The On Deck Circle

“But I’ll be damned if I don’t take a stand/We ain’t goin’ out like that” – Cypress Hill Don’t act shook about this performance, True Believer. This game is exactly what we should have expected out of the Lakers following their let-down in Game 5. This series is not at all about momentum. It is [...]

Long after Game 5 finished, I was left staring at the television before me and echoing the call of the Prince of Denmark. “Bloody, bawdy villain!” I would have exclaimed, if I had better vocabulary, diction, and sense of phrasing. In reality my cussing was much less eloquent – think more fishing wharf than The Barb [...]

Big Mo’ has become a rather finicky friend to have. It used to be that you could trust him at least to stand by you for a while, enough that you felt comfortable with him on your side. Now though, Mo’ just seems to flip-flop around with no consistency at all. Here today, gone today. [...]

Jonathan Swift once said that no wise man ever wished to be younger. Well, beyond the obvious fact that this makes Mr. Swift sounds like a curmudgeony old man who would very much like you to “get off his lawn with your damn rap music,” he has a valid point. The passage of time makes [...]

Titans have clashed. Garnett has broken out his Big Bad Wolf routine, futility included. Big Baby has wept, and surely already deflected criticism. Gasol has shut everyone up, for now at least. And Kobe’s jaw has jutted out unnecessarily. Yes, Game 1 is in the books. Time to stretch, exercise, paint, and dissect. Really, what [...]