Summer has come to a close. Early morning traffic jams are back. School registration and classes are just around the corner. All these can only mean one thing...
It's the NBA FINALS baby!!!
June has always been that unusual time of the year when I get up early in the morning and spend a good part of 2 hours watching the best NBA teams from the East and West play in a best of 7 series to determine who gets the Larry O'Brien trophy, and the right to be called World Champions.
(a title that has become debatable given the recent debacles of Team USA)
For some reason, I've always associated the NBA Finals with the occurrences mentioned above. While the connections are coincidental, it does manage to bring back a lot of old memories.
It was the 1991 Finals. The LA Lakers led by Magic Johnson (on his last full season before being diagnosed with AIDS) were going up against the upstart Chicago Bulls led by scoring phenom Michael Jordan. As a Lakers fan then (as I still am now), I was disappointed with the Bulls victory. In hindsight, however, I am glad to have been able to watch this series as it marked the beginning of the Jordan era and the first of 6 trophies for the 90's Chicago Dynasty.
