Praise the Basketball Gods

They have blessed us with that rarest of occurrences: There is actually basketball on tonight. I know, I also forgot the playoffs were still going on. I just figured the NBA and ESPN made a deal to suspend the Finals indefinitely so they could milk a seemingly endless stream of hype and just hoped nobody would notice.

So...

I snapped. The gravity of the NBA Finals and the mythic rivalry it reanimated had infected the core of my being. I actually had a dream where I was sitting on the banks of the Ganges river in India with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird talking about which player in this series has the most to prove. I am being serious.

Then I read this excellent piece from Matt over at Hardwood Paroxysm and I realized "Graydon, you were born in 1984 you asshole. Your earliest basketball memories are of Patrick Ewing, David Robinson and Michael Jordan." And the relief came in waves. The anxieties of allegiance and history have passed me by, and I look forward to watching the Finals in peace.

Also, check out this excellent interview with Chuck Klosterman by Goathair over at the Blowtorch. His description of Ray Allen as a "superstitious panda" blew my mind. This isn't the first time Klosterman has found his way onto 48 Minutes and it probably won't be the last. Every time his basketball writing crops up I find it to be a pleasure. For further reading, check out his March 2008 piece in the New York Times about the Celtics role players who made the transition from last years catastrophe to this years Eastern Conference Champs. There are some brilliant anecdotes about Brian Scalabrine in it. Enjoy the game tonight.