The Yankees are off today and are on the west coast (ugh, late games) for the next few days.
Odds and ends: 76ers and Celtics go to a Game 7 in Boston on Saturday night. Like old times. I’m a Celtics fan, but worry about old legs. Truth is, you shut down Rondo, more than likely you are shutting down the Celtics.
I’ve never been a fan of the Philly media. Let’s face it. I can’t stand them. They play the 1982 Game 7 victory over Boston (played in Boston) to death. (Maybe that’s because, after blowing a 3-1 lead in that series, they actually WON Game 7. They blew 3-1 series leads to Boston in 1968 and 1981). The thing is, yes, that 1982 team won Game 7 and advanced to the NBA Finals, but wouldn’t it mean more if they had won it all? They seem to forget that the Lakers beat the 76ers for the title that year. It’s like Carlton Fisk’s HR in Game 6 of the 1975 WS. You forget that the Red Sox LOST Game 7.
Revisionist history, anyone?
Not only that, but they put up the years that there was a Game 7 between the Celtics and 76ers. Some games were memorable. For Boston, the 1965 “Havlicek Stole the Ball!” game. 1968 when Wilt hardly shot in the second half. 1981, and that was a one-point game. For Philadelphia, 1977 when Lloyd (World B.) Free had a big game. It was basically Havlicek’s last hurrah, and the same goes for Dave Cowens, Jo Jo White, etc. The Celtics went south, only to be revived by Bird, McHale, Parish and company a few years later. 1982, when Andrew Toney was the “Boston Strangler.”
But they listed 1959. In 1959 they weren’t the Philadelphia 76ers. They were the Syracuse Nationals. The Philadelphia team that year was the Philadelphia WARRIORS, later the San Francisco and now the Golden State Warriors. The first year Philadelphia had the 76ers was 1963-1964, after Syracuse moved. In 1959, the Celtics beat the Nationals in Game 7.
The thing is, if they wanted to talk franchise history, fine. But nowhere on the screen was there an asterisk or note stating that in 1959, they weren’t the 76ers and weren’t in Philadelphia. They were in Syracuse and the Nationals.
It’s like plagiarizing, in a way. Franchise history, but seemingly taking credit for something not truly yours. Sigh.
Interesting in the NHL. I don’t follow hockey much, but the Los Angeles Kings await the Eastern Conference winner (NJ leads the NY Rangers 3 games to two) to play for the Stanley Cup. The Kings? #8 seed in the Western Conference. On their way to the finals, they beat the top two seeds from the West. Talk about Cinderella, and who’d have thought right now that the Kings would still be playing while the Lakers & Clippers wouldn’t be? Then again, who’d have thought Donnie Baseball’s Dodgers would be better than Pujols and Wilson’s Angels?
