Retiring the Lakers

I really hate the Lakers. I hate Phil Jackson, I especially hate Kobe for getting acquitted of rape. I hate the Lakers. I think I just hate L.A. in general. I've been there once. Flew in from San Diego, did a business meeting, and flew out that very afternoon (which in and of itself seemed a very L.A. thing to do.). Maybe I should give the city another chance. I've read Sandra Tsing Loh and if anybody that cool and funny lives and loves L.A. like she does, then maybe I should give it a chance. But I still hate the Lakers.

And I especially hate that the Lakers got Kareem for the second half of his career. But, at least he led the Bucks to their only championship, and yes, he is one of the greatest players of all time, (not to mention the classiest) and, really, did we have to wait until NOW to retire his number? I guess. It fits in nicely with the whole 40th Annerversary year stuff. Jon McGlocklin was there, almost teary eye, and Nobody's Senator But Yours classily presented him with a Milwaukee Bucks jersey in current team colors. The montage of historical clips made me long for the days of short shorts, tho.

And it was really delicious to see the Bucks not only give L.A. a good game all the way through, although L.A. might have been cocky too early. The Lakers led (not dominated, but comfortably led) most of the first half -- Bucks squeezed in a two second lead near the end of the first half but LA sunk one to lead when the buzzer went off -- but neither team --- especially the Bucks were shooting for crap. But they moved. And I'm going to take back what I said about Bogut -- the man is hustling now on defense.

Yi. I like him. Supposedly his folks were here tonight, as guests of the Senator, but I didn't see them, and with all the Kareem stuff going on, they were fairly inconspicous. But the guy really hustles and he really digs in there for defense. He's young, needs some polish, but I'm going to disagree with his manager and suggest the perhaps Milwaukee is the perfect team for him to hone his skills with. He's getting lots of court time, and you can see improvement with every game.

By halftime, the Bucks and the fans are believing they're going to win this. Larry the K is actually jumping around like a fan himself when, with 8 minutes in the game left, the Bucks take back the lead and never let it go. By the end, with maybe 20 seconds left, they're ahead by some six points and Phil Jackson is dragging it out, using every time out they've got let, only to give the Bucks a chance to improve on their miserable free throw percentages tonight. We ended up leaving, satisfied.

Anthem this evening: a lovely girl named Karn Orner, who sang it like a sweet lullaby. Orner has one of those voices that if she'd had an Irish brougue accent, would be perfect for one of those "The Relaxing Magic of Celtic Fairy Music" CDs you buy for the kids to chill them out. Nice voice, unpretentious delivery, though it's like listening to "when the bough breaks the cradle will fall." I mean, you have this beautiful voice and lilting delivery, and its a battle song! Cub Scout Pack 72 presented the colors.

Funny side note about pre-game introductions: first they introduce the Lakers. Obnoxious Lakers fans sitting by us were annoying all game, but didn't indicate how ridiculous they'd get (near the end, they're calling Bogut a "homo" when he fouled out -- little do they not realize that even if he was gay, a) that's not an insult you ignorant homophobic pricks and b) in the process of fouling out, Bogut knocked the wind out of L.A. you ignorant homophobic pricks.) Anyway, Before introducing the Bucks, our announcer goes, "And now to introduce this evening's entertainment ..." (pause) (and Brian and I are both thinking, "Wow, while true, that's an odd way to introduce the home team") "Meet Bango, the Rim Rockers and Energee!" Then they bring out the home team. OK. That's better. And no more flash pots, thank God. We're theorizing that the dust from them might have been messing up the floor.

Looks like they're easing Andrea Williams back in, let's hope so. She walked past us with T-Shirt Guy and brought him upstairs. He turned out to be the "Extreme Fan of the Game." Heck, he's the Extreme Fan of the Season! He doesn't wear green paint on his face or anything, but he does go through the trouble to come up with a different T-Shirt every single game. I wonder what he does with all of them.

Oh, and if you have nowhere to go for thanksgiving today, since the Bucks won with 100 points, you can pick up a Quarter Pounder With Cheese today (the promo says the ticket's good for the next day) with your Bucks ticket stub. Nothing says "Thank You for the American Bounty" like a Royale with Cheese, eh?

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