I can’t remember which little rabbit hole of link clicking brought me to these highlights of the game Larry Bird decided to drop a triple double using primarily only his left hand, but I enjoyed watching it nonetheless.
And I figured that since we’re still stuck in NBA news void that is August, you might like to watch it as well.
I can’t vouch for this info and really don’t feel like fact-checking it, so take it for what it is, but the guy who posted the video on YouTube included this description.
Celtics came in winning 14 of their last 15 games, despite McHale being injured for 9 of those games. At this point, the game got a little bit too easy and boring for Bird so he decided to challenge himself by finishing EVERY basket with his left hand till the last 6 minutes of the game. He ended up scoring 22 points with his left hand, nearly half his total!
Despite all this, Bird still scored 47 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and dished out 11 assists (21-34 FG). For good measure, he hit the game tying shot to send the game to OT, and then made the game winning shot.
The night before in Seattle he had 35/15/11, so this was his second consecutive triple double in just as many nights. Bird truly in his prime here…
Unfortunately, this year’s NBA Draft day video from the Stephen A. Smith Heckling Society is sort of like the Godfather III of the series — we are all obligated to watch it and, ultimately, it’s not even horrible, but the bar had been set so high by its predecessors that you cannot be anything but disappointed.
Aside from the line that became the title of this post and the line about Rubio, there’s not a lot here.
But, much like Godfather III did for Godfathers I & II, this one does at least remind you that you should go back and re-watch the originals. Another silver lining: No Sofia Coppola.
In other post-Draft news, this happened. You gotta love it when Joe Budden comes off as the articulate one. Now, normally, I would be the first one to kid around about this cause there are some pretty funny lines in there, but since most people are obviously going to be in an uproar about this and take it all seriously and talk about how this represents not only why Brandon Jennings himself is a failure at life but why this whole generation of NBA players has sullied the good name that the NBA had back in the days of Larry & Magic even though Larry Bird likely said stuff that was worse than this about other players every day and Magic cheated on his wife constantly, let’s all just pre-emptively calm down and realize that a throwaway conversation between Brandon Jennings and Joe Budden is really not that serious. He was speaking off the cuff in a laid-back setting and just talking junk as people are wont to do. Is it funny? Certainly. Is it major news? Certainly not.
Meanwhile, it looks like Brandon was incorrect in prognosticating that his new team would re-sign Charlie Villanueva, who was not given a qualifying offer by the Bucks today and has already said his goodbyes to his cheese- and beer-loving fans. Looks like Buddens was spot on that “that bum-a** n****” Luke Ridnour will not be backing up Brandon at the PG this year and, instead, the Bucks will be throwing all their available cash at Ramon Sessions to be the starter…further proving my theory that Joe Budden knows more about the NBA than Stuart Scott.
But I never even knew Larry Legend was Indian. Great, they’re even outsourcing NBA GM jobs these days? But now that I think about it, as a Pacers fan, I believe that might actually be an improved strategy. (from Nah Right via @RussBengston via @Timmhotep)
These two NBA moments need no introduction. Just some stellar, stellar work here. Watch these. Impressive. (via Ball Don’t Lie)
Meanwhie, I really wanna see them do Reggie’s back-to-back threes in Madison Square Garden next. I think that might be the only one from a road game that would work. I mean, look at the crowd in this photo. And that’s not just the Pacer fan in me talking. Seriously, who doesn’t wanna see a bunch of d-bag New Yorkers who spent $1,500 on courtside seats just to have their hearts ripped out suddenly materialize out of thin air?
The ad wizards at Mars, Inc. have a new print spot running during March Madness and, this being the 30th anniversary of Michigan State vs. Indiana State putting the tourney on the map, they dressed up a few M&M characters to look like Larry and Magic.
But instead of using Sycamore baby blue for Larry and Spartan green for Earvin, they opted for the pair’s NBA colors instead. I suppose it’s possible they didn’t wanna confuse people by putting Magic in green when Larry is the iconic Celtic, but it’s probably more likely that the company collectively dropped the ball here.
Either way, M&M Larry has an exquisite haircut and an elegant mustache.
I’m not sure how, but LeBron is still becoming more impressive every day.
It has gotten to the point that if they treated the NBA Top 10 Plays of the Week as a legitimately honest meritocracy, last week probably would have been Brandon Roy’s walk-off overtime three at #1, Derrick Rose dunking on Blur at #2, maybe Flash’s put-back dunk somewhere and then seven LBJ moments of terror.
That block on TJ Ford was absurd and rightly included near the top. And if NBA TV wants to pretend that a Leon Powe routine dunk in transition, a Tyson Chandler alley-oop that happens three times a game and an unguarded Gerald Green tomahawk all aren’t outclassed by something LeBron does every quarter then, fine, it’s understandable to market other players in the League too.
But it’s not a fantasy world I want to participate in.
I watched the entire Cavs/Pacers game and those two-handed thunder dunks folded into his spot on the Top 10 along with the block on TJ, while impressive for their sheer force and explosiveness, weren’t even his own personal highlights that night. Check the impossible running, behind-the-back kick-out at 0:46 here followed by the retarded double-clutch dunk in traffic at 1:10 and the Dr. J-ian up-and-under floating reverse lay-up at 1:23.
Then, look at the unbridled anger and rancid disgust for mankind he shows on this Magic/Shaq-hybrid drive/spin/dunk triumvirate move at 0:58 here against the Bulls. There has really been a more impressive play than that this season? Okay, sure. And if we’re gonna consider the Gerald Green uncontested, solo-dunk to be especially noteworthly, we may as well pay homage to the complete nonsense LeBron unleashes out on the break at 0:23 as well.
His performance in the first act of the home-and-home with the Bulls in the week wasn’t quite the same onslaught, but the no-look, over-the-head toss-in at 1:30 is the type of stuff that had us all jumping off our sofas while watching Come Fly With Me, not to mention the five or six passes a night he makes similar to the one at 1:41 that only he and about four other dudes on the planet are even physically capable of. Similarly, the pass at 0:55 here is Bird-esque and reeks of pure victory.
And all of this took place during four games in the course of one week — all of which were Ws, by the way. Seriously, there are only around ten guys, maybe fifteen, in the whole League who will have a personal highlight reel as impressive as that after even 82 games — let alone in a seven-day span. He’s really that far ahead of the curve.
Between all this stuff, his nightly 41 and all the Oscar Robertson-ian peripherals, t’s really almost reached a time that that you can’t even objectively argue for Kobe being the best player in the League. I’m not sure poppa Jelly Bean even believes it anymore. And as good as CP3 is and as much as I have been and will continue to be driving his bandwagon to Mount High, trying to make the argument for Paul, Duncan, Flash or KG now just seems silly.
Because every time I get hyped on someone else and start to make the mental case to myself that maybe one of those guys is just as good as King James — or, god forbid, better — I witness another fresh round of nightly LeBron absurdity.
The crazy part is that it’s the exact same “Oh…wait, I’m really, really dumb” feeling that I get after watching Larry Bird: A Basketball Legend or one of Legend’s classic games (most notably his 60-point game against the Hawks in New Orleans I saw a few weeks back) and hyping myself up into thinking he was the best player ever, only to subsequently watch MJ’s flu game or any one of his fifteen personal DVDs and realize that Bird couldn’t even hold Money’s jock in a suitcase.
Of course, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’m not even remotely implying anything like that. LeBron’s gonna have to start winning some titles and MVPs before he gets anywhere close to their legacies and certified positions on their All-Time pedestal. Looking at the totality of their careers, he’s also of course still looking very far upward to even see Kobe, Groundhog Day or Diesel.
But, for now at least, he is currently dominating on a physical level that is completely unparalleled — yes, even by Shaq-in-his-prime, Dwight Howard or Amare. And that, in and of itself, makes his quest to eclipse some of those other guys seem not only realistic, but probable.
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