"Now there's a steal by Bird..."
I can’t believe what’s on TV right now. ESPN Classic is showing game five of the 1987 NBA Eastern Conference Finals. Detroit’s playing Boston in the old, hot, hallowed ground of the Boston Garden. It was played 20 years ago today.
For those of you who don’t know the significance, it’s the game where Larry Bird made one of the most clutch plays in the history of the NBA. The Celtics trailed by one point with five seconds left in the game, and the Pistons were poised to inbound after the ball was knocked out on their end of the court. Bird stole the inbound pass from Isiah Thomas, and fed the ball to a streaking Denis “DJ” Johnson, who laid it in to put the Celtics one point up with one second left.
Here’s the footage of the play I know and love (albeit, very shitty, YouTube, quality, and it looks like someone sped up the tape), along with the classic call from Johnny Most. ESPN Classic is showing the TBS telecast of the game, which I’ve never seen. The thing I like about the Johnny Most footage (probably from SportsChannel) is it shows the frenzy of the Garden after the play, even the people kissing at the bottom of the second tier.
Usually I don’t watch “classic” games. Why watch a game from 20 years ago, especially when you know how it ends? There are exceptions, though, like games I remember watching as a kid — it’s like connecting with my long lost innocence and youth, and gives me the chance to compare my memory with the real imagery — and games I’ve never seen the famous footage of — like the Iowa-Michigan football game from 1985, when Rob Houghton kicked the game winning field goal as time expired.
The truth is I don’t know why I’m watching this game. I’ve seen the play hundreds of times, and I even have it on tape (it’s featured on “NBA Awesome Endings,” which I got on my 11th birthday). It’s a lazy, easy going, Saturday morning, and I have nothing else to do and nothing I want to do. But it’s made me smile in a few ways.
Obviously, everyone in the game is now 20 years older, less fit, and has a different job. Among the big names: Bird is the president of basketball operations for the Pacers, Thomas is the head coach of the Knicks (he’s considered the worst coach in the League), Danny Ainge is the Celtic’s executive director (he’s considered the worst exec in the NBA), and Bill Laimbeer is a head coach in the WNBA. Both Johnny Most and Denis “DJ” Johnson are dead, the Boston Garden was demolished in 1998, and Day-Glo went out of style in the waning years of the ‘80s.
But some things haven’t changed. Doug Collins is still a basketball analyst, Bill Walton is still perpetually stoned, and my sister is still loud (she was just a month old when the game was played).
Time keeps slipping into the future. Things change and it sometimes sucks. The “golden era” of the NBA has passed, the great players of the ‘80s and early-‘90s developed bad backs and retired, and many of the holy cathedrals of basketball have been razed. But sometimes change doesn’t suck. At the time of the game I was four and a half years old, growing up on the southside of Iowa City, trying to figure out how to be a good big brother (I wanted my parents to rename my sister Sunshine, because I thought she was so precious). Now, as the game is being rebroadcast, I’m 24 and a half, living in sunny California, and am just beginning to establish myself as a writer.
Hold on for a second. Here’s the play…
You know, watching it just now, and seeing how it unfolded “live,” I didn’t feel the built-up excitement from “NBA Awesome Endings” (you know something’s going to happen). The play happened quickly, almost too quick for me to react. In the blink of an eye the fortunes of the game changed. Of course, it wasn’t the same without Johnny Most’s call, but it was still cool to see.
For those of you who don’t know the significance, it’s the game where Larry Bird made one of the most clutch plays in the history of the NBA. The Celtics trailed by one point with five seconds left in the game, and the Pistons were poised to inbound after the ball was knocked out on their end of the court. Bird stole the inbound pass from Isiah Thomas, and fed the ball to a streaking Denis “DJ” Johnson, who laid it in to put the Celtics one point up with one second left.
Here’s the footage of the play I know and love (albeit, very shitty, YouTube, quality, and it looks like someone sped up the tape), along with the classic call from Johnny Most. ESPN Classic is showing the TBS telecast of the game, which I’ve never seen. The thing I like about the Johnny Most footage (probably from SportsChannel) is it shows the frenzy of the Garden after the play, even the people kissing at the bottom of the second tier.
Usually I don’t watch “classic” games. Why watch a game from 20 years ago, especially when you know how it ends? There are exceptions, though, like games I remember watching as a kid — it’s like connecting with my long lost innocence and youth, and gives me the chance to compare my memory with the real imagery — and games I’ve never seen the famous footage of — like the Iowa-Michigan football game from 1985, when Rob Houghton kicked the game winning field goal as time expired.
The truth is I don’t know why I’m watching this game. I’ve seen the play hundreds of times, and I even have it on tape (it’s featured on “NBA Awesome Endings,” which I got on my 11th birthday). It’s a lazy, easy going, Saturday morning, and I have nothing else to do and nothing I want to do. But it’s made me smile in a few ways.
Obviously, everyone in the game is now 20 years older, less fit, and has a different job. Among the big names: Bird is the president of basketball operations for the Pacers, Thomas is the head coach of the Knicks (he’s considered the worst coach in the League), Danny Ainge is the Celtic’s executive director (he’s considered the worst exec in the NBA), and Bill Laimbeer is a head coach in the WNBA. Both Johnny Most and Denis “DJ” Johnson are dead, the Boston Garden was demolished in 1998, and Day-Glo went out of style in the waning years of the ‘80s.
But some things haven’t changed. Doug Collins is still a basketball analyst, Bill Walton is still perpetually stoned, and my sister is still loud (she was just a month old when the game was played).
Time keeps slipping into the future. Things change and it sometimes sucks. The “golden era” of the NBA has passed, the great players of the ‘80s and early-‘90s developed bad backs and retired, and many of the holy cathedrals of basketball have been razed. But sometimes change doesn’t suck. At the time of the game I was four and a half years old, growing up on the southside of Iowa City, trying to figure out how to be a good big brother (I wanted my parents to rename my sister Sunshine, because I thought she was so precious). Now, as the game is being rebroadcast, I’m 24 and a half, living in sunny California, and am just beginning to establish myself as a writer.
Hold on for a second. Here’s the play…
You know, watching it just now, and seeing how it unfolded “live,” I didn’t feel the built-up excitement from “NBA Awesome Endings” (you know something’s going to happen). The play happened quickly, almost too quick for me to react. In the blink of an eye the fortunes of the game changed. Of course, it wasn’t the same without Johnny Most’s call, but it was still cool to see.
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