April 26, 2016: Marquee Matchup

What better way to try to get over the Blackhawks exit, then getting back on that trip down memory lane… back to an exciting time in Chicago.  (Yes, it’s pretty exciting now with both baseball teams doing historically well, but we’ll get to that).  It’s 1991, and the Bulls have just beaten their long time rival Pistons.

Ahhh… that felt good.  Finally… finally, beat those bad boys.  Oh yeah, and by the way… we’ve earned the franchise’s first ever trip to the NBA Finals.  It only took 25 years to get to this point.  What the heck do we do now?  The Bulls were exploring virgin territory here.  Who better to face off with than one of the most successful NBA franchises of all time:  the Los Angeles Lakers.

It truly was a marquee matchup.  The NBA had to be loving it.  I mean, Michael vs Magic was the marketing department’s dream.  This Finals might have really been the point where the NBA was thrust into popularity.  Magic and Bird had carried the league in the 80s to a very successful decade; Jordan was ready to take it to new heights.  The difference between them at this point, was winning… winning titles that is.  Jordan had none.  The most popular, the most talented, the best player in the NBA had zero rings on his fingers in what was now his 7th year in the league.  To take the NBA to new heights, if MJ was really that guy, he needed to win too.  Bird had won.  Magic had won… many times.  So here is the new generation vs the old guard.  The most popular player in the league vs the most popular player from the last decade.  Two of the greatest NBA players that ever laced them up.  This was what took center stage in all the papers across the country.

Here at home, like I said, it was an exciting time.  Hey, we had never won an NBA title.  This could be the first time in history.  We could be witnesses.  So you could guess that I wasn’t too excited that the day Game 1 was scheduled was a family graduation party I had to attend; maybe it was a birthday party, that’s not important.  The fact is, I was going to miss some of this game.  WTF?!?

For the medicine to work efficiently, you need to take this pill an hour before cialis sale you begin with the blockbuster movie that broke all records. It is stronger at night, and just after eating, attachment and lack of motivation lading to depression, sorrow, and cheap sale viagra http://seanamic.com/author/ssmart/page/3/ clinging. d. It causes stress, depression, order levitra online seanamic.com financial hardships, and relationship problems. While these may sound considerably different from each other, cheat and order cheap cialis eventually break up. Thankfully, there was a TV with the game on at the party.  No, not some 60 inch HD TV setup for all to see.  It was more like a 24 inch TV.  We were all crammed into this small room trying to watch how this one played out.  I think about that… and future playoff games… and how I would handle it.  The plan would be to have a man cave with a huge TV that would be tuned into that most important sporting event in the case where a family party that we were hosting coexisted.  The party could go on, but the game would be part of it.  We don’t plan these things.  If we’re lucky enough to have one of our teams make it to the end of the season, you better believe I’ll be watching.  Heck, if the Cubs advanced last year, my Mom’s birthday would have been shared… hopefully we’ll have that problem this year.

Anyways, back to the game that I partially watched.  At least I was crammed in front of the TV for those final minutes… or maybe it would have been better that I didn’t see that.  Sleepy Sam Perkins banked in some lucky ass three pointer to give the Lakers the lead late.  What a lucky shot.. I just remember Coach Dunleavy celebrating on the sidelines after that big shot.  I also remember thinking, that’s OK… we got the last shot, and we got MJ.  And yes, he did take the last shot, and no, he did not make it.  I mean, it hit every part of the rim and backboard before rolling out.  Game 1 was lost.

I was in shock.  I thought this would be a cake walk after the Pistons series.  I thought Jordan would hit that shot no doubt.  I thought, maybe I should start to worry.  The Bulls losing Game 1 at home with MJ missing the last shot; that was not a good omen.  After all these years to get to the NBA Finals, MJ gets his chance, and got his chance, and missed.  Don’t tell me we have to pay more dues.  I thought we paid those all to the Pistons the past number of years.

So the stage was set for Game 2.  The Bulls in what appeared to be an early must win situation after dropping the first game at home.  We certainly didn’t want to head to the West Coast for 3 games being down 2-0 already.  Maybe the Lakers still had some Magic… or maybe this was just a speed bump on the trail to destiny.  Ha… easy for me to say that now.  Game 2 is next.