March of 2009 has come and gone as quickly as the weather changes in Utah. The Madness of the NCAA tournament is coming to an end tonight April 6th on the basketball court in Detroit, Michigan. The Michigan State Spartans will take on the North Carolina Tar Heels in what should be an incredible matchup with several NBA prospects taking the floor in what is sure to be an epic battle. North Carolina is heavily favored, but Michigan State will have a favorable crowd and will look to feed off their enthusiasm. The Tar Heels speed and sharp-shooting will square off against the Spartans toughness and relentless rebounding ability in a showdown that will be one for the ages. The road has been long and difficult for these 2 teams, but they survived the madness to earn the right to play in the NCAA Basketball Championship Game to see who is crowned this year’s champion.
This year’s tournament had many maddening moments. One of the most notable being the last second shot by Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds to beat #1 seeded Pittsburgh and send Villanova to the Final Four. Michigan State also surprised many by upsetting the heavily favored Louisville Cardinals to reach the Final Four. As expected Connecticut and North Carolina made their way into the Final Four with wins over Missouri and Oklahoma. Along the way there were many upsets including 12th seeded Western Kentucky over the 5th seeded Fighting Illini of Illinois, 11th seeded Dayton over 6th seeded West Virginia, and my own alma matter Utah State seeded 11th almost pulled off the huge upset over 6th seeded Marquette losing by only 1 point.
My brackets didn’t fare too well in this year’s tournament. I had Pittsburgh winning the Championship this year and they lost in that nail biter to Villanova. My other picks didn’t do as well either. I only picked 1 team right out the Final Four teams remaining in the tournament. I will need to do a better job of scouting and research next year. Or I could try my wife’s method of guessing, which helped her bracket to beat mine in our own little competition. So much for all those nights of studying teams, matchups, and reading all the so-called experts picks. I think next year I might actually try the method a past co-worker of mine once used- heads or tails- with the team called as heads moving on to the next round. I think he probably did better than me that year, too.
Tune in next year in the month of March to start another round of Madness. There are sure to be upsets, nail biters, last second wins, and lots of entertainment. Remember to try your hand at filling out a bracket in next year’s tournament. Just don’t follow my lead by wasting your time studying too much. Many of you might do very well with the heads and tails or the guessing strategies. For me, I will continue to research and study the teams and spend all my extra time listening to the experts only to find myself losing to my wife again.
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Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basketball. Show all posts
Friday, April 3, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
The 2009 NCAA Tournament 1st Round
The long-awaited NCAA tournament has begun this past weekend. The 1st round of the tournament took place on Thursday and Friday. Games began at 10am and ended at about 11pm each night. There have been a few big upsets and close games and small college heroes. I stayed up each night enjoying the games and sitting on the edge if my seat for most of them.
The Utah teams didn’t fare so well in this tournament. BYU played Texas A&M, Utah played Arizona, and Utah State played Marquette and each of them lost.
BYU played first on Thursday morning facing the Aggies of Texas A&M. The Cougars were cold at the start not being able to hit very many of their shots. Texas A&M on the other hand was hot and got off to a good start. The combination of these two factors put BYU in a hole early and they were never able to recover. Texas A&M was bigger, more athletic, and just a better all around team than BYU. The Cougars tried to recover in the 2nd half and as close as 8 points at one time, but the Aggies hit a couple of 3 point shots to stop BYU’s run. The final score was Texas A&M 79 BYU 66.
Utah State played their game against Marquette on Friday morning. The first half was not good for Utah State, just like BYU’s game. The Aggies were unable to hit many shots and Marquette took an early lead in the first half. Utah State came out in the second half and played like a different team. They were making their shots, played a strong zone defense, and made this game a great finish. The Aggies held in there with Marquette until the very end where they trailed by 1 point and barely missed a 3-pointer with 5 seconds left for the win. Utah State played tough, but lost to Marquette by a score of 58-57.
The University of Utah played against the Arizona Wildcats on Friday night. The Utes were unable to hold in there with the Wildcats. Arizona was just too physical, too big, and too fast for the Utah Utes. Utah’s big man, Luke Nevill, got in foul trouble early and was taken out of the game early. Utah lost to Arizona by a score of 84-71.
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The Utah teams didn’t fare so well in this tournament. BYU played Texas A&M, Utah played Arizona, and Utah State played Marquette and each of them lost.
BYU played first on Thursday morning facing the Aggies of Texas A&M. The Cougars were cold at the start not being able to hit very many of their shots. Texas A&M on the other hand was hot and got off to a good start. The combination of these two factors put BYU in a hole early and they were never able to recover. Texas A&M was bigger, more athletic, and just a better all around team than BYU. The Cougars tried to recover in the 2nd half and as close as 8 points at one time, but the Aggies hit a couple of 3 point shots to stop BYU’s run. The final score was Texas A&M 79 BYU 66.
Utah State played their game against Marquette on Friday morning. The first half was not good for Utah State, just like BYU’s game. The Aggies were unable to hit many shots and Marquette took an early lead in the first half. Utah State came out in the second half and played like a different team. They were making their shots, played a strong zone defense, and made this game a great finish. The Aggies held in there with Marquette until the very end where they trailed by 1 point and barely missed a 3-pointer with 5 seconds left for the win. Utah State played tough, but lost to Marquette by a score of 58-57.
The University of Utah played against the Arizona Wildcats on Friday night. The Utes were unable to hold in there with the Wildcats. Arizona was just too physical, too big, and too fast for the Utah Utes. Utah’s big man, Luke Nevill, got in foul trouble early and was taken out of the game early. Utah lost to Arizona by a score of 84-71.
yourLDSneighborhood has added exciting new things to its website. Please drop by and take a look, browse around, check out our vendors, our radio station, our authors, our musicians and more. Check out the Neighborhood. And while you're there, subscribe to the yourLDSneighborhood Newsletter. In addition to being able to shop in the new virtual neighborhood, the newsletter brings you articles, products, services, resources and interviews from around the world-all with an LDS focus. Look for issues delivered to your email inbox every week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Brackets and Basketball
It’s official, March Madness has finally arrived and will be here to stay for the next 3 weeks. These 3 weeks will be filled full of awesome basketball games, intriguing story lines, incredible upsets, fantastic finishes, buzzer beaters, great announcers (Gus Johnson), and “Cinderella” stories. I look forward for these 3 weeks all year long and love to see the day when the brackets are released.
On Sunday March 15th the field of 65 teams for the NCAA tournament will be announced and where they will be seeded along with whom, where, and when they will be playing. 32 games are planned to be played at various locations throughout the US on Thursday March 19th and Friday March 20th for what constitutes the 1st round of the tournament. The second round will feature the winners playing each other on Saturday March 21st and Sunday March 22nd to take the field of 64 teams down to the “Sweet Sixteen” teams. These teams play each other until they get to the “Elite Eight”, the “Final Four”, and then the Championship game to see who is crowned the champions of NCAA Division I basketball.
Each year I fill out a bracket for the tournament, which for those who don’t know is basically the format of all the games to be played in the first round. You start with all the games in the first round and then you guess the winners of that round and write in those teams and then keep guessing the games until all t first round projected winners are determined. You then take all of these teams and project the winners for the second round and so on until you reach the final round which is the 6th round. You gain points by picking games correctly and the higher the rounds the bigger the points earned. You then join with a group of other players and compete against one another.
If you have never filled out a bracket and watched the tournament then you need to try it this year. It is easy to do, lots of fun, and puts much more excitement into the games that are on.
If you do try filling out a bracket this year, here a few of my own personal tips to help you do well (and if you’re lucky, maybe even win in your group):
Decide if you want to be serious or a casual “bracketeer”. I am very serious and my wife doesn’t even know half of the teams. This will help you decide how much time or effort you want to put into filling out the bracket.
Most of the time the Final Four teams will be the 1 or 2 seeded teams. I usually pick these teams to be in the Final Four and to be the Champion. Your odds are better by doing this.
Look at who the experts and analysts are picking to win and then formulate your own ideas and opinions. This really makes it fun and interesting when you have put time and energy into picking winners and you get a bunch right.
Pick upsets. The most exciting thing to do in the brackets is to pick pretty big upsets like 12 over 5 seed and 13 over 4 and then watch it really happen.
Sharpen your pencils, print out a bracket, sit in your easy chair, turn on your big screen TV, and prepare to see why they refer to it as “March Madness”.
yourLDSneighborhood has added exciting new things to its website. Please drop by and take a look, browse around, check out our vendors, our radio station, our authors, our musicians and more. Check out the Neighborhood. And while you're there, subscribe to the yourLDSneighborhood Newsletter. In addition to being able to shop in the new virtual neighborhood, the newsletter brings you articles, products, services, resources and interviews from around the world-all with an LDS focus. Look for issues delivered to your email inbox every week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
On Sunday March 15th the field of 65 teams for the NCAA tournament will be announced and where they will be seeded along with whom, where, and when they will be playing. 32 games are planned to be played at various locations throughout the US on Thursday March 19th and Friday March 20th for what constitutes the 1st round of the tournament. The second round will feature the winners playing each other on Saturday March 21st and Sunday March 22nd to take the field of 64 teams down to the “Sweet Sixteen” teams. These teams play each other until they get to the “Elite Eight”, the “Final Four”, and then the Championship game to see who is crowned the champions of NCAA Division I basketball.
Each year I fill out a bracket for the tournament, which for those who don’t know is basically the format of all the games to be played in the first round. You start with all the games in the first round and then you guess the winners of that round and write in those teams and then keep guessing the games until all t first round projected winners are determined. You then take all of these teams and project the winners for the second round and so on until you reach the final round which is the 6th round. You gain points by picking games correctly and the higher the rounds the bigger the points earned. You then join with a group of other players and compete against one another.
If you have never filled out a bracket and watched the tournament then you need to try it this year. It is easy to do, lots of fun, and puts much more excitement into the games that are on.
If you do try filling out a bracket this year, here a few of my own personal tips to help you do well (and if you’re lucky, maybe even win in your group):
Decide if you want to be serious or a casual “bracketeer”. I am very serious and my wife doesn’t even know half of the teams. This will help you decide how much time or effort you want to put into filling out the bracket.
Most of the time the Final Four teams will be the 1 or 2 seeded teams. I usually pick these teams to be in the Final Four and to be the Champion. Your odds are better by doing this.
Look at who the experts and analysts are picking to win and then formulate your own ideas and opinions. This really makes it fun and interesting when you have put time and energy into picking winners and you get a bunch right.
Pick upsets. The most exciting thing to do in the brackets is to pick pretty big upsets like 12 over 5 seed and 13 over 4 and then watch it really happen.
Sharpen your pencils, print out a bracket, sit in your easy chair, turn on your big screen TV, and prepare to see why they refer to it as “March Madness”.
yourLDSneighborhood has added exciting new things to its website. Please drop by and take a look, browse around, check out our vendors, our radio station, our authors, our musicians and more. Check out the Neighborhood. And while you're there, subscribe to the yourLDSneighborhood Newsletter. In addition to being able to shop in the new virtual neighborhood, the newsletter brings you articles, products, services, resources and interviews from around the world-all with an LDS focus. Look for issues delivered to your email inbox every week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
The Utah Jazz and BYU Cougars Basketball
It’s that time of year when football is in the playoffs and starting to wind down and I start to turn my attention to the hardwood floor of basketball. This year my beloved Packers missed the playoffs so I am going to be paying more attention to the Utah Jazz and BYU Cougars basketball teams.
I have been a fan of the Utah Jazz for many years. I remember watching many games as a little boy on an old TV that didn’t get very good reception for the Jazz TV station- KJZZ. I can still remember watching John Stockton pass the ball in to Karl Malone for the fade-away jumper or big Mark Eaton blocking someone’s shot. I remember the “Golden Grif” and Thurl Bailey. The Jazz had an incredible team back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I got real excited to turn on the TV a couple nights a week to hear “Hot Rod” Hundley announce the Jazz games. I can still hear his funny sayings in my mind “he puts up a frozen rope”; “Stockton yo-yos at the top of the key”; “The Mailman delivers”; “You gotta love it baby”; and many more.
I am still a big fan of the Jazz and always will be. The faces have changed, now there is Derron Williams, Carlos Boozer, and others to watch. My TV now gets great reception and I now get excited to hear Craig BolerJack call the games. (For those of you that still like “Hot Rod” he now announces for the radio station that broadcasts the Jazz games, although I can never keep up with him). The Jazz are doing okay this year. They are currently 20-15 but should do better as they get some of their injured players healthy again. I am actually going to attend the game on Jan 24th when they play the Cleveland Cavaliers with “King” Lebron James coming to town. It should be an awesome game. The faces are different, the shorts are longer, and the announcer has changed, but it is still the same old exciting basketball game that I watched as a child.
BYU basketball is underway as well. The Cougars jumped off to a great start- they are currently 14-2 with the only 2 losses coming to nationally ranked teams- Arizona St and Wake Forest. BYU played both of these teams very close, though, and almost beat Arizona St at the buzzer. BYU fell to Wake Forest at home ending their nation’s best 53 home game winning streak. Wake Forest was ranked 6th and knew coming in that BYU would be very tough, especially on their home court.
BYU has some great players this year in Lee Cummard, Jonathan Tavernari, and Jimmer Fredette. They can score a lot of points, especially on three pointers, and have shown they can hang with the top teams in the league. BYU should go far this year and will play one of the biggest games of the year against Utah on Jan 29th. It will be payback time after the Cougars football team got hammered in SLC to the Utes football team.
Go Cougars!
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I have been a fan of the Utah Jazz for many years. I remember watching many games as a little boy on an old TV that didn’t get very good reception for the Jazz TV station- KJZZ. I can still remember watching John Stockton pass the ball in to Karl Malone for the fade-away jumper or big Mark Eaton blocking someone’s shot. I remember the “Golden Grif” and Thurl Bailey. The Jazz had an incredible team back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I got real excited to turn on the TV a couple nights a week to hear “Hot Rod” Hundley announce the Jazz games. I can still hear his funny sayings in my mind “he puts up a frozen rope”; “Stockton yo-yos at the top of the key”; “The Mailman delivers”; “You gotta love it baby”; and many more.
I am still a big fan of the Jazz and always will be. The faces have changed, now there is Derron Williams, Carlos Boozer, and others to watch. My TV now gets great reception and I now get excited to hear Craig BolerJack call the games. (For those of you that still like “Hot Rod” he now announces for the radio station that broadcasts the Jazz games, although I can never keep up with him). The Jazz are doing okay this year. They are currently 20-15 but should do better as they get some of their injured players healthy again. I am actually going to attend the game on Jan 24th when they play the Cleveland Cavaliers with “King” Lebron James coming to town. It should be an awesome game. The faces are different, the shorts are longer, and the announcer has changed, but it is still the same old exciting basketball game that I watched as a child.
BYU basketball is underway as well. The Cougars jumped off to a great start- they are currently 14-2 with the only 2 losses coming to nationally ranked teams- Arizona St and Wake Forest. BYU played both of these teams very close, though, and almost beat Arizona St at the buzzer. BYU fell to Wake Forest at home ending their nation’s best 53 home game winning streak. Wake Forest was ranked 6th and knew coming in that BYU would be very tough, especially on their home court.
BYU has some great players this year in Lee Cummard, Jonathan Tavernari, and Jimmer Fredette. They can score a lot of points, especially on three pointers, and have shown they can hang with the top teams in the league. BYU should go far this year and will play one of the biggest games of the year against Utah on Jan 29th. It will be payback time after the Cougars football team got hammered in SLC to the Utes football team.
Go Cougars!
Return to the Neighborhood.
And while you're there, subscribe to our fantastic newsletter. In addition to being able to shop in the new virtual neighborhood, our newsletter brings you articles, products, services, resources and interviews from around the world-all with an LDS focus. Look for issues delivered to your email inbox every week on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.
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Monday, June 23, 2008
Sports Criminals
In today’s sports world it is not uncommon to read a story weekly or even daily about an athlete that is in trouble with the law. We have all heard about the steroid use in Major League Baseball, drugs used in the summer and Winter Olympics, and all kinds of criminal activity in the NFL and NBA. This trend of behavior has got to slow down because at this rate, all the professional sports programs will be obsolete in 5 years because all of the athletes will be in jail or suspended from the sports programs.
I enjoyed watching sports as a child. I remember the great players in basketball- Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Dr. J. I remember the awesome football players- Joe Montana, John Elway, Tony Dorset, Eric Dickerson, and the great Chicago Bear’s defense. I am not much of a baseball fan, but I do remember watching Reggie Jackson, Roger Clemens, and Pete Rose play. What I don’t remember as well is all of the legal and criminal trouble that we see in today’s sports. I know that Michael Jordan got in trouble with gambling, but that arose when his career as a sports player had ended. I know that Pete Rose got in trouble for a similar problem. I don’t remember players being investigated for murders, robberies, assault and battery, illegal dog fighting matches (Michael Vick), drugs, steroids, and all kinds of other illegal and criminal activity.
While reading this list, you start to forget about sports and start thinking you are reading a New York City police arrest report!
My biggest problem with this type of behavior is that these athletes are rich! They don’t need to rob a store because they are out of money! They aren’t living in the ghetto! They are getting paid to play a sport! They are given millions upon millions of dollars to shoot baskets, throw footballs, hit baseballs, run. These are things that most of us enjoy doing on the weekends with our friends. We can’t even imagine being paid for it, let alone get paid millions. The biggest problem with today’s athlete is that they have turned into spoiled adults. If you think a spoiled kid is a problem, wait until you meet a spoiled adult. This is someone who gets a lot of money, spends it on a lot of frivolous things, has too much time on their hands, gets into trouble a lot, and basically can’t find any happiness because they still haven’t learned the old adage that money can’t buy happiness.
The biggest problem with athletes in trouble with the law is that they have the money to hire the best lawyers money can buy. Money may not be able to buy happiness but I think we have all witnessed it buying an athlete’s freedom. Remember the football player by the name of OJ? He was found innocent of the murder that he was on trial for, but I think most of us think that he was guilty.
I think that most fans would like to see a return to the old days when the biggest criminal offenses were gambling related. Those seem rather minor compared to today’s crimes. I don’t know that this will ever happen but I do know that if the current rate of criminal activity continues, the future of sports will change for the worse. Which reminds me of another old adage; crime doesn’t pay (unless you’re an athlete).
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I enjoyed watching sports as a child. I remember the great players in basketball- Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Dr. J. I remember the awesome football players- Joe Montana, John Elway, Tony Dorset, Eric Dickerson, and the great Chicago Bear’s defense. I am not much of a baseball fan, but I do remember watching Reggie Jackson, Roger Clemens, and Pete Rose play. What I don’t remember as well is all of the legal and criminal trouble that we see in today’s sports. I know that Michael Jordan got in trouble with gambling, but that arose when his career as a sports player had ended. I know that Pete Rose got in trouble for a similar problem. I don’t remember players being investigated for murders, robberies, assault and battery, illegal dog fighting matches (Michael Vick), drugs, steroids, and all kinds of other illegal and criminal activity.
While reading this list, you start to forget about sports and start thinking you are reading a New York City police arrest report!
My biggest problem with this type of behavior is that these athletes are rich! They don’t need to rob a store because they are out of money! They aren’t living in the ghetto! They are getting paid to play a sport! They are given millions upon millions of dollars to shoot baskets, throw footballs, hit baseballs, run. These are things that most of us enjoy doing on the weekends with our friends. We can’t even imagine being paid for it, let alone get paid millions. The biggest problem with today’s athlete is that they have turned into spoiled adults. If you think a spoiled kid is a problem, wait until you meet a spoiled adult. This is someone who gets a lot of money, spends it on a lot of frivolous things, has too much time on their hands, gets into trouble a lot, and basically can’t find any happiness because they still haven’t learned the old adage that money can’t buy happiness.
The biggest problem with athletes in trouble with the law is that they have the money to hire the best lawyers money can buy. Money may not be able to buy happiness but I think we have all witnessed it buying an athlete’s freedom. Remember the football player by the name of OJ? He was found innocent of the murder that he was on trial for, but I think most of us think that he was guilty.
I think that most fans would like to see a return to the old days when the biggest criminal offenses were gambling related. Those seem rather minor compared to today’s crimes. I don’t know that this will ever happen but I do know that if the current rate of criminal activity continues, the future of sports will change for the worse. Which reminds me of another old adage; crime doesn’t pay (unless you’re an athlete).
Return to the Neighborhood
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Monday, June 16, 2008
Celtics and Lakers

The Playoffs for any sport are always an exciting time. The NBA playoffs are no exception. Each team has a renewed sense of hope, a chance to win the Title, and they get 7 possible chances with each team they play. The players “kick up” their energy and playing level another notch. The crowd seems to get louder and more obnoxious. This is the time of year that most basketball fans look forward to all year long.
This year, the teams that made it to the NBA Finals were the Lakers and Celtics. What an awesome rivalry over the years: two of the greatest teams in NBA history squaring it off in 2008. 2 of the NBA’s best players will go head-to-head, Kobe Bryant (this year’s MVP) and Paul Pierce. I am not really a fan of either player, but those 2 should be able to make this year’s Finals pretty exciting. There are also 2 great veteran role players for each team- Kevin Garnett (Celtics) and Derek Fisher (Lakers).
This rivalry has a great history of awesome players from the past as well. I am sure all of us remember Magic Johnson and his unbelievable passing ability and drives to the basket. Who could forget Larry Bird and his awesome shooting ability and the way he played the game? Kareem Abdul Jabar had a hook shot like no other. Michael Cooper was a 3 point sharp shooter. Kevin McHale was a “beast” on the boards. And who could forget Kurt Rambis, with his curly hair and big safety goggles being a tough scrappy player who was so much fun to watch.
We all had our favorites and enjoyed watching each year when they would take center stage in the NBA Finals
The Celtics-Lakers rivalry has been renewed and even though the names and players have changed, the attitude and passion for the game still exist. Instead of Magic driving to the hoop, we now have the ultra energetic Kobe Bryant. Instead of having Larry Bird lighting up the scoreboard with his jump shots, we now have the high scoring Paul Pierce. We no longer have the super-short, tight shorts; we have the baggy shorts that hang down to your knees. We no longer have the afros; we now have the corn rows and shaved heads. The black and white television sets with the bunny ear antennas are long gone being replaced by the 60 inch Plasma big screen TV’s.
The one thing that still remains is the greatest rivalry in history- the Celtics and Lakers. (and the refereeing is still terrible).
Return to the Neighborhood
This year, the teams that made it to the NBA Finals were the Lakers and Celtics. What an awesome rivalry over the years: two of the greatest teams in NBA history squaring it off in 2008. 2 of the NBA’s best players will go head-to-head, Kobe Bryant (this year’s MVP) and Paul Pierce. I am not really a fan of either player, but those 2 should be able to make this year’s Finals pretty exciting. There are also 2 great veteran role players for each team- Kevin Garnett (Celtics) and Derek Fisher (Lakers).
This rivalry has a great history of awesome players from the past as well. I am sure all of us remember Magic Johnson and his unbelievable passing ability and drives to the basket. Who could forget Larry Bird and his awesome shooting ability and the way he played the game? Kareem Abdul Jabar had a hook shot like no other. Michael Cooper was a 3 point sharp shooter. Kevin McHale was a “beast” on the boards. And who could forget Kurt Rambis, with his curly hair and big safety goggles being a tough scrappy player who was so much fun to watch.
We all had our favorites and enjoyed watching each year when they would take center stage in the NBA Finals

The Celtics-Lakers rivalry has been renewed and even though the names and players have changed, the attitude and passion for the game still exist. Instead of Magic driving to the hoop, we now have the ultra energetic Kobe Bryant. Instead of having Larry Bird lighting up the scoreboard with his jump shots, we now have the high scoring Paul Pierce. We no longer have the super-short, tight shorts; we have the baggy shorts that hang down to your knees. We no longer have the afros; we now have the corn rows and shaved heads. The black and white television sets with the bunny ear antennas are long gone being replaced by the 60 inch Plasma big screen TV’s.
The one thing that still remains is the greatest rivalry in history- the Celtics and Lakers. (and the refereeing is still terrible).
Return to the Neighborhood
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