Red Mosquito

The Air Jordan 11 Bred is the greatest basketball shoe of all time.

That Kemp shoe is the Kamikaze 2. I don't know what he wore during the season but in the finals he had an all white shoe on. Very disappointing considering his play during the 6 game Finals run would end up being the crowning achievement of his career. How much better would the dunks on Pippen and Rodman (who he tebagged for 10 seconds) look with the Kamikaze popping on his feet?

For the record the Kamikaze 1 was a cooler, more zebra looking shoe, which I owned and rocked proudly.

On to game 3 in Utah after finishing game 2. Interesting ending to game 2. It was a 10/12 point game for the final four minutes or so and Jordan had 9 assists. The entire focus seemed to be "would he get the triple double"? In today's game that scoreline could flip with some threes very quickly.

Watching Howard Eisley bust Kerr's ass repeatedly is hilarious.

The Jazz are so....white:

Stockton
Ostertag
Hornacek
Foster
Keefe

And the prize, Karl Malone, is very much black but also a semi driving, statutory raping NRA board member so he fits right in.

4/5 wrote:Inspired by verb I watched game 1 Sonics/Bulls. Random thoughts I can add:
Marv Albert was fantastically savage. At one point Marv mentioned how Phil Jackson keeps referring to the Sonics defense as a zone in hopes of getting some illegal defense calls. Matt Guokas chimes in with a "I thought he was calling it a 'zen' defense." Marv: "Very good. Matt working on that for several days."

What ever happened to Guokas? Did he just disappear after NBC lost the NBA broadcast rights?

Oh shit, the Kamikazes. I had those!

Starting Game 4. Regulators! Mount up!!

Just realized that there is a big arena battle going in in this series too: Delta Center vs United Center. Only one airline can survive!!

4/5 wrote:Inspired by verb I watched game 1 Sonics/Bulls. Random thoughts I can add:
Marv Albert was fantastically savage. At one point Marv mentioned how Phil Jackson keeps referring to the Sonics defense as a zone in hopes of getting some illegal defense calls. Matt Guokas chimes in with a "I thought he was calling it a 'zen' defense." Marv: "Very good. Matt working on that for several days."

Bill Walton was extremely critical of players. Definitely don't hear national TV color commentary like that very much these days.

At one point Marv told mentioned the 1979 Finals which feels like an eternity ago, but I realized that's really the equivalent of a commentator today mentioning the 2003 finals, and now I feel old.

Shoe game report, both Jordan and Pippen earn an A+ in this one. I'll give a slot edge to Pippen in this one, but both are timeless.


And here were Shawn Kemp's. Another classic.

This is a tasty post

I'm through the flu game now. Nothing much needs to be said about it. Jordan was an incredible competitor.

Rodman has not made an impact so far during the 97 Finals. Hes got 2 points in the last three games and has not had many of those back breaker offensive boards. He was a huge factor in 96 for those alone. The broadcast team all seem sure that he's gone after the season and are dancing in his grave, but we all know he's back in 98 for the final run.

All the NBA players testing positive for COVID19 don't seem to be symptomatic. Marcus Smart seems fine. Spida was fine. The two Lakers are probably going to be fine. Being young and athletic apparently helps.

I'll be starting the 98 Finals this weekend.

verb_to_trust wrote:All the NBA players testing positive for COVID19 don't seem to be symptomatic. Marcus Smart seems fine. Spida was fine. The two Lakers are probably going to be fine. Being young and athletic apparently helps.

Thank you, news reporter from December 2019

Bammer wrote:

verb_to_trust wrote:All the NBA players testing positive for COVID19 don't seem to be symptomatic. Marcus Smart seems fine. Spida was fine. The two Lakers are probably going to be fine. Being young and athletic apparently helps.

Thank you, news reporter from December 2019

Fuck you Bam I'm not trying to offer revelations

I watched the first two games from the '96 series, moved on to Game 1 '97. I needed a classic. Verb, is there a '96 game I should go back for?

Random thoughts watching these three games:
That Bulls defense was REAL.
Kawhi reminds me so much of Pippen.
Speaking of Pippen, what a heroic performance in game 1 against the Jazz.
Soooooo many whistles. It might be the type of fouls rather than the volume. A ton of offensive fouls, illegal defenses, 3 second violations, and a lot of non-shooting fouls.
A couple pretty ticky-tacky flagrants in the Sonics games.
Most jumpers, even threes, are pretty line drive. Seems like guys today have a lot more arc on their shot.
Game 1 '97, I went to a Marlins game that afternoon and only saw the 4th quarter when I got home.
I remember hating Bill Walton, but he's so critical and so quick to point out technique issues that I'm actually kind of enjoying him this time around.

Shoe report:
With all due respect the 11s (and those are legendary) my personal favorite has always been the Playoff 12s. A classic shoe for a classic MJ shot.

And Pippen rocking the Air Pippen 1's. (I got these in white at some point during the next school year when they were old and discounted.)

I would say the whole point of watching the 96 Bulls is just to witness them at their absolute highest power. Remember, before they let up against the Sonics they had only lost one fluke game to the Knicks. The Jazz games have all the drama. Hell, I'm thinking the 98 ECF might be a more competitive watch than the 96 Finals because you know the peak greatness comes before. Who knows what would have happened in 99 if they stayed together. It was a shortened season but the Spurs front line would have been a problem. The east still lacked a real clear cut favorite though and Ewing was banged up.

Starting in 2000 there is no longer a remaining argument for the Bulls dynasty. They would have been too old. No chance.

verb_to_trust wrote:I would say the whole point of watching the 96 Bulls is just to witness them at their absolute highest power. Remember, before they let up against the Sonics they had only lost one fluke game to the Knicks. The Jazz games have all the drama. Hell, I'm thinking the 98 ECF might be a more competitive watch than the 96 Finals because you know the peak greatness comes before.

True. The first two games just weren't very compelling. Even if they were relatively close it was obvious who the better team was. Shawn Kemp showed a lot of heart, though.

The '98 ECF was an incredible series. It's the closest anybody came to knocking the Bulls off during their run. Side note: when you think of Rik Smits, what's the nickname you associate with him?

I'll come up with a Smits nickname during my rewatch. I want it to be organic.

verb_to_trust wrote:I'll come up with a Smits nickname during my rewatch. I want it to be organic.

Looking forward to it, but I mean what was his actual nickname? (Basically my friend and I disagreed, we each had a different version of the nickname and thought the other person was insane. We ended up googling it and found both. Just curious what other people remember his nickname being.)

The early to mid 2000s had some clunkers for Finals match ups.