National Basketball Association grab bag

October 30th, 2006 | Posted by PostmanR

With the Association season looming, let’s peer around the Interweb for stories of basketball past:

The year is 1997 and Sports Illustrated’s Phil Taylor lists the best and worst tippers of the NBA. “No Tippin’ Pippen” nickname is spawned.

John Feinstein pens his brilliant work on The General in 1986 and includes this wonderful tidbit about the minutes preceding the 1984 Olympic championship game:

“Now Knight was ready to deliver some final words of inspiration. But when he flipped over the blackboard on which he would normally write the names of the other teams’ starters, he found a note scotch-taped to the board. It had been written by (Michael) Jordan: “Coach,” it said, “after all the shit we’ve been through, there is no way we lose tonight.”

The U.S. and A. (I like!) beat Spain 101-68 and Jordan is a baller even before he reaches the heights of the Assoication with the Bulls.

Youtube also brings us visual treats from NBA past:

Larry Bird in all his glory.

Tom Chambers defying gravity. And again.

Shawn Kemp pre-obesity. (Highly recommended. Some of his dunkatron 3000s are simply jaw-dropping.)

(Aside: My roommate has hockey on the tube. Some dude on the Blues just got whaled on by a Mighty Duck player during an on-ice fight. RAWK.)