There was a lot of news about the security leak by the British on a commuter train. There is a lot of talk about the lax security by the British with sensitive documentation, but somehow I don't quite buy that this is a situation of negligence and incomptence. But anyone who has any inkling of British history should have snickered and said to themselves...ah, those crafty Brits...always up to something.
Obama for all his ranting about fighting against "buisness as usual in Washington" faced a huge slap in the face when the person he tabbed to help find a VP for his ticket had to resign because of his ties with Countrywide. I'm not going to make a huge deal about Obama being a hypocrite; instead its the fact that rhetoric is great, but is there anything really tangible behind that rhetoric? I wonder if he really does intend on imposing a windfall tax on "evil oil companies." Imposing a windfall tax on a corporation is only going to make that company 1) cut jobs to make up for the losses, 2) do a better job of hiding those profits, which any good billion dollar company is more than capable of doing and 3) just pass that tax to the consumers by jacking up the prices of their product. I'm not an economics major of have an MBA, but it's common sense that if your taxes are getting jacked up for your company, it would stand to reason that you would raise prices to cover your overhead.
I don't know, but I'm unimpressed by both candidates. Maybe its because I'm a bit of a cynic. I see my vote going to Godzilla. He would have the best foreign policy--fuck with Godzilla and he's razing your nation. I don't think Al Qaeda would want to piss off Godzilla since he doesn't care what he destroys. Note the sarcasm...
I really enjoy the doom and gloom in the news about the floods in the midwest. Already they are stirring up fear in the minds of people about the loss of crops, which will end up leading to higher food prices--although farmers are paid to destroy crops in order to maintain the market value of food. I guess that's lost on many people. It's probably lost on many people that the United States in the past has provided food stuffs to the world in great quantities. Only in the United States, the land of plenty can people freak out about possible food shortages. If it was not so pathetic, it would be comical.
Life expectancy is rising in the US, but they rail about the increase of Alzheimer's as a major cause of death. If I make it to 80, I figure that would be a good run since that would be longer than my grandfather Chancellor and my grandma Azcona. How long do you really need to live? Eventually, we all must die. It's just a fact of life. As Murakami wrote in a short story that death is not the end of life but a continuation of life.
People rant about destroying nature, but in the methods as to how humans deifiy the dead with elaborate preservation techniques and enclosing the bodies in hermetic cases, we are denying ourselves to return to the carbon cycle. I remember my old crazy Bio teacher in High School, Mr. Joll stated that he wanted to be thrown in a hole in the woods so he can return to the carbon cycle. But I'm sure enivornmentalists and the EPA and state that it would really contaminate the water table or water sources. Yet, for thousands of years, people would just bury thier dead in the ground in wooden boxes that would decompose, allowing the body to return to nature and the carbon cycle. Maybe that's the true immortality for humanitiy in the end, by returning to nature and becoming a part of something else later on.
I'm not going to blog about "where is God." I'm pretty sure God does not reside in the multi-million dollar cathedrals of the world.
If I have to hear about how the United States needs to close borders that have been open for over 200 years with bigger threats than we have today, I'm going to lose my mind. Border towns have been the same for thousands and thousands of years. Not much is going to change.
I'm not a great surfer. I've only started surfing in May, but can you blame me for not discovering this joy for 26 years after living in such...uh...surf-soaked areas as the Chicagoland area, 'Sconnie and the Hampton Roads area? Yes, I know there is a surf culture in Virginia Beach, but it was not as if any of my friends were surfers either. There's nothing wrong with a best buddy that you can sit on the beach, smoke maduro cigars and meander endlessly on history.
So, that's my caveat for this whole blog.
So I'm a newbie longboarder (who has yet to figure out the art of getting up on the board when you finally catch a wave...either I'm too slow or I am not centered on the board like I should be and am looking down all the time). I first surfed in Kamogawa, Chiba-ken (鴨川、千葉県) on a easy soft board. Didn't catch a wave, but it was more of an effort to figure out what I was doing out there; paddling, sitting on the board waiting for a wave and how to avoid other surfers--that normally meant that I would sit way way far to the left of the lineup.
My second time surfing was in Onjuku, Chiba-ken （御宿、千葉県）, where we (Dylan, Mike and I...aka TEAM HOOK) by pure happenstance met Hayashi and his wife who run a surf shop called Drop Out. Very friendly. Mike and I ended up buying our longboards from them. That second day, Dyran (aka U-Ben), Mike (Hook Slayer) and I spent virtually the whole day at the beach, hitting the water around 11ish and getting out of the water around 6...with an hour or so break after two hours there). It was a great time. At 御宿海岸, a long and lazy moon shaped beach stretching out for maybe a mile or so, there was a great break right next to the breakwater that sheltered the small harbor for the local fishing boats, but there was a good break a couple hundred yards to the left around in front of a Wedding Hotel (no, not a Love Hotel...this place was too classy looking to be a Love Motel...and there were no quotes for "Rest" or "Stay" either in front.). A lot was head high to at the very least, chest high...for a 5'8" guy like me.
The next few times I was able to surf was in Chiba, but that's probably discussion for another blog.
About two weeks ago, I ordered a 3/2mm wetsuit online so I could surf here in the Shonan area until late summer (Aug/Sept) when I could get away with board shorts and a rash guard. Those nine days waiting for the suit to arrive were probably the most antsy I've been in a while--it did not help that a typhoon was steaming a few hundred miles to the East of Japan, probably putting up some pretty good surf last week in the Shonan area. Driving down 134 past Zushi, Kamkura and Fujisawa during those few days before the typhoon petered out further at sea were not happy days. If anything, I would try to avoid driving there. But I could not stop thinking about getting back in the water for a few hours to surf.
I could have gone to find a used wetsuit, but I figured since I already bought a wetsuit, it would be counterproductive to go and buy a used suit while a perfectly new (and un-peed in) suit was on its way to me. Instead I bought a board carrier at Oshman's; a wax comb/wax box at a local surf shop in Hayama; watched The Endless Summer, Step Into Liquid and The September Sessions at least every day; bought an ok old school surf rock CD from Starbucks (how the hell anyone can not have a single Dick Dale, The Ventures, The Chantays, The Trashmen CD at any store is beyond me. Really beyond me) so I could speed listening to Pipeline by the Chantays, Miserlou by Dick Dale and His Del-Tones, Walk...Don't Run by the Ventures.
Then, yesterday it arrived. I knew it as soon as I saw the box, it had to be my wetsuit. U-Ben said that he willed it to me, but I really knew that it was the 3-8 day FPO/APO mailing time the company's website had listed period for the suit to arrive. I really just wanted to sprint out of work and haul ass to my house, toss on my board and drive to the nearest beach that looked like it had anything that was rideable. But I could not do that. Instead, I kept staring at the suit, waiting for the moment when I would finally mount my board and paddle out into the ocean with my fingers cutting into the chilly medium, the salt spray hitting me in the face and the sun guiding me out there.
I finally get home and start preparing to head out to the beach: getting my board, surf wax, garbage bag for the wetsuit, water, towel, shorts and sunscreen. It takes a while to get my buddy's soft rack set up on the car--for some reason I was able to do it before solo, but this time, I just can't get it right. I bring my board down from the house, still in the board bag and try to secure it down to the top of the car. For some reason, it just does not feel like it is secured to the car. I readjust and retighten. Again, does not feel right. Reajust. Retighten. Finally, I give up, pull the board out of the case (to find that the guys at Oshman's had left the steel hangar in the bag...why, I don't know) and mount it on top of the car. After I have the board on top, I remember that I'll probably need money to pay for parking, so there's going to have to be a stop over at the 7-11 or 郵便局 to get some Fukuzawas. (Fukuzawa is on the 10,000 Yen bill...so sorta like Benjamins...and Fukuzawa had a very high opinion of himself, as found in his autobiography or "How Awesome I Am" by Fukuzawa.)
As I'm driving, I remember that I forgot one thing, wax. It still sitting in the house waiting to be used. Luckily, there's a small surf shop on the way and there's a surf shop under Seedless Bar in Kamakura, if I end up stopping in Kamakura. With that mini-crisis resolved, (obviously I'm a real greenhorn when it comes to surfing...I don't think anyone who has been surfing for a while forgets wax on a surfing trip of any sort) I drive down the narrow road snaking along the Shonan coast in Hayama until it meets up with 134 in Zushi. Before I got to that point, I stopped at the local Hayama shop and bought some wax, in case if anyone is keeping score at home.
I don't waste my time looking at the 逗子海岸 since it is a protected cove and is really only good for 1) wind surfing, 2) going to the beach in the summer to scope out boys/girls depending on your orientation and 3) I'm sure there's something else, but I've only gone to that beach only one or two times, so I'm not quite an expert on the ins and outs there. In other words, there's nothing to surf there.
Luckily, there's not a whole lot of traffic, so its a quick drive down the curve along the beach and back between the hills and through the two tunnels-one up and the other down into a sharp curve that will have you driving right into the Sagami-wan if you're going way too fast into Kamkura. Kamakura is the first popular surfing spot (my buddy U-Ben has a spot somewhere in Hayama that he likes, but I won't divulge it, but it doesn't matter because I don't really know where it is at) on the Shonan area, but my real goal was to head to Fujisawa. I pass along the beach and try to maintain a 'keeping my eyes on the road-checking out the surf' posture while driving along the two lane road bordering the 鎌倉海岸. It looked good, good for a guy who is still learning how to surf--its not big and it looks like its breaking pretty evenly and while they are not huge waves, they're enough for me to be able to try to figure out standing on the board without really eating shit...not like the few times I got my ass handed to me in Ohara, Chiba.
Still, the goal was Fujisawa. That goal quickly skidded to an abrupt halt as just past the Lawson's, traffic heading towards Fujisawa came to a complete standstill. After doing some quick mental math and realizing that it was not worth the effort (and forgetting the shortcut that would have taken me behind all of that traffic), I decided that I would break in my new wetsuit in Kamakura.
Navigating my way through some small roads that most Americans would call "alleys," I managed to get back out to the main drag, but was not sure where to park my car--I needed a place where I could put on my wetsuit, perferably a bathroom somewhere--and ended up trying out the underground right by the beach. Immedately there was a sign in Japanese (１８時閉める）that told me that the lot closed at 1800 (6PM); launching me into a quandry--is it that the main entrance gate closes at 1800 or does the entrance and exit close at 1800? This kept bothering me, even as I put on my wetsuit and then as I started to pack my backpack with the water, towel, extra sunscreen etc for the beach and again as I unstrapped my board from the roof. It was enough to cause me to restrap my board, toss everything in the car and head out of the lot. 10 minutes cost me 220JPY. Probably best to not use this lot was the thought passing in my head.
Instead, I found a cheaper lot (100 JPY for 20 minutes) that had a outdoor shower and water hoses so I could wash off my board when I got back. Now all that was left before hitting the surf was getting my board off the car and throwing my bag on my back and off I was to the beach. Pass two guys on thier way back in...I don't think they liked the idea of a 外人 surfing in Kamakura or they didnt hear my こんにちは...probably didnt hear me since I'm pretty quiet when I speak in Japanese.
I crossed the street about a block from Seedless bar and went down to the beach, between the rapid construction of the summer beach bars that grow out of the sand in June and then vanish as quickly in September. The thought of thousands of Japanese people on the beach made me shudder--there would be no way to get out there to surf, unless it was by a not so popular spot, but all spots are popular here. I set my board down and watched the water for a while to see how it was breaking; I was not too worried about going into the breaks since they were not very big, not like our Chiba trips, and there were not a whole lot of other surfers in the water, so I didn't have to worry about getting in anyone's way as I paddled out. Needless to say, I was stoked...ready to get in the water and have the ocean welcome me back.
And out I went. There were a lot of good breaks on my way out, making me excited for the day. It was a great feeling to paddle out, the water running between my fingers, the spray from going over a slight swell and the sun was not too oppressive with a good amount of cloud cover. (I'm running out of steam with writing...need a break).
I saw the first good break, I spun the board to shore and started paddling. And paddling. And nothing. Back out, try again. And I'm going to try again to finish this blog...
And I'm back.
And isn't that a great photo to the left there? So, back to my blog that I couldn't quite finish, and I'll hold back from trying to create a picture folder on Facebook as for some reason, it crashes my Firefox browser.
I'm heading out into the surf, happily paddling my way, laughing as I run over the small swells because its so great to be on the ocean on my board, enjoying nature. I get a few handfuls of the kelp that the ocean had not quite spit up on shore, but no worries. I paddle for a bit and settle on a spot that I figured where I could catch a few waves on the way, sitting up on my board and enjoying the scenery around me. To the right is the far edge small bay, highlighted by the tall hills running to the far end and to the left is the other stretch of land making this small curve in the island of Japan. A few yard away from me, a fish jumps out of the water, at least a foot or two. He must have enjoyed that because he kept doing it for a few minutes.
As I wrote earlier, I thought I saw a good swell and tried to ride it in, but either I did not get enough momentum to catch the wave or the wave did not get full power until a few more feet in front of me where the water got really shallow. I didn't realize how shallow the water was until I got lackadaisical and was knocked off my board to find out that the water was at most waist deep. It was then that I remembered that the beach was pretty shallow here. That should have been a hint that I should have gone out until the water was deeper and then try to ride a wave in where it would hit the shallower water. But that thought never occurred to me as I tried to ride some waves--at first I was just trying to get a wave and I would ride it in without standing up to get a feel again for how the board should feel when the wave catches it, since I had not been on the board in two weeks since TEAM HOOK's last Chiba adventure.
After a few tries, I paddled into a wave and felt that I could ride this one in, the board responded and I made the beginner mistake of not standing up correctly--or even fast enough. I got up but couldn't ride the wave in--didn't get up right. It happened two more times..and I kept telling myself not to look down, but look to the right and make sure I got up quickly to ride the wave. Still, I was enjoying being on the water.
Unfortunately, I could not ride a wave, probably most likely because of my inexperience as there were some Japanese cats out there who were able to ride the waves in, so it was possible to ride in 鎌倉 that day. After about an hour and a half, I took a break and headed back in; I was not tired, but I wanted some water to drink and so I could re-evaluate where to try to catch a ride in the water. After getting out, I felt really tired (I had swam earlier that day and felt gassed) and was feeling hungry. While it was great to get in the water, it was not as much fun as it could have been if my friends were there so we could talk about how the water was and get some tips on how to ride the waves. It looked as if you really had to work the waves to get a ride too, but it was still rideable nontheless. I'm sure guys from Cali and Hawaii would laugh at what was breaking there, but it does get pretty good in the Shonan area, especially when a typhoon rolls through Japan.
After a while, I decided to call it a day and to get some food. As I headed back to the car I thought about how much fun it is going to be this summer surfing in the mornings and after work. Then I thought about surfing in Thailand when I go there later this year with my girlfriend; if they have a surfing school, maybe I should enroll with her to learn to surf...I think it would be fun, but I don't think she would be into surfing. I know she's going to want to snorkel there, which is totally fine with me as long as I get to go in the water.
After rinsing off my suit and board, I headed over to Bar Seedless for a dinner and beer and relax watching a surfing movie and thinking about the next time I head out on my board--making sure I follow through on the basics to catch a wave. No pressure though...I've got a long time to do that still.
My dream consists of a great spot near the beach somewhere. Not too close, but niether too far.
It's a bar. It's a restaurant with real casual style. Board shorts, tee shirts and flip flops, that's all. When you enter, you're greeted by Charlie Parker or Dick Dale piping out of the speakers. If you were surfing, there's a shower and board/wetsuit storage in the back-hangars so your suit doesnt get nasty-so you dont have to worry about your gear before getting cold brews either on tap or in a can/bottle. Maybe even you'll hear the Sandals so you too can dream about an Endless Summer.
No worries if you drove, because we have a parking lot of sorts.
In the front, seats for the cozy restaurant with darts and a foosball table and comfortable seats you can sink into while relaxing to the tunes or whatever movies is playing on the TVs in the restaurant. In the back is a bar, with Asahi/Suntory Malts/Kirin on tap--and if its ever possible, some good Belgian beers on tap. A nice schooner in hand and chewing on some cheese curds. To the right is the smoking room--big comfy chairs with a full bar and a walk in humidor and a nice collection of books to read while spacing out to a cigar or cigarette.
Open from 1130 to whenever...but not too late so I can catch the first waves of the morning...
Is it really over? Will Hillary concede to the Obama phenomenon? While I rarely watch election coverage, simply because on the major 24 hour hour news networks as they devolve into a screaming contest reminding me of the typical shows on ESPN, Clinton did not state or hint that she was conceding the race to Obama.
Only because the total number of votes of Florida and Michigan were not counted. It was decided by, as stated by a Clinton aide, a group of 30 people deciding instead of 600,000 people. Is that similar to the situation in Florida in 2000? I don't know, but I'm sure there are a lot of unhappy people in Florida and Michigan. Will Hillary continue to contest this? I don't know.
Obama, the candidate of change appears to be the DNC candidate. Change. It's strange that people claim to talk about change when in reality, nothing will really change in the day to day operations of the US government. Maybe change the perception, but so many groups have planted themselves into the facets of the government that they will never leave. There will always be lobbyists--mind you, lobbyists are not limited to the evil oil barons and child murdering big tobacco companies; there are lobbyists for all positions and groups, not just the evil rich types.
For all the talk about Obama being the next JFK, I certainly hope he isn't anywhere in the same league as JFK. JFK pushed the United States deeper into the Vietnam civil war, he had the government involved shadily in the failed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro's government and he nearly plunged the planet into nuclear war with the Cuban Missile Crisis. While everyone will point out that Kruschev flinched in the face of the United States, everyone glosses over the fact that Kruschev never forgot the horrors of Stalingrad and felt that it was not worth going to war and possibly nuclear war over setting up a missile base in Cuba.
What is also forgotten is the highly illegal naval blockade of Cuba by the United States. What right did the US have to blockade Cuba? For that matter, then the Russians would have had the right to blockade US ships carrying short range nuclear missile technology to Turkey. Was it that the US was shocked that the Russians had set up missile bases in Cuba, 90 miles from Miami; yet the Americans had similar missile bases in Turkey and Western Europe, just as far away from Soviet territory as the Cuban missile bases were to Miami.
Ah, hypocrisy is so much fun.
A few more complaints, well just one.
How on earth can politcal commentators talk about Clinton's constituency as an army? Are you serious? Olberman and Chris Matthews spoke about this and one of the two alluded to Clinton's political army surrendering akin to Lee surrendering the Army of Northern Virginia in 1865. Once again, people have never read f**king history, which drives me insane since its one of those subjects that I treasure.
In 1865, the Army of Northern Virginia was a beaten force, with little food, warm weather gear, uniforms, bullets, rifles and most importantly, boots. Robert E. Lee could have prolonged the war to make life miserable for the Army of the Potomac as his superior tactical abilties have allowed him to at first plummel the superior forces of the Army of the Potomac and then later after Grant used the general tactic of "f**k, I have more men, rifles, bullets and salted pork than Lee does so I'm just going to lean on him until the Army of Northern Virginia is broken!" Brilliant! But Lee realized that continuing a lost war would be pointless and brutal. Not quite the same as Clinton losing to Obama without the actual votes of Michigan and Florida being counted by the DNC.
Needless to say too, that the concept of attaching the word of army with the political constituency of Clinton does marginalize all of the real political armies: Mao, Castro, Lenin and his Red Army, Simon Bolivar...etc etc.
I'm very tired of this election and I've watched exactly four (4) hours of election coverage since the primaries began and it was four hours too many. I'm going to go read my copy of Odd Man Out: Truman, Stalin, Mao and the Origins of the Korean War and the original scroll edition of On The Road.
The waves silently washed away all of the anxieties of a fragile existence; the million year old molecules rushing past permeable membranes, each containing the shrouded secrets of immortality locked away by a rusting padlock and the key lost under a stone by a faded pastel one storey ranch sitting in the middle of a swaying sea of corn.
It was right there, the answer to the question of a post carbon based life in immortality. Not only the answer, but unarticulated by the various tongues of recorded history, that question attached to that answer in time immemorial.
You can't have your cake and eat it too
Apparently, that appears to be the case. The United States government takes its daily lumps for actions it has taken in the past and in the interim present. We're taking part in an illegal war in Iraq. A war that ended with the fall of Saddam Hueissen's Baa'thist government, followed by an occupation that was more difficult than anticipated. If anyone believes that military blunders are the patented copyright of the Bush administration, then over 200 years of US military mistakes never existed in the first place.
Here's a couple to keep in mind: Bull's Run (I and II), Sharpsburg (Antietam), Chancellorsville, Fredricksburg and Seven Pines. All occured under the auspices of the revered Abraham Lincoln.
Ironically, for a war that was fought, in the popular version, to end slavery, the Federal government allowed states such as Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri to maintain slaves during the war. Also, the Emancipation Proclamation even states this explicity that only states that were not part of the United States were not to have slaves. It was an aim, but not the sole reason why the United States went to war with the Confederate States; it was that the Federal government felt that secession by the southern states was viewed as Rebellion.
But I'm not blogging about the American Civil War, which I have at best, a passing knowledge other than the general incompetence or timidity of the generals of the Army of the Potomac. Instead it is the "I want my cake and to eat it too" mentality of China and Russia.
While a good part of the anti-Chinese government media is a bit overblown and at times unfair; how do Europeans and Americans who took part in the illegal occupation and manipulation of Chinese society in the late 19th and early 20th century under a series of unequal treaties back by military might get off on playing the morality game with China? While it is true that the current Chinese government has done some things that the "enlightened" Western world considers inhumane and barbaric, the West (Europe and the United States) have not been very enlightened in their past and on the whole have not made concessions for many of thier actions in the past. Particularly, the actions of the west in the case of China in the 19th century.
The Chinese have not forgotten the injustices visited upon them by the west since the mid 19th century, and they have a right to be incensed by constant bombardment by the popular press that China is a "bad guy" nation. Case in point, the current situation in Tibet. Western press will be quick to point out that Tibet is only currently under Chinese control because the PLA (People's Liberation Army) rolled into Tibet in 1951 to establish the current communist rule. What they don't point out was that China after the 1911 cultural revolution which turned thier world upside down; think of it like this--invaders attack the United States and thier very existence and thinking negates the nearly 2000 years of the foundation of the Judeo-Christian civizilation, in which they faced a national crisis of reunification, consolidation of the 1920s that was inherited by Kai-shek; and with those issues still unresolved, with a split in China between the Nationalists of Kai-shek and the Communists of Mao, they were invaded by the Japanese in full force in the late 1930s; after the war, and after the completion of thier own civil war, there was finally one united government that then worked to consolidate thier holdings and reunite the territories of "China."
What is also not mentioned is that Tibet has been part of China since the Golden Horde of Kublai Khan, dating to the 13th century, when he incorporated Tibet into the Yuan dynasty.
But, one may ask, what right did the Chinese government have in occupying Tibet in 1951 when Tibet has claimed its own independence in 1913? If that is the case, then what right did the US Federal government have in identifying the secessionist states as in "rebellion" giving rise to the eventual outbreak of the American Civil War? The secessionist states, using the Declaration of Independence as a guide (using the term of tryanny of an unjust government) felt that the Federal government was unjust and using the same argument that the colonials had against the British Empire, they felt that secession was a legitimate right since there was past precedent. Is it a sound proof argument? To them, it was. What I think is mere conjecture, but using the history of the United States itself, the Chinese did have a right to reclaim what was "soveregin" Chinese territory for nearly 700 years.
And yet, we have the enlightened mind of Sharon Stone pouring out nonsensities about China had it coming to it because of what it did in Tibet; indeed, all of those innocent people who had nothing to do with the Chinese government's actions in Tibet deserved to die. Yet, it is okay for those who are in the movement to establish freedom to Tibet from Chinese rule create a public disturbance and impede the movement of the Olympic Torch, a symbol for the world to unite despite our own differences. They want peace, but they impede liberty, the basic liberties of the western world, impeding the right of one person to run down the street with a torch.
So, why is anyone confused as to why the Chinese are insulted?
Yes, the Boston Celtics are fucked. Pure and simple. I think that I am not in the minority when I say that I did not expect what happened to the Celtics in games 3 and 4 in Atlanta. Now, I figured that the Hawks would manage to win one game after being humiliated in Boston in games 1 and 2, but the events that unfolded in Atlanta for games 3 and 4 have changed the series completely.
After watching game 4, I am pretty sure the Celtics are in trouble and I think that they just lost the series. There's losing two games on the road to the opponent (we've seen the Bulls of the 1990s, the Pistons and Spurs of the 2000s deal with those type of runs by the opposing team), but how the Celtics lost should be causing Boston fans to get worried. Really worried. It was not that the Hawks got hot from the field and just had "one of those nights" where they can't miss the bucket at all; they bullied the Celtics. From Zaza Pachulia getting into Kevin Garnett's face (who the hell is Zaza Pachulia? Huh?) after an elbow to the chest after he [Garnett] pulled down a rebound to Paul Pierce getting hit pretty hard on a drive and then his bad miss after losing control of the ball on a drive late in the fourth, the Celtics looked like they were the number 8 seed with only 37 wins.
What should be concerning Boston fans as well is that Doc Rivers did not make an adjustment at all when Joe Johnson ate up Ray Allen late in the fourth on what was four or five series where he held onto the ball, the Hawks running an isolation for him on the wing and then trying to peel off Allen on a pick and roll play...and on each of those possessions, he abused Allen and scored a big bucket after big bucket. The Celtics would respond but the Hawks realized that Allen couldn't handle Joe Johnson and they continued the run that isolation play until Rivers realized that Allen couldn't handle Johnson and by that time, it was 1:45 or so left in the game and they didn't start trying to trap him on the baseline away from the basket until it was too late too.
And don't forget that Al Horford is dominating in the low post.
I'm sure people will say that the Celtics will get things done at home, but I don't see anyone on the Celtics pulling the team on their back and winning a game; the closest would be Sam Cassell, but he's 158 years old (38 years old in reality) and I don't think that's the one person you want to trust your season on consistently. The other would be Rajon Rondo; he's the one who can drive and create his own shot, but it is his first playoffs although he has outplayed Mike Bibby.
If the Celtics get past the Hawks, right now, I do not see them getting past LeBron James and the Cavs--he has already proven against the Wizards who are playing much more physical than I can see the Celtics playing that he win the game one way or the other. He can trust his teammates with big shots as was the case in his dime to Delonte West that won Game 4 for the Cavs and have the Wizards on the brink of elimination. He is a force to be reckoned with and its looking like the team is starting to gel now nonwithstanding the blowout in Game 3.
As for the Pistons, even though it appears that they took control of the series with their huge second half against the 76ers, the thing that killed the 76ers was that they couldn't hit any shots and the Pistons got some timely baskets from guys who were struggling (Billups and Wallace); I still think Delambert and Andre Miller will continue to give the Pistons problems and eventually Iguodala will break out. The second half of game 4 was the only coherent basketball the Pistons had played since their win in Game 2, and again, it was on the shoulders of 6 good shots by Wallace and Billups and the always dependable play of Tayshaun Prince. The Pistons will have problems putting away the 76ers and they need to win Game 5. I don't see the Pistons being able to win Game 6 on the road to stay alive. But, the Pistons stand a better chance of advancing as compared to the Celtics who are screwed. Seriously screwed.
The Celtics are screwed because they gave a very athletically talented team the confidence that they can not only beat the Celtics but push the mighty Celtics around on the court. I dont see a player on the Celtics who will pull out a statement game to slap reality back into the Hawks to remind them that they were a 37 win team that has no chance of winning this series; Larry Bird, Magic, Moses Malone, MJ, Shaq, Hakeem, Tim Duncan would have a major statement game where they would not allow their team to lose. The Celtics don't have that player who can plunge that dagger into the Hawks' chest and crush their confidence.
I could be wrong and KG could have a 30-20 game in Game 5 as the Celtics cruise to a 20 point lead, but right now, I think the Hawks young players, especially Joe Johnson, Al Horford and the rest will not be swayed by the Garden or the crowd right now. It looks like that the Celtics are in trouble. Just like the Mavs against the Warriors last year.
Looking forward to seeing if LBJ and the Cavs can close out against the Wiz.
Can the Suns push the series to a Game 6? They have a better chance than the Mavs to continue to extend their series. The Mavs are finished.
25 村田 修一鍛えたそのパワー かっとばせ 勝利をさぁ目指せ ホームラン (Courtesy of http://www.seiha-net.com/)
Last night I managed to stay up until 11:30 or so watching Family Guy before passing out (I cant wait for season six to come out on DVD), and I was pretty tired all day since I had stayed up late last night and woke up early on Saturday as well so waking up at 5:34 or so this morning did not help at all. I have no clue as to why I woke up so early either. It was a Sunday morning, I had no real reason to wake up so early and normally, I wake up at 8 or 9 am. I had toyed with the idea of waking up early to go swimming, but I know that my laziness on the weekends always overcomes any ideas of heading back to base to go swim or lift; that and my dislike of going on base, its not as if its a disgusting base, I just prefer to stay away from anything that reminds me of work.
Unless my mind subconsciously knew that the NFL draft was unfolding in New York City this morning in Japan and I am instinctively programmed to sit around and watch the NFL draft on NFL draft weekend; one of the major holidays of American football. The NBA draft is not as exciting or interesting and no one knows when the NHL or MLB draft occurs at all, its as if those two professional drafts are at best a rumor that appears on the back of a Topps baseball card. I missed the first few picks, but I was watch on NFL.com the draft coverage by the NFL network, which was awesome, so people who are NFL fans can watch outside of the United States; I don't know why more games etc are available online, I'm sure they are worried that people are going to simply watch everything online, but I dont know any true fans who spend money on a huge TV that would prefer the not as good quality picture that you get from a webcast of a game. The NBA charges nearly $100 USD to see NBA games, but I don't think it is worth it; at least the MLB webcasts have a cheaper option of around $25 USD to watch games. I don't know, but it is something that the NCAA football types should look into next bowl season as CBS had March Madness on demand for free online and I was able to watch a lot of games which was awesome. And yes, the NBA game is superior to the college game and for that matter, all I could think of when watching Michael Beasley vanish in the second half against Wisconsin; as much as I love my Badgers, they are not exactly an NBA level team, all I could think of...how can any team think about investing millions on this guy who should be killing the Badgers on the inside right now since I know the Badger front court players cant even match this guy at all. I really did see all of those Derrick Coleman comparisons there. On the other hand Derrick Rose was ridiculously good as was Chris Douglas-Roberts in the tournament.
Bottom line, the NFL draft is the best non-sporting sporting event on television. Its the one moment of hope for a team to be either sustained by a draft that is perceived as a strong or a crushing recurring nightmare of a team that cannot do anything correctly on or off the field. That was the Chicago Bears from 1996 to...well, on and off presently. By the way, this is all I have to say about Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher. Two words to be exact. Fuck and You. Lance Briggs replaced Roosevelt Colvin who I thought was a huge loss in 2002, but Briggs filled in his spot and actually played better, but how much money can you make? I didnt see him make any spectacular plays in the Super Bowl...actually, I think I saw him get punked down by a blocker in the game or was that Addai or Rhodes running his ass over towards a Super Bowl title. I know that they are limited by the schemes that are set up, but I still cant get over the fact that Urlacher wants to be percieved as a big time MLB in Chicago, but when he cannot take on a blocker and still make the play; this reminds me of watching a day game of Urlacher getting punked by a OG and then by a fullback and then on the primetime game, I saw Ray Lewis fight off the blocker and then hit the back and forced a turnover.
Now Urlacher is complaining about a long term deal that pays him millions, not to mention the millions he makes in endorsements and royalties from name. I can see some parallels between Urlacher and the end of Butkis's career, except Butkis played with no cartilage in his knees for two seasons and was a victim of a butcher of a surgeon. Briggs? I dont know, but I would have traded him after that Lamborghini incident. Gone. Maybe package him and Cedric Benson as well. I always find it stupid when people say, hey look that guy who got cut from X team in X city after playing so many years is now having a career year in Y city; all I can think is: "so why couldn't that putz have the same fire and desire to play when he was in Chicago?" Case in point, Frank Thomas. After the 1994 strike, he could not hit a ball. He was a .330 or so hitter, but from 1995-1997 he could not hit a basketball if it was thrown over the plate, and yet, Chicago kept him around and all Sox fans hoped that he could find his groove again and become the Frank Thomas that earned the nickname, "The Big Hurt." Things came around for him and just in time for a new contract where he demanded all sorts of money and all I could think of was...uh, so with the exception of this past season, you have not done a thing, and now you want all of this as if you were an All Star for the past few years? His sulking was pathetic. In a way, it was good for the Sox that he went down in 2005, and become a new example for Bill Simmons's "Ewing Theory." The Sox let him go, after he sulked about not getting a big contract from the Chicago front office and then had a big season with the Oakland A's, which he parlayed into a big contract with the Toronto Bluejays, but I wondered why he didn't produce like that in Chicago when we needed him to when he was the cornerstone of the franchise. It all has come full circle as the Jays cut him when he couldn't get anything going early in the season.
I still wonder what would have happened if the 1994 strike never happened...
And speaking of baseball, today I went to the Yokohama Baystars X Hiroshima Toyo Carp game in Yokohama for my second game of the season. Previously, the Baystars lost a heartbreaker to the Chunichi Dragons who look pretty good to defend their Japan Series championship. The Baystars, who I thought had a good chance to at least finish in the same spot and maybe even challenge for that last Climax Series berth for the Central League have stumbled to a 4-17-1 start, and although it is a long season, its never good to start off 11 games out of first place. The pitching is not bad, Daisuke Mirua looked good in the one outing I've seen, Kudoh will come on later in the year, Terahara is a pretty good pitcher and after today, it looks like they have a few good young pitchers on the team. What is killing them is the complete lack of offense (main culprits are Nishi, Saeki, whichever left fielder they have out there (Bigbie was doing alright, but he got injured yesterday) and Yoshimura's early struggles this season.), bad defense and questionable managing.
The best example was last week against the Giants where Terahara was pitching a gem against the Giants, who have a line up that's liable to explode for a bunch of runs at once, but Terahara was doing a good job of keeping the ball on the ground for easy outs or for fly outs during the game. It was a pretty good pitching duel between him and the Giants pitcher, but the Baystars drew blood first, getting 2 runs, but as the 7th inning came up, Terahara was having issues getting his pitches where he wanted to; his pitches to the outside were way, way outside and his pitches to the inside beaned Gonzales...his control was shaky and it looked like he was getting tired. At this point he already had nearly 90 pitches and with the lead, Ohya should have gone to his bullpen to get through the 7th and 8th and then close it out in the 9th.
Oh no, instead he leaves Terahara when he is visibly exhausted, you could see it in his eyes that he was realizing that he couldn't get good movement on the ball at all, and he ended up giving up a big single that ended up putting the tying run on base. Then Ohya finally pulls into his bullpen...to bring out Kizuka. I dont know why he is still with this franchise; he has this habit of giving up the big hit or home run when you need him to hold down the fort. He comes out and bam, just like clockwork, he gives up a big single that ties the game. Then with his sidearm delivery, his pitch floats right into the center of the strike zone and Sakamoto hits the ball...right into the same gap between 2nd and 3rd base the prior big single shot through earlier. Finally Ohya realizes that Kizuka is not going to get those outs. He reaches in and pulls out Matt White, another guy who only warms up after giving up a big hit to the other team during inopportune moments of the game. Which he does, as Takahashi takes his pitch deep, deeper than Kinjoh anticipated as he sprinted back and almost made the grab, almost, as in short by four inches as he tried to reach across his body and out for the ball. Not quite. Matt White gets the last out, but the damage is done, the Baystars are down 5-2 and the game is over. They couldn't get a hit earlier and really needed to capitalize on what little offense they were able to produce in the 6th inning. And Marc Kroon shut the door on them again. Mother fuckers.
Today, the rookie Kobayashi was pitching pretty well, working the inside and outside, getting his feel for the game and would have made it through the first inning without giving up a run it it was not for Uchikawa's inability to field; he lost a game for the Baystars last season against the Swallows trying to make a circus catch that was pointless instead of just working to make a simple play, and right in front of the right gaiya, this time, he lost a fly ball for us that he should not have tried to make a play on as Yoshimura had a better angle on the ball than he did. Yeah, it dropped fair and the Carp scored. After that though, Kobayashi pitched a good game and the Baystars played great defense. Nishi snared a sure single and made the throw to first that had me getting on my feet. Later in the game, Murata made a diving catch for the out that got everyone excited. Sadly, the Baystars could not help out Kobayashi by scoring any runs in the game until the sixth inning.
At the bottom frame of the sixth, the Baystars managed to get a guy on base, but nothing else. Kinjoh got a nice single into center field in the gap. Great hit. Up comes Murata and I instinctively reach down to put my bay on my seat to avoid and beer pouring down the stands from the huge hit that I knew was coming. On the first pitch, Murata actually swung, when he normally is looking at the first pitch, which is normally a strike. Strange. Takes a ball, and then the next pitch, he connects, and I watch the ball up and I know its gone (I lost it in the clouds since it was an overcast day) and the guys and I go for the railing to watch it go into the left gaiya (bleachers) as we go nuts. There was so much energy in the crowd waiting to be released and that huge hit did it; I don't know if it is a turning point in the season for the Baystars as they finally capitalized (well, that I've seen) on a great pitching and defensive effort. 2-1 Yokohama.
The Baystars add an insurance run in the 8th courtesy of a big Uchikawa double bringing in Takuro for a 3-1 lead. There was one more surprise from the Baystars as they trotted out Terahara out in the 9th to close out the game. I dont know if it was to help build up his confidence after the disaster in the Tokyo Dome last week, but he takes down the first two, gives up a single, causing Ohya to send his bench coach out there, why, I dont know. Just let the guy pitch. He takes down the last guy and the Baystars win.
Is this a turning point for their season? This is the first series they have won all season (2-1 in the weekend set against the Carp) and while it can be dismissed as a pillow fight between two of the worst teams in baseball, the Baystars have the pitching staff and the lineup when finally on track that can cause some damage this season. They need to keep up the defensive effort since that is always their undoing in games, giving up base hits that should be outs and forcing the pitchers to increase thier pitch count, bringing on fatigue earlier; and its a big factor here since they pitch nearly 100 pitches before games here...more of a big deal here than in the US. They need to make sure that they don't shatter their young pitcher's confidence either. Terahara is doing really well, and he makes a good rotation with Miura and Kudoh (as long as Kudoh gets good run support at times since he can give up a big hit at times).
We'll see. They travel down to Nagoya for three against the Dragons and then down to Hiroshima for three against the Carp. they need to at least come out .500 on this short roadie, and better if they come out 4-2. The Giants are heating up and the Dragons are maintaining, but can the Tigers maintain their pace (even after raping the Carp of young talented players)? Can the Baystars even play .500 ball right now? Dunno.
But that Murata home run was sweet.
修一鍛えたそのパワー かっとばせ 勝利をさぁ目指せ ホームラン!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sitting around watching BS-i; tonight the Chunichi Dragons, the defending Japan Series and Konami Cup Champions are up against the evil Yomuri Giants and their bloated payroll. No way this telecast is skewed in favor of one team over the other; 'Beat the Dragons' is the undertone of the telecast. All the propaganda in the world wont change the fact that the Dragons are leading 3-1 now or the fact that the Giant's starting pitching is...outside of Utsumi-san is so-so; I'm sure Yokohama fans are upset that Marc Kroon and his 161 kph fast ball now reside in the Yomuri bullpen, but I think the Baystars organization saw the same thing I did: although Kroon did get his saves, he had a bad habit of allowing teams to make a run and would run up his pitch count big time because other than his curve ball and heater, he has no other pitches. (Well...that may explain why he is playing in Japan...but I wont go there)
In other news, Murata Shuichi had a 2 run jack against the Swallows tonight.
I don't think that the Dragons are going to miss Fukodome too much this season seeing that they won a large majority of their games last season and ran through the Tigers and beat top seeded Yomuri in the Climax Series last year without him; and then defeated the defending Japan Series champs, the Nippon Ham Fighters. It does help to have good ol' Tyrone Woods and his 30 or so jacks a year backing up their offense as well. The Giants probably pursued Alex Ramirez in the offseason for that same reason.
I really should be studying for the LSAT, but I'm a lazy sonufabitch.
Well, I guess Utsumi isnt doing all too well...he's been rocked for two runs in the 6th inning and just got yanked for Nishimura. I haven't seen many games outside of the medicore Baystars this season, so I dont know all too much about the pitching staff of the Yomuri Giants. I just enjoy watching them lose. More than watching the Red Sox and Yankees lose; though I enjoy watching the Red Sox lose because I'm so tired of this "Red Sox Nation" crap; it really pissed me off when Joe Buck tried created a "White Sox Nation" and the curse of the Sox during the 2005 playoffs. In all the years I've watched the Sox on WGN or WFLD or hearing thier games on AM 1000 in Chicago, I don't recall hearing about a "White Sox Nation" or some curse. And Nishimura gave up a run on a little blooper that was just over the second baseman's arm. Man, if he was a gaihin...hah hah hah hah hah hah hah hah.
And the Baystars are laying the full sized beat down on the Swallows now, 11-0. Well, good thing that our offense finally decided to come to life while the pitching staff has not been whiped out yet.
I really want to watch this "Rookies" show...ah...overdramatization of high school baseball...I wonder how many groupies the guys have in this series. Its funny, if anyone reads Gotta Have Wa, there's a very interesting chapter about the Koshien (Japanese high school national championships) where someone makes a snide remark about the "pure" ballplayers not being all too pure with ass being thrown at them at all directions. Yeesh...its worse than UW Madison football groupies! Hah hah hah.
And the beating is continuing at Jingu stadium, 12-0. Do they have an "uncle" rule?
Gotta love the BS-i mouse with the blonde afro in the little inter-commerical breaks between the telecast and the drama commericals. Including the fan friendly "To love る"....this of course led Dyran and I to ask Princess Sachiyo if that really leads to Japanese men being disapointed in the end...but, that's assuming that they haven't already wanted the bronde f**k beforehand.
ブロンド フック
I bet the Giants wish they had one of those right now...
The pain just ended for the Swallows, a 9 run fifth inning. It was almost as enjoyable as the huge inning the White Sox had at the expense of the Detroit Tigers earlier this week.
Bobby Valentine is very animated when congratulating his players after a win, more than your typical NPB managers, and its not that he's an American, I don't see Brown (manager of the Hiroshima Carp) do the same after a Carp win; but that's dependent on the Carp winning games, which does not happen a whole lot for that franchise in the past few years. What's odd is that Minnesota Twins fans can probably sympathize with Hiroshima Carp fans since both teams get fleeced by the better known franchises (the Twins by the Yankees and Red Sox and the Carp by the Hanshin Tigers (Osaka) and the Yomiuri Giants (Tokyo)) for their young talented ball players. Its not as if anyone can really compete against the Giants since they are the most popular team in Japan--and unless you're very loyal to your local team or if you're from the Kansai plain and area big Osaka fan, there's not much of a chance competing against the Giants for your talented ball players. Its a same, its actually worse than it is with the Yankees and Red Sox in the US.
Well, the pain is continuing for the Swallows, Murata had another homer, a 2 run jack to left field. 15-4.
Gotta love how 1) my blog is completely incoherent, 2) how cool われわれsounds in dialouge and 3) how overemotional characters are in Japanese anime and lastly 4) how much cooler ドラゴンボールZ is in 日本語。
Eh, looks like the Baystars are going to wrap up a beatdown on the Swallows and I finished my Sapporo tall boy so there's no real reason to stay up since I know I'm not going to study for my LSAT. Hah hah hah.
Blah blah blah.
Mediocre.
One of the words that no one wants to hear linked in a sentence when refering to one's performance in anything. In work, in 'making out skills' (my girlfriend's phrase not mine), in anything for that matter.
But for some reason, it tends to be a common trait in my favorite sports teams; I know that I have nothing to do with what they do on the field, even if I wear that one lucky jersey-that-I-wore-in-that-big-playoff-game-that-helped-them-win-that-one-playoff-game-they-won-in-the-past-twenty-years. If the team loses a game, several games, finishes twenty five games out of first place and with a 100 run score difference, life goes on, though it sucks in the ephemeral moment after defeat. This was one of the things I learned in college and later this summer again; if you cant get over a professional team playing a game, then you have some serious issues you need to look into; unless you are one of those guys on the team getting paid to win games.
Growing up as a Chicago fan was not the most fun as a fan. While born in the 1980s, I don't remember the 1985-86 Chicago Bears; I dont remember the game at all, unlike 100% of Chicago Bears fans my age. I dont remember the Super Bowl ShuffleI...actually, that's a positive; I dont remember Walter Payton getting unintentionally snubbed by Mike Ditka by allowing 'Da Fridge' to score a touchdown on the goalline. I dont remember any of that. What I do remember was the "Wanny Era."
With the exception of the 1994, 2001, 2005 and 2006 seasons, there was not much to look forward to during the football season for the Bears other than possibly how high in the draft our pick would reside. There was really nothing to watch either, no exciting young player or anything to give hope to the masses at all. The only reason to watch was that either WFLD only carried the Chicago games and the other games were blacked out so you could watch the aftergame shows that no one really cared about to rehash another onfield disaster. Yet, the post Ditka era until Lovie Smith of 1993-2004 were not as bad as the 1966-1977 era in Chicago history where the Bears were unbearably terrible although they had some of the best players of thier generation on the team: Gayle Sayers and Dick Butkis (and a pretty good player in Doug Buffone as well). Almost the same can be said now with Urlacher and now Devon Hester, although with the exception of the 2007 disaster have had relevant seasons during their time in Chicago.
The White Sox were on the verge of being a dynamic team after the 1993 ALCS, but the 1994 Strike cut them down before they could go anywhere. Afterwards, we had the 1997 White Flag season (which produced players that brought a divisional title in 2001 and a WS in 2005) and worst, Frank Thomas losing his ability to hit the ball. Yet, this is nothing in comparison to the Cubs, but I'm a Sox fan, so what happens to the Northsiders really does not affect me at all. Only such as sad franchise can blame a kid in the stands trying to catch a foul ball on why they didnt make it to the 2003 WS; instead of focusing on the bad pitching and defense that allowed the Marlins to even get to a 7th and deciding game that Kerry Wood let slip away. There are the two things that I will always remember about Kerry Wood, other than the bad luck with injuries: his 20K game and dropping Game 7 of the 2003 NLCS.
The Blackhawks after some sucess early in the 1990s fell off after being dominated by the Colorado Avs in 1997. I dont know if anyone realized there was a hockey team in Chicago until recently. Yeah, they made the playoffs in 2002, but no one I knew expected anything but an early bow out in the playoffs. More often than not, the Blackhawks have been less than spectacular than anything else. I haven't watched a Blackhawks game, that is, those that were not blacked out on television since 2000 when they got rocked by the Red Wings. It was a shame to compare the two franchises as both started to become relevant in the early 1990s, except that Bill Wirtz refused to pay any of the major components of the 1992 Western Conference champions, the last component leaving in 1997 in the form of Jeremy Roenick. Apathy made dealing with this mediocre team a bit more bearable.
Everyone who became a Bulls fan in the 1990s...or realized what professional basketball as in the 1990s in the Chicagoland area can whine and moan about the collapse of the Phil-MJ-Pippen dynasty after 1998, but in reality, they really should not have, since it could have ended worse than it did. Case in point, the Bulls were unbeaten as the defending champions with Jordan in the lineup. The key phrase is: with Jordan in the lineup in lieu of the 1994 loss to the Knicks in the playoffs. If the Bulls had managed to get past the Knicks, there is a good chance that it would have been Pippen in the huge spotlight that Jordan had filled the season prior. This might be discounting the Pacers who upset the Magic and the Atlanta Hawks, but it was not likely that the Bulls would have lost to the Pacers, especially having home court advantage in that series. But they did not and at that point, everyone was probably considering what was going to happen to Chicago now that the dynasty was truly over.
Now, I'm going in a completely different direction...
With the loss of Grant and probably the pending loss or trade of Pippen after the 1995 season, the Bulls were facing rebuilding in the face. Phil would have left Chicago in the offesason of 1995 and where would he have gone? LA? The Knicks with Pat Riley leaving for Miami? Where would have Pippen gone? Would the Pacers have become a dominant force in the East? Without a Jordan led Bulls dominating the Magic in 1996, furthering the disaster of the 1995 Finals, does Shaq stay in Orlando with Penny? Or does he still opt for LA? What happens with the Mourning-Hardaway Heat without the Bulls to crush them when they started to peak in 1997? Do the SuperSonics dominate the West with GP hitting his prime and Shawn Kemp not opting out to Cleveland to gain 60 lbs? Do they even sell out to Cash Clay with the prospect of the franchise leaving Seattle? What about the Ewing Knicks? What about the Jazz? Do Karl Malone and John Stockton go out as champions? Do they dominate the NBA before retiring gracefully?
The whole dynamics of the leauge changed with just two words, "I'm back." It took Jordan to get humiliated, getting his pocket picked by Nick Anderson who he would normally just crush (and later did) before his retirement to motivate him to come back and dominate the game. It was probably the most devestating steal in the history of the NBA. It precipitated the collapse of the Shaq-Penny Magic, continued to deny the Ewing Knicks, stopped the Mourning-Hardaway Heat, denied the Miller Pacers until they ran into the next dynasty of Shaq-Kobe, denied the Super Sonics, stopped the Jazz and countless other teams down the stretch. If the Bulls are mediocre, do they get a chance to draft Farragut High's Kevin Garnett? What about Kobe Bryant, do the Bulls take a chance on him with a high draft pick in 1997? I know countless Boston fans wonder about the "what ifs" if Len Bias had not overdosed on cocaine about the Celtics dynasty as much as Bulls fans do not ponder a permanent Jordan retirement in 1993.
While everyone enjoyed the return of Jordan and the second three-peat, it did adversely affect the rebuilding of the Bulls after 1998. Jerry Krause, I'm sure felt some unjustified pressure to win again after "breaking" up the Bulls in 1998. What seems to be forgotten was that it was probably a foregone conclusion after the 1998 season. Pippen was ready to leave Chicago, Jordan was slowing down and having problems dealing with bigger guards (remarkedly so after his 2001 return as well), Jackson was ready to retire regardless and Rodman was not going to return at all. The bench was virtually non-existent in 1998, with Jordan carrying the team until Pippen came back late in the season--case in point was Game 6 of the 1998 Finals were Pippen was nullified by a back injury and outside of Jordan only Toni Kukoc was the only other Bull to score in double figures. There were some serious doubts about the Bulls, except that its very difficult to beat Jordan in a seven game series, regardless of the lack of support from his bench.
But that pressure he felt dealing with the percieved role that he was the reason why the Bulls broke up--one cannot forget that he pulled the 1987 draft day coup of getting Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant--did not help much in the league view of the Chicago franchise amongst the players as well. If Jordan did not return and say the Bulls were forced to rebuild without the stigma of the front office breaking up a dynasty (Pippen probably leaving Chicago for more money) after 1995, is it a different story when the Bulls try to woo a big name free agent?
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