25-Years Ago - Larry Bird Retires

On this day in 1992 the Larry Bird era officially comes to an end as Larry Legend announces his retirement after winning a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics as a member of the first (and in my opinion only) Dream Team.

In Boston the number 33 makes you think of just one person - Larry Bird. In the mid 1980's if you asked the average Bostonian about Bird the reply was likely to be, "Larry Bird is a God." Bird was a player whose greatness could not be expressed or understood by simply looking at his numbers. I've heard a number of people compare Dirk Nowitzki to Larry Bird because Nowitzki's points per game and rebounds per game were similar. Just looking at the numbers just doesn't tell the story of how important and how great some players are. As great as Dirk Nowitzki was he just wasn't close to Larry Bird in greatness. Maybe 2 or 3 players in NBA history can legitimately be compared to Larry Legend.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Netflix keeping Doctor Who, Luther and other BBC series. Good news. However Fawlty Towers, Blackadder and others will no longer be available after February 1st. Plan your viewing accordingly.

- How can you not like Dirk Nowitzki?

- Took me a second

- Pets with diplomas. Funny and depressing (because some of these animals have better degrees than I do)

- Actual climate change pronouncements over the years

- Heh heh

- Interesting look at Ed O'Neill and Jiu-Jitsu

Congratulations Mavericks

I can't recall the last time I became emotionally invested in a team like the Dallas Mavericks that I really had no connection to. In Boston there's an old saying, "My favorite teams are the Red Sox and whoever is playing the Yankees." In the NBA world it seems to have become "I root for the Celtics and whoever is playing the Miami Heat."

If we are honest it is really true that people who are saying they are happy for Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks are for the most part are saying that they are happy that LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and the Heat lost.

The Heat were the epitome of hubris. They celebrated more before the season then what the Mavericks did when they actually won the championship. As much as the Mavericks won - the Heat choked. LeBron James just did not show up and Erik Spoelstra was just thoroughly out-coached. It was so bad that I don't think anyone would blink an eye if the Mavericks voted playoff shares to James and Spoelstra for the big role they played in Dallas winning. I have to wonder if maybe LeBron and D-Wade weren't making fun of Dirk's cough the other day. Maybe they were actually coming down with a little tickle that turned into full-blown choking tonight?

Now the fun part comes. The Heat don't just get to wallow in losing. They get to be punchlines. Two of the better ones I saw on Twitter:

@CoreyKeyz: Why didn't LeBron go to college?....Because he didn't want to show up for the Finals

@DrewFromTV: What's the difference between the Miami #Heat and a porn star? A porn star doesn't choke on the big ones!

One pet peeve of mine is those stupid hats an T-shirts that appear as soon as the last second comes off the clock. You can imagine how welcome the spam email from the NBA at 11:03 PM with Mavericks championship apparel was when I saw it show up in my inbox. Kudos to Rick Carlisle for not putting on one of those stupid T-shirts or hats when he was up on stage accepting the trophy.

Red Sox Magic Number - 98

The Red Sox dismantled the Blue Jays 16-4 yesterday giving even John Lackey enough run support and reducing their Magic Number to 98. What do you think about when you hear the number 98? Windows 98? The average body temperature of a human (98 degrees)? When I hear 98 - I think of one of my favorite Red Sox teams - the 1998 team.

That 1998 team had a 1-2 offensive punch of a 24-year old Nomar Garciaparra and a 30-year old Mo Vaughn. That duo combined for a blistering 75 HR and 237 RBI. The pitching was anchored by Pedro Martinez who was in the middle of a period of dominance that baseball has not known before or since. Starters Pedro, Tim Wakefield and Brett Saberhagen combined to go a 51-23 with Tom Gordon having his masterpiece career year as closer leading the AL with 46 saves. This was a very likable team that included Dennis Eckersley in his lash hurrah coming "home" for one final season as a set-up man and newcomers Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek in town for their first full season after being traded to Boston from Seattle.

That 1998 team had two fatal flaws however. 1998 also happened to be the year the Yankees fielded perhaps their best team of my lifetime. They won 114 games and swept the Padres in the World Series. The second fatal flaw for that 98 Red Sox team was the fact they had Jimy Williams as manager.

Oh by the way - that picture above is of Dirk Nowitzki's 1998 rookie trading card. I hope that's an omen for a Mavericks win tonight. Like most of the country - I can't stand the Miami Heat. It is rumored that LeBron James has become so loathed that James Dolan is considering him for an executive position with the New York Knicks.

Celtics Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous Boston Celtics thoughts and observations.

Did you realize that the Boston Celtics are 12-0 against teams from the Western Conference? Playing the tough Western Conference teams was supposed to be their Achilles heel... Lies, damn lies and statistics. Al Jefferson of the Timberwolves is actually posting better numbers than the man for whom he was traded - Kevin Garnett. Jefferson is averaging 20.8 points and 12.1 rebounds per game while Garnett is putting up 19.5 and 9.8 numbers. I doubt you would find a single basketball writer willing to say for the record that Jefferson is better than Garnett. It should be obvious to anyone that Garnett is better than Jefferson (not to say that Jefferson won't mature into a great player like Garnett)... The Patriots would go 19-0 if they won the Super Bowl. If I ran a casino I would have a prop bet that would couple the Pats perfect record with the Celtics perfect record again Western Conference foes. The Pats would be the first half of the parlay and the Celtics going 13-0, 14-0 and so on all the way up to 19-0 against the West would be the second half of the parlay. The first games would be even money but if you bet both the Celtics and Patriots going 19-0 then the odds would be 1,000 to 1... I bring up the Al Jefferson and Kevin Garnett comparison because some people seem to think that Dirk Nowitzki is the equal of Larry Bird just because the numbers are similar. It really bugs me when I hear that comparison because not only does Bird have better numbers in points, rebounds and assists - Larry Bird won things - like NBA Championships.