From Today's classifieds . . .

History

The stage was set -- the Boston Celtics had won the NBA Championship two seasons earlier; now the LA Lakers were back in the Finals, looking to repeat from their Championship of the year before. They lost a game at home early in the series, but rebounded to win one on the road and return home down 3-2 for the final two games.

Sound familiar?

That was in 1988. 22 years ago. The reason I bring this up -- as this year's Game 6 is barely underway -- is to remind myself that I was actually pulling for the Lakers that year as they squared off against the Detroit Pistons. There were reasons -- (1) I had a good friend who was a Lakers fan -- (2) They weren't playing the Celtics -- (3) They were playing the Pistons (Bill Laimbeer, Isiah Thomas, enough said) -- (4) The Pistons, in addition to their many other flaws, had just beaten the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals -- (5) And, quite honestly, in addition to being highly talented, that was (in my view) a very likable Lakers team.

Fast-forward to 2010 -- Led by Kobe "Not Guilty" Bryant, Pau "buy a consonant" Gasol and Phil "X-Man" Jackson -- I cannot help but absolutely loathe this crowd. Talented, yes, but over-rated. I guess what bothers me the most is how Phil Jackson is being called the greatest coach of all time -- okay, his ten rings might get him into the top ten, but not any higher. See here for my thoughts on that a year ago. The Lakers showed their true colors as they became unravelled in Game 5, pointing and sniping and blaming each other for their collective incompetence and inferiority, while the Celtics did what all good teams do -- pass, take good shots, stick with what works and don't care who's playing or who gets the credit.

Here's hoping for #18. Good luck catching that, Phil.

Every Moment

Dana Key, 56, passed away on Sunday apparently due to a ruptured blood clot. No longer active in his music ministry apart from occasional appearances, he and his partner Eddie DeGarmo created much of the soundtrack to my late teen years and on into college. You may know them better as "DeGarmo & Key."

When developing my list of the top Christian albums of the 1980's last year (see here and elsewhere), the duo was unable to crack the top ten, as I noted in my honorable mentions. Nonetheless, they were both prolific (ten albums from 1980-1989) and consistent, and thus a constant presence in my cassette deck, car stereo, and in various compilations I developed with the help of my Sharp QT-77. Their evolution in that decade -- from heavy blues, to synth-rock, to hard rock, and back to the blues influence but with an updated sound -- mirrored the decade and reflected, I am sure, their evolution as writers and performers.

There were, of course, some pitfalls, and their final few albums in the 90's seemed to reflect something of an identity crisis. They probably picked the right time to into semi-retirement, but nobody could ever question their sincerity or the commitment. Nor, for that matter, their innovation -- no other artist I know of has ever sold two albums for the price of one so that the second may be given to a friend; they were the first Christian artist to have a video in regular rotation on MTV (when MTV was actually showing music videos), they produced a live album with no studio enhancements, and they were one of the first contemporary artists to openly challenge Jimmy Swaggart, whose preference was that people spend their money on his music instead.

So etched were they in my consciousness, I would often make obscure references to their songs and titles, such as in this political commentary I posted in January. Dana Key is gone but not forgotten; his music and its message -- and the memories -- will live on. RIP.

Back to Lebanon

Jonah Goldberg -- who is a better writer than me and who actually gets paid for expressing his opinion -- articulates his (and my) thoughts on the Helen Thomas fiasco here.

In short -- did it really take a remark as despicable and outrageous (beyond just a "slur" as the great VDH points out) as this to get people to stop coddling Helen Thomas, who has been a left-wing racist anti-semite for her entire career? So painfully obvious to so many of us, yet she was tolerated, accommodated, and even honored, by presidential administrations of both parties, and venerated by her colleagues to the highest seat in the pressroom. There is Something. Wrong. Somewhere.

Greatness

That John Wooden was a great coach and a terrific human being is not open to discussion; to say that anyone is the greatest coach ever of their or any other sport is always an invitation to debate. With Wooden, again, the debate would probably be rather short, as nobody else ever has -- or ever will -- win 10 championships in 12 seasons. But from a purely philosophical perspective, one could allege that the Krzyzewskis, Dean Smiths, Boeheims or Knights of more recent years (not to mention the Summits and Auriemmas), are equal coaching talents who are succeeding consistently in spite of increased parity combined with increased governance, reforms which diminished the natural advantages that helped propel UCLA to unmatched success in the 60's and 70's.

Those other names may or may not deserve to be compared to John Wooden, or even be mentioned in the same paragraph. But the point can be made -- where Wooden is unquestionably in elite company is not necessarily his record as a coach, or even his record as a person, but as an inventor, innovator and developer of a sport. Yes, Dr. Naismith invented basketball, but John Wooden made the college game an entertainment and revenue-generating powerhouse (akin to Red Auerbach in the pro game, as discussed here). Thus, the comparison is not between Wooden, Krzyzewski, and Summit, but between Wooden, Auerbach, Paul Brown, George Halas, Rod Dedeaux, Knute Rockne, Harry Wright, Toe Blake, and Herb Brooks -- all highly successful coaches who took both their teams and their entire sport to a higher level.

In other words (and fewer words), remembering John Wooden as a great coach and great person is only part of the story. Renaming the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament in his honor might be a good place to start -- after all, when his team was winning all those banners, it was known unofficially as the "UCLA Invitational."

9 days apart in western Pennsylvania

Memo to Jim Joyce

The first thing they teach you in Umpire School -- all those close plays are OUTS. You get paid by the game, not by the hour.

(The second thing they teach you, by the way, is that every pitch is a STRIKE unless it convinces you that it is a BALL).

cc: D. Denkinger
Commissioner's Office (currently vacant)