While part of me is disappointed that the last remnants of my fantasy team didn’t make it to the Finals (Ginobili, Tay Prince and Rip), I can still take pleasure in watching the max alien intensity of Garnett/Cassell for an entire series.
Garnett took off at the half-court line to save this ball, which was immediately followed by a Cassell jumper. I don’t think the over-and-back rule is like the sideline/receiver rule in the NFL (where you become ineligible if you willingly set foot out of bounds), but still an impressive heads-up play.
Pierce after receiving a catfight scratch from Odom
“Everything looks good down there”
This wasn’t a foul, but Gasol had a similar call go against him at the beginning of the game.
Gasol had no chance.
Gasol owned
I was thinking after the announcers expectedly mentioned the play as ‘posterizing.’ How many of these awesome dunks actually end up being made as posters? If I were at the arena when such a dunk occurred, I would absolutely purchase the poster on my way out if one were available. I’m sure the NBA would be capable of finding a printer that can do large-volume work in short notice.
The rest of these were capped from a Hancock commercial tie-in shortly after the fourtch quarter began. “Heroes of the Game” indeed:
Pierce
I wonder if camera height on the hoop post is determined by some photographer hierarchy, or if it’s just first-come first-serve.
Initially I hadn’t set up my PC to record the game, but then when I saw this at halftime (there’s a trophy logo on the foam that Garnett sized up moments before butting heads) I was like ‘Fuck, this is why I bought a tuner card in the first place!” And then I had to move some data to a external drive since I still had 100GB of Bulls losses games that I wasn’t motivated to do anything with, but I didn’t want to delete since I’m sure there were some Ty Thomas or Larry Hughes moments I wanted to preserve. As it is, I was only able to capture the last ten or so minutes of the game, but luckily enough to have the Hancock guys give me a second chance at this.
Garnett pleased with this week’s burnt offerings.
Kobe Face 2008? (link to original below)
All in all, a satisfying Boston victory. Kobe is the only Laker I tolerate, and only because of, in the following order:
1. The adidas Kobe I. There was a dope colorway that was like the white ones but instead of the gray/black trim it was a light or carolina blue.
EDIT: Initially I had the Kobe IIs linked there, but I’m pretty sure (but still not 100%) now it was the first ones. When they came out I think I the SLIIs were my then-most-expensive shoe purchase at $60 or $70 and paying $125 for shoes was absolutely out of the question for me/family who would fund it. Especially since all the gym shoes I had gotten since the Converse KJs with REACT juice for my 11th birthday up until that point were hand-me-downs from by older brother. But damn if I didn’t dream with the Eastbay catalog in hand.
EDIT 1.5: Now looking at the IIs from this angle I’m not as certain. The first ones do look a tad better in my current opinion.
EDIT2: Damn it’s hard to find anything on the SLIIs online. An archival of a Foot Locker banner and an abandoned page is all I could find. (Photo yanked from the latter)
But damn this is one fine shoe. I think I was working by the time the SLIIIs came out so I was able to cop those shortly after release, but they were longer/narrower and replaced the soft leather with some sort of polyurethane upper. Thumbs down on that one.
EDIT3: Note for later to myself, as I’m still modifying this post three hours later: A good post idea/project would be to create a photographic timeline of shoes I’ve worn. I think I intermittently started taking pictures of my new shoes shortly after getting my first digital camera in 2002. Ok that’s the last edit. Now I sleep.
2. His PS1 AF1 reaction. Back when I was shoe-crazy and before fantasy sports brought back my interest in the NBA, Kei found this link and Kobe became my favorite NBA player.
3. The Nike Zoom Kobe I. I ended up getting the Flint-Gray/White/University Blue ones for $30. Man, Nike was a great company to work for. Haven’t had a chance to break them in as I’m still working on a pair of Pippen IIs. But yeah, this shoe is probably my favorite non-retro Nike basketball shoe of the last several years.
Back to the game, it was interesting to see that three guys that were supposed to end up being traded to the Bulls in the last two years in the Finals, but perhaps Rose or Beasley will turn out to be a beast and not end up like their last #1, Elton Brand>Tyson Chandler>Ben Wallace>Larry Hughes’ slightly less horrifying contract. Also I don’t know what was up with the Lakers not fouling down eight with a minute left.
One last thing from the game:
Garnett=Always Watching