Yes it’s true, we love Gus too

March 20th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

In light of Simmons’ recent ode to Gus Johnson - who went ballistic in the Ohio State-Xavier thriller this weekend - we’d like to officially stand up and be counted for the Gus Johnson fan club. We’re longtime members, first time callers, and Simmons is right: everybody loves Gus.

Not to do the whole Indie “Oh, I was listening to that band two years ago, bro” thing here, but we have been GJ fans for probably a year now, and my roommate has been loudly proclaiming Johnson’s greatness for over two years. He belongs in the Facebook fan clubs, has “Gus Johnson on CBS” in his profile interests, etc. That’s fandom, my friends.

We’d also like to point out the single greatest announcing team of all time: Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery. Raftery is easily our favorite color guy - his lyrical tosses are the stuff of legend among my buddies - and when the two team up, it’s pure fucking dynamite.

Take this clip, in which neither Gus nor Raftery can calm themselves until Raftery busts out an all-time classic Raftery line:

Tell me that didn’t melt your face. I dare you.

(Oh, and if you need more Gus, head this way. That oughta hold you.)

(UPDATE: Tied for our first favorite Mottram, Jamie at Mister Irrelevant was all over this a couple days back, as was The Big Picture.)

Remember when Shaq could jump?

January 9th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

Last night, very late, my roommate and I had the good fortune of finding Blue Chips on one of our many unnecessary movie channels. This was a blast from the past; not only was Penny Hardaway rocking a bonafide flat top, but our man Shaq, who basically plays a dumber version of himself in the movie, was absolutely tooling on movie set extras.

He wasn’t just bowling them over, though. He was young, athletic, lithe, and he could move around a good bit. Anyway, I was reminded of his old school Orlando Magic days, the days when he used to take down an entire backboard apparatus with something resembling apathy.

This is one such occasion. Here’s to nostalgia.

(Quick awesomeness caveat: Bill Raftery used to announce NBA games, which I did not remember. He turns a class Raftery one-liner in this clip.)