Subj : Some Thoughts (Late, though they be)
To   : All
From : Ed Grinnell
Date : Mon Jun 26 2000 08:41 am

* Crossposted in NBA_ECHO
* Crossposted in SPORTS
A big, long, fat finger to the press for their "Jackson hasn't won a 
championship without Jordan" and an even longer one for those that said that he 
never would. The media brought this up with Riley but you never heard them say 
this about Auerbach, even though Red wasn't very successful in the playoffs 
until he got Russell (Red's winning percentage was .396 before Russell. Riley 
and Jackson have both compiled winning playoff records without the superstars 
that helped them win championships before). The difference between regular 
season records with or without their superstars is .076 for Riley, .090 for 
Jackson and .125 for Auerbach. In the playoffs, the difference is .103 for 
Jackson, .170 for Riley and .265 for Auerbach). Jackson has won a championship 
without Jordan while Riley was one bad game by John Starks away from one but 
Auerbach never came close to one without Russell (His Washington team made the 
Finals but they weren't much of a problem for the eventual champions).

                                 ****

Vecsey is an idiot. He's done everything to downplay this championship. I 
couldn't believe him when he asked Bird if it would have hurt less to lose to 
the Blazers. Why? The LAKERS were the ones that won 65 games to 59 for the 
Blazers. He made several references to the Blazers that were a direct slap at 
the Lakers which makes me wonder if he's mad at them for ruining his 
predictions that the Blazers would rule the world this year. Oh, add David 
Aldridge to the number of the idiots that are downplaying the Lakers' 
championship. Hey, fools, if the Blazers were the better team, they'd have been 
the one hoisting the trophy instead of the Lakers. It's time to get over it.

                                 ****

I can't believe the beating that Miller is taking. Some writers are talking
about how Miller didn't show up for the 4th quarter, however; they seem to
forget that he started the quarter on the bench and didn't enter the game
until 3:37 had elapsed. They questioned almost every Laker (as well as Bird
AND Miller) at the press conference about the long three that he took late
in the game.

                                 ****

Isn't it ironic that the number of the police car that was set on fire was 666. 
:-)

                                 ****

Much has been made about the so-called phantom foul on Rice late in the game
but you didn't see those same people begging for a very real foul on Davis
against Rice earlier in the game or the blatant foul against Jackson before
he got off the three to end the first quarter.

                                 ****

How weak is the WNBA East? They're 8-23 against the West and that breaks down
to 3-17 against the top 4 teams and 5-6 against the bottom 4 (The top 2 teams
in the East, Orlando and Cleveland, are 5-4 against the West while the rest of 
the East is 3-19).

                                 ****

I wouldn't be too surprised if Larry Bird is waiting for the Celtics to give
him the call after this season.

--- TrekEd 1.00
 * Origin: Orlando will be no problem - M.J. (1:170/1701)

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