...I mean this game of basketball. This is the American game, invented in the heartland, borrowing from no other, the only game that is played in the air, freeing man from gravity, capturing our romance with flight. I mean this NBA game, refined and polished by Dr. Naismith's successors into the gem of today. There is nothing else like it and it alone of American sports has conquered the world. And I mean this game, Finals Game 4. Just watch a few minutes. The speed of the players, the grace of the players, their skill, their size, strength and athleticism. Without watching any of it I wrote last night that it was an excellent game. It was, just watch a few minutes. So intense, so physical--hands, elbows, arms, feet moving at a speed and with a power and a fury over so small a surface that the wonder is that it does not flare into a street fight, that even play with a controlled fury does not result in poked eyes, broken digits, and lamed extremities. There is less contact among men in body armor on many football plays than on many of the plays in this game among men completely unprotected.
In his darkest days as head of the league the late David Stern had a rejoinder to any worrier: "The game will always save us."
