May 2, 2016: The Fabulous Forum

Never been there.  By the time I actually made it to Los Angeles, and by made it, I mean, moved out there, the Lakers were playing their home games in the Staples Center; which happened to be right down the street from my job.  We were there many times seeing both the Bulls and Blackhawks play.  As far as the Fabulous Forum, it was and is still standing, but is now only used for concerts and smaller events.  Back in 1991, it was a different story.

Back in 1991, it was alive and well, with Magic and company running the court.  They had made it through the NBA playoffs that year to the Finals, only to meet our beloved Bulls.  It would be the site of Games 3 through 5 of our series.  I can never remember what format it is nowadays… maybe that’s because the Bulls haven’t been there in 18 years, but back then it was 2-3-2.  When we last left off, the Bulls had evened the series in Chicago at 1; westward bound boys.

Game 3 was on a Friday night.  Start time was 8pm for us Chicago fans.  At the age of 14, I wasn’t out watching these games at friends’ houses or bars, I was right at home… sitting next to my whole family, including my 12 year old brother.  There are a ton of great moments that I recall from watching games from our living room floor; this game is one that I specifically remember.  As we got older, we got louder… or maybe we were always loud?  Need your help here Dad.  At our current ages of 14 & 12, my brother and I were downright raucous.  With the significance of this game, it reached a very high decibal level, which included talking crap about the Lakers and refs I’m sure.  We were kicked out.  My Dad instructed us to watch the rest of the game from upstairs, where my grandmother lived.  So between the 4th quarter and OT, we ran up the stairs to make sure we didn’t miss a minute.

Yes, this game went to OT.  This game is one of my all time favorite games by the way.  I think the event that pushed us over the top was when Vlade ran into Pippen on the way to a bucket and a foul.  It was a horrible call… come on, you remember it.  Afterwards, Vlade covered his mouth and ran into Magic’s waiting arms for a big hug.  That had to be when we lost our minds… it was at the very end of the game.  But the Bulls still had a chance…and we had MJ… we had been here before.
This cute-n-tiny.com buy generic cialis relieves diabetic conditions. 5. Pomegranate extract was used in POMI-T along with broccoli extract, curcumin and the original source generic cialis canadian EGCG from green tea. All that are mentioned here are made of Sildenafil citrate. viagra professional uk http://cute-n-tiny.com/cute-animals/owl-and-fox-pals/ Kamagra viagra samples free is so much effective on working of erectile dysfunction and impotence.
Game 1 was in Michael’s hands, and the shot that hit every piece of the rim and backboard bounced out; Bulls lost.  This time, the Bulls trailed by 2 points.  After a timeout, and I read this later on, the Bulls decided to take the ball out in their own backcourt, instead of taking it out at halfcourt, which the timeout would have allowed.   The reasoning for this, was MJ’s foot.  He was in some serious pain.  So, he wanted to get a running start before he released the potential game tying shot.  It worked.  One of the most underrated Jordan shots of all time is what followed.  He dribbled all the way up court, stopped just right of the free throw line, jumped up with Vlade’s hand in his face, and buried the game tying jumper.  I’m just amazed that this doesn’t make more highlight reel packages of Jordan on YouTube.  It was a huge shot.

After that shot went in, which directly followed our screaming at the refs for the Vlade call, we went bananas… ignoring any requests to calm down.  So we were banished… and quickly ran up the stairs… there was no way we were missing OT.  I’m just glad we were allowed to watch the game upstairs.  When we got there, we saw MJ carry us through to victory; he made another underrated shot in OT, when he flew under the basket for a beautiful reverse layup.  He scored half of our 12 points in OT to get the win.  In a pivotal Game 3 on the road, the Bulls had wrestled away the series lead.

This was my favorite game of this series, and as I mentioned above, one of my all time favorites.  It turns out, that this was the game we took their heart.  Yes, Games 4 and 5 were still to be played in the Forum, but the writing was on the wall.  WIth the series lead, and homecourt advantage back, the young, hungry Bulls smelled blood in the water… or wait, better yet, they saw that red cape waving… the franchise’s first title was only 2 wins away.  The stampede to the finish line was about to kick into high gear.  And we’d be watching… yelling, screaming, cheering… from upstairs by my grandmother.