It is cool to be a L.A. "Lakers" fan again, not pathetic as it was in 2015, Kobe Bryant's mercifully final year, and it is fun to be a player again!, not excrutiating as last year and for the same reason, what with Luke Walton bringing joy ball over from Golden State, with a lineup of exuberant youngsters. Not with Metta World Peace.
Metta World Peace? Malice-at-the-Palace Ron Artest, formerly known as? Metta World-Elbow-to-James-Harden's-Head...Peace?
Well, doesn't just his name bring an involuntary smile at its ridiculousness?
MWP is one of those basketball characters, like Marvin "Bad News" Barnes who refused to get on a plane for the short hop (but across the midwest time zone) from St. Louis to Indianapolis because arrival time was before departure time with the excellent explanation, "I ain't gettin' on no time machine"; like "Chocolate Thunder" Darryl Dawkins; like forever young goofball Shaquille O'Neal: guys with more than one loose screw, who are more than three bricks shy of a load, who somehow manage to row sometimes with no oar in the water, who would rather drive than get on a time machine, who break backboards but can't make free throws, who brawl with fans in the stands and deliver forearm shivers to opponents on the court in celebration! THAT is the quintessence of Metta World Peace.
And so in this young basketball season on this young team coached by the young Luke Walton, when the ancient Metta World Peace went to the free throw line and knocked the first one down, that most routine of basketball accomplishments creating in Metta's mind a fit of irrational exuberance causing him to turn to the "Lakers" bench and shout "I love basketball!" well, we can understand how that would become the "Lakers" new mantra, how they break huddle now not on "one, two, three TEAM," but on "I love basketball!"...No, we can't understand that.
The young "Lakers" are playing with the youthful irrational exuberance of a stable of colts let loose finally to run free, and to run and to run, because they love basketball. Last night these new love children beat the original, Luke Walton's former team, the one with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and coached by the philospher king of joy, Steve Kerr.
...
Last night also, after finally finishing my black study it was well past midnight, but I was so startled that I had to text my offspring, I saw that the Columbus "Blue Jackets" beat the Montreal "Canadians"...10-0.
10-0.
The "Canadiens" hadn't lost a game before this one.
The "Blue Jackets" blow.
It tied Montreal's worst loss in history.
Inexplicably, Montreal's coach kept his shaken goaltender, Al Montoya, in the game to endure every last second, shot and humiliating goal. It was cruelty. Some bad blood between them, must be. Some bad memories for "Habs" followers, too. Almost 11 years ago Montreal's them coach forced stellar goalie Patrick Roy to man the pipes as nine goals went between them. When finally Roy was pulled he announced that he had played his last game in a Montreal sweater and four days later was traded.
It was an infamous trade in Montreal history. Roy's new team in Colorado promptly won the Stanley Cup. His old team hasn't won one since.
There was transcendant sportsmanship amidst the Montreal coach's cruel gamesmanship:
It was 3-0 after the first period and 8-0 after the second, prompting a second intermission agreement by the Blue Jackets that they wouldn’t celebrate any third-period goals.
When Hartnell scored to make it 9-0 at 8:06 of the third and Anderson followed to make it 10-0 at 10:45, they simply curled back to center ice and readied for the faceoff.
“We’ve been on the other end,” Tortorella said. “We’re not looking to show up any team. You need to respect their opponent and what they’re going through. Still have to play the right way, but let’s be pros about this in kind of a whacky situation.”
...
My Beloved Pitt "Panthers" play at Miam-uh in two and one-half hours. The "Beloveds" are four-point dogs. My beloved Angels in Sky Blue return to EPL action in less than an hour against Middlesbrough at the Etihad.
Metta World Peace? Malice-at-the-Palace Ron Artest, formerly known as? Metta World-Elbow-to-James-Harden's-Head...Peace?
Well, doesn't just his name bring an involuntary smile at its ridiculousness?
MWP is one of those basketball characters, like Marvin "Bad News" Barnes who refused to get on a plane for the short hop (but across the midwest time zone) from St. Louis to Indianapolis because arrival time was before departure time with the excellent explanation, "I ain't gettin' on no time machine"; like "Chocolate Thunder" Darryl Dawkins; like forever young goofball Shaquille O'Neal: guys with more than one loose screw, who are more than three bricks shy of a load, who somehow manage to row sometimes with no oar in the water, who would rather drive than get on a time machine, who break backboards but can't make free throws, who brawl with fans in the stands and deliver forearm shivers to opponents on the court in celebration! THAT is the quintessence of Metta World Peace.
And so in this young basketball season on this young team coached by the young Luke Walton, when the ancient Metta World Peace went to the free throw line and knocked the first one down, that most routine of basketball accomplishments creating in Metta's mind a fit of irrational exuberance causing him to turn to the "Lakers" bench and shout "I love basketball!" well, we can understand how that would become the "Lakers" new mantra, how they break huddle now not on "one, two, three TEAM," but on "I love basketball!"...No, we can't understand that.
The young "Lakers" are playing with the youthful irrational exuberance of a stable of colts let loose finally to run free, and to run and to run, because they love basketball. Last night these new love children beat the original, Luke Walton's former team, the one with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and coached by the philospher king of joy, Steve Kerr.
...
Last night also, after finally finishing my black study it was well past midnight, but I was so startled that I had to text my offspring, I saw that the Columbus "Blue Jackets" beat the Montreal "Canadians"...10-0.
10-0.
The "Canadiens" hadn't lost a game before this one.
The "Blue Jackets" blow.
It tied Montreal's worst loss in history.
Inexplicably, Montreal's coach kept his shaken goaltender, Al Montoya, in the game to endure every last second, shot and humiliating goal. It was cruelty. Some bad blood between them, must be. Some bad memories for "Habs" followers, too. Almost 11 years ago Montreal's them coach forced stellar goalie Patrick Roy to man the pipes as nine goals went between them. When finally Roy was pulled he announced that he had played his last game in a Montreal sweater and four days later was traded.
It was an infamous trade in Montreal history. Roy's new team in Colorado promptly won the Stanley Cup. His old team hasn't won one since.
There was transcendant sportsmanship amidst the Montreal coach's cruel gamesmanship:
It was 3-0 after the first period and 8-0 after the second, prompting a second intermission agreement by the Blue Jackets that they wouldn’t celebrate any third-period goals.
When Hartnell scored to make it 9-0 at 8:06 of the third and Anderson followed to make it 10-0 at 10:45, they simply curled back to center ice and readied for the faceoff.
“We’ve been on the other end,” Tortorella said. “We’re not looking to show up any team. You need to respect their opponent and what they’re going through. Still have to play the right way, but let’s be pros about this in kind of a whacky situation.”
...
My Beloved Pitt "Panthers" play at Miam-uh in two and one-half hours. The "Beloveds" are four-point dogs. My beloved Angels in Sky Blue return to EPL action in less than an hour against Middlesbrough at the Etihad.
