Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
My mind has moved all over the place all week, as well as my body, in and out of state in fact. I have my share of ifs, ands, and buts this week in shorter form.
I’m going to go way back on some of these because I have fond and disappointing memories just as fresh as those currently taking place and finding room in my brain to this day.
Ifs:
If Len Bias, the University of Maryland forward who has 1986’s best college basketball player in a class all by himself, had not died in the summer of 1986 days after being the Boston Celtics’ number-one overall NBA Draft pick the Celtics would have a three-peat before the Chicago Bulls accomplished the same in 1993.
The Celtics were coming off one of the most dominant NBA seasons with the O’Brien trophy in hand at the 1986 NBA Finals. Bias would have been the perfect complement to Larry Bird and Kevin McHale on the front court. Aside from Michael Jordan in the 1980s, he was probably the next best college athlete headed toward pro stardom.
But he wasn’t.
The Celtics would have beaten the Lakers team in seven games in 1987 and they would have continued moving past the Detroit Pistons’ Bad Boys squad in 1988 to beat the Lakers again.
The Lakers’ back-to-back titles in the 1980s would not have happened.
The Cleveland Cavaliers’ 1975-76 season, known locally in the area as The Miracle in Richfield (the bedroom community location of the Cavaliers’ arena at the time), would have ended with an NBA title had the Cavaliers’ top scorer, 6’11” forward-center Jim Chones, not broken a limb in a pre-series practice preparing to face the Boston Celtics.
The Celtics beat the Phoenix Suns 4-2 in a best-of-seven championship series. The champs, however, Struggled with Cleveland who led the regular season series 3-1, winning all three of those games when the Cavaliers added Nate Thurmond (in his twilight) to the roster permitting Chones to move to forward when Thurmond could come off the bench for a twin towers attack.
Chones owned the Celtics with one of his highest points per game average coming against the Bostonians.
Chones would eventually earn a title ring playing for the Lakers in their 1980 title series. Bill Fitch, who eventually left Cleveland to coach the Celtics in Larry Bird’s first season, also had to leave the friendly confines of Cleveland to earn a championship ring.
Ands:
We just completed the quietest week in pro sports, and with the annual WANE Channel 15 press event among area football teams reminds us of the three or four weeks preceding the NFL season opener will be filled with highlights on the local news and the social media platforms for yet another exciting Indiana High School football season.
High school girls’ golf launches in two weeks, and the rest of the fall sports seasons’ launches will coincide with the re-opening of classrooms all over the state.
I have one PA announcing gig (this coming Thursday) that’s more of an event management role for a football officials’ clinic, and before you know it, by late-August I’ll begin four straight weeks of PA announcing at least four nights per each of those weeks.
So much for being bored.
Buts:
Comedian and comedy writer Shane Gillis’s ESPYs hosting stint probably generated more laughs among broader platforms than the live audience at the annual award show.
Gillis didn’t seem to mind because he was probably aware the net he cast with his material was broader than the ceremony’s venue, but it will still be interesting to see if the Disney-owned company will invite Gillis to host future ESPYs.
I’m not leaning toward any side’s position on Gillis’s material in this take, but someone as entertainment savvy as Disney’s leadership should realize – the way the Golden Globes had to realize with giving Ricky Gervais the hosting duties in a live event – comedians will riff, they’ll take shots at the front office, and they tend to be what the comedy troupe Kids in The Hall called themselves years ago: equal opportunity offenders.
Comedians and the entertainment execs who employ them for award shows are much like the fabled scorpion who took a fatal ride on a frog’s back. Any network or cable exec clutching his or her pearls after the ESPYs didn’t effectively manage their expectations.
No more ifs, ands, or buts.
