It’s Still Real to Me, Damnit

If you’re a pro wrestling fan, the titular phrase evokes memes, parody videos, and overall laughter.  The source of this cultural phenomenon was at a Q&A session for a wrestling show, where a despondent fan took his turn to ask wrestling personalities some profound questions.  Unfortunately in the introduction to his series of questions, the fan emotionally described his love for the sport and the unimaginable sacrifice wrestlers endure to perfect their craft.  The result was a grown man in tears, barely able to keep his composure while thanking entertainers for providing him moments of happiness throughout the years.  Why would I bring this up?  Quite simple – the same feeling can be evoked for opposite reasons! 

One of the beautiful things about living in this day and age is the easy accessibility to old footage to relive highlights and lowlights from your favorite players, teams, etc…  On that note, ESPN recently finished airing its 10 part documentary series on His Airness himself, the man many call the GOAT (Greatest of All Time for you un-hip cats out there), Michael Jordan.  And let me tell you something, as great as it was to relive the NBA in the late 80’s and 90’s, I still find myself wanting to scream at the TV while watching iconic moments over and over again.  Case in point, I was a huge Knicks fan in the 90’s – mainly because of Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley.  In fact Ewing’s influence had such an impact on me that I eventually went to Georgetown University to become a Hoya myself, but I digress.  Albeit a brief few moments, I had to relive moments where I realized I still hate the Bulls and watching those moments sucked.  Yes, I know what happens but you know what it doesn’t make me smile at all.

Here, I’ll list a few moments:

• Beating the LA Lakers in 1991 – I was kinda happy for Jordan, but really was a huge Magic Johnson fan (not so hurtful)
• 1992 – Beating the Knicks in 7 (oh, so close) and then disposing the Blazers in 6 topped off by the shrug in Game 1 (Barf)
• 1993 – Charles Smith under the basket (F You Charles Smith, if Xavier McDaniel is on the team, we score)
• More 1993 – Downing the Suns in 6 – John Paxson for 3 (@$O#U$LJ$L#)
• 1994- MJ’s playing baseball – it’s the Knicks year, oh wait that’s right they still lost to the Rockets (reliving the Kukoc buzzer beater even though the Bulls lost that series)
• 1995 – The return from baseball and dropping a double nickel while wearing 45 at MSG (A wide open Bill Freaking Pennington)
• 1996 – The 72 win team (incredible accomplishment, nuff said)
• 1997 –  5 titles now (Not again!!! And now it’s Steve Kerr finishing it up!)
• 1998 – the last Dance – (the Pacers had them and that game 6 sequence to finish off the Jazz, argh!)

So yea, I’m bitter, but as a fan it’s those moments that you’ll never forget for good reasons or bad.  I mean there were quite a few NBA legends that wanted no part of this documentary because they did not want to relive some of those moments listed above. 

In closing, these moments are still readily vivid in my recollections.  Documentaries such as the ESPN 30 for 30 series bring back so many memories.  There are some that I’ve enjoyed reliving such as the ones covering the Big East Conference, the sale of the Islanders that never happened, and the two on Miami (the U).  And I just DVR’ed the Golf Channel documentary on the Tiger Slam anxiously awaiting an opportunity to relive those memories.  So I’ll end with this nostalgic line from 80’s TV, “You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the Facts of Life!”

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