady team was supposed to go nowhere and the fact that they narrowly missed the playoffs on the final day of the reg season (I think?) was magical. If nothing else, the team was refreshing during a time in which people were down on NBA basketball (for good reason), sick of watching millionaire primadonas who didn't seem to care about the game. It's hard to think of a team in this decade that's played with that much heart...
The lengthy, gut-wrenching ordeal of the Charlotte Hornets, formerly hosts of sellouts and devoted fans--with a fun history of watching Kurt Rambis, Kelly Tripucka, Dell Curry, Muggsy, LJ, Kendall Gill, Zo, Ricky Davis, Baron, et al, who also opened their doors for young locals at trick or treat time--leaving town is my moment of the decade. The NBA has returned to some ungrateful fans here, but there are still a few ardent Bobcats/BETcats supporters. MJ's back in NC now. We're still waiting for his excellence to trickle down to our new team.
Q McCall, it was the Portland-Lakers series in 2000 (also involving lots of LAL luck) that "catalyzed a 3 yr run at the top" for the blue and gold gentlemen. The Sac series was 2002. Sacramento was probably the best team in the league in each of 2002, 2003, and 2004, but they never figured out how to finish. Perhaps they didn't deserve a title.
My favorite moment is still McGrady's 13 points in 35 seconds in December 2004, followed closely by Robert Horry's flying dunk in game 5 of the 2005 Finals.
the oscillations on this website used to scare the heck out of me. I will say that for all the corporate takeovers that went down in this decade, on and off the floor, there was an incredible white flame in the Holy Sacrament of Central California in Lawrence Funderburke and co.'s Kings squads. Ziller is the Pynchon of this basketball decade, like it or not we're all singing his silly songs.
Hate to distract the "decade" talk, so I'll try not to overwrite; During "The Hurt Locker," I spent an admittedly gross chunk of time drawing parallels between the movie's protagonist, Ssgt. William James, and Chris Ballard's portrayal of Kobe in "Art of a Beautiful Game," and have dizzied my wine drunk self with the correlation. The ruthless swagger, glory complex, and seemingly blind eye to teammates are all fucking there. Throw in the audience's inability to relate to the mega-talented hero on a personal, human basis, and the parallel hits even harder. Ssgt. James, like Kobe, doesn't even seem human (ironic allusion to LeBron, who, like Kobe, also elevates himself beyond "human means", but instead athletically, rather than psychologically). And if so, does our inability to understand these characters enhance or discourage our respect and admiration for them? Anyways Shoals, I'm just throwing this out there to see if you'll bite on the topic and drop some knowledge on us kids. If so inclined, feel free to make it your own. I'd love to hear your take on it.
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