Basketball

[patyrn]

It was a pathetic game from the beginning to the end...............

[larryJ]

This was in my paper today and I thought I might add it here.  It is written by Frank Girardot, senior metro editor of the San Gabriel Valley Newsgroup, and I thought, kinda funny.

Titled:   THE EMILY POST GUIDE TO WATCHING THE NBA FINALS

If you are getting together tonight with friends, relatives or barroom acquaintances to revel in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, heed the warnings of etiquette maven, Emily Post.

It became clear to me after a couple of games of the Laker-Celtics series that a review of Post's musings was in order.

The first sign of the decline of good manners appeared to me during Game 3.

I was charged with picking up 18 pizzas for the crew working election night.  Waiting patiently for my order, I noticed the joint was filled to capacity with some of the scariest characters I've seen outside of handcuffs in the back seat of the local police car.

Fashion advice guys:  Just because you've got a shaved head and tattoos on your neck doesn't mean you're qualified to wear an official NBA jersey.

The point was driven home again Tuesday night at El Torito in West Covina during Game 6.  If the gangsters weren't there  --  the wannabes were.

Fashion advice girls:  If you're over 30 and still wearing short-shorts, at least have the common decency to lose some weight.  The rest of you are making a life-changing mistake with the stupid tattoos.  Enough already.

Mrs. Post probably never dreamed of these modern-day dilemmas.

Then again, it was 1922 when Post wrote the now-famous "Etiquette."  The  book, then published by Funk and Wagnalls, covered a variety of topics --  even if tattoos and knock-off jerseys weren't included.

"Etiquette" had notable chapters including "On the Street and in Public;" "At Public Gatherings;" "The House Party;" and "Games and Sports."

Much of this advice remains applicable today.  For example, if you are sitting in the bar at El Torito with friends and have to pass between the TV and the table when Kobe is at the free throw line, Post offered this nugget;

"If you are obliged to cross in front of someone -- say 'Thank you' or 'Thank you very much' or 'I am very sorry,'" Post wrote.  "Do not say 'Pardon me' or 'Beg pardon.'  Beg pardon, which is an abbreviation, is one of the phrases never said in best society."

As for the inevitable mad dash to the pizza parlor's restroom during a commercial, Post urged gentlemen to always take a seat at the end of the table -- before the urge hits.

"There are no greater theater pests than those who come back after the curtain has gone up and temporarily snuff out the view of everyone behind as well as annoy those who are to stand up and let them by."

The thing about Game 7 --  be it basketball or baseball -- someone''s going to lose.  Post also offered up advice to those degenerate boors who will insist on parlaying the Celtics +6 to the unders and buying too many squares in the $5 office pool.

"The good loser makes it an invariable rule never to play for stakes that it will be inconvenient to lose," Post wrote. "The neglect of this rule has been responsible for more bad losers than anything else."

In so many words Post goes on to say that a bad loser is as welcome as a BP exec at a crawdad boil on the Louisiana bayou.

Anyway, between now and that party tonight, you might want to check out ol' Emily's advice.

After all, "People who ridicule etiquette ---  seem to forget the long slow progress of social intercourse in the upward climb of man," Post wrote.  "(Conventions) are the rules of the game of life and must be followed if we would play the game."

Or watch it.

_____________________________________________

Larryj

[larryJ]

In a followup to an earlier post about the money, I heard today that the "nose bleed" seats for game seven are going for an average of $500 each and the premier luxury boxes are going for $50,000 each.  Remember 18,000+ seats.  Do the math and tell me that the owners and shareholders don't manipulate the series into a full seven games.  Now, that said, this is the fourth seven-games series in the last 25 years.  Go figure.

Larryj

[larryJ]

Why, oh why, do they pick people like Christina Aguilera to sing the National Anthem?  I mean, don't they do sound checks?  Isn't there someone who listens and says "No, you have to sing it like its supposed to be sung."  Why does the song have to be massacred like that?  What a slap in the face!  AND, you could tell by the way she was looking up at the center court screens that she was reading the words off the screen.  Sheeesh.

Larryj

[Wilma]

I'm glad I missed that one.  I heard Martina McBride sing it once and she sang it true.  Comes from Kansas, she does.

The last time I looked, the Lakers were behind.  Is this the way it is going to end?

[Janet Harrington]

About one minute to play and the Celtics are throwing this game away.  You didn't miss a thing by not hearing the National Athem being sung by  Christina Aguilera .  It was plumb awful.

[larryJ]

Well, there it is.  Lakers are champions once again, and I thank those of you who supported them.  The Celtics played a good game, but it just turned out to be the Laker's night. 

Larryj

[Wilma]

SEE!  I told you that if the Lakers could beat the Suns, they could beat anyone.  Told you so.

How is the USA doing in the World Cup?  I don't know enough about soccer to figure it out.

I do know some about golf and Tiger isn't doing so good.

[patyrn]

I think the USA tied today's game in the World Cup Soccer match.  I have no idea how that puts them in the standings...........

Congrats to the Lakers who stood their ground last night.  They deserved to win.  We're looking forward to next year's season with the OKC Thunder as they become a little older and a bit of a stronger team.