Word: birding
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...back the underdog, but even the hardworking, muttily named Utah Jazz (did Satchmo summer in Salt Lake?), with its working-class Mailman and great white hopes, couldn't drag us away from Jordan's charm. For a spasm of a second last month, it seemed O.K. if Larry Bird's Pacers won the conference championship--there was mythological resonance to the protagonist's being felled by a warrior ghost--but by Game 7, we were right back in our proper seats behind Jordan. We wanted one more hit of Jordan's hyperintensity, and we were willing to sacrifice our belief...
...like Sinatra after he lost his crooning voice, Jordan, with delimited skills, developed an even better game. Through practice, his fadeaway jumper, passing and defense are twice as good as when he started in the league. During the last seconds of the play-off series with the Pacers, Bird told his team to swarm Jordan and see if he was great enough to pass. He was--and Bird should have known it, because it has been true for some time (review the tape of last year's final play-off game, Larry...
...tired and about to face a team that was rested and that held the home-court advantage. Some thought it came from the fact that he knew the Bulls and he had just barely dodged a bullet against the Pacers, that by the third game, as Larry Bird began to make adjustments, the matchups, particularly in the second half of the games, had begun to favor the younger, deeper Pacers. In particular, Bird was throwing younger, bigger guards at Jordan, most notably Jalen Rose, and they were arriving well rested at a time in the game when Jordan normally liked...
...roll after inhaling the seemingly mighty Lakers. In truth, they were not that much younger, and what he saw was the matchups: their significantly smaller guards going against him, Pippen, Ron Harper and even Toni Kukoc. He clearly liked these matchups, much more than he had liked what Bird was able to throw at him. He remained upbeat even after the Bulls lost Game 1 to the Jazz in overtime...
...knock down the basketball straw man first. If someone plays defense like Bill Russell, passes like Isiah Thomas, scores like Julius Erving and rises to the occasion like Larry Bird, it's hard to argue against him. The clincher comes in the context of his team. When Jordan's around, the Bulls win championships. When he's off flailing at minor-league curve balls, they...