great Bill Simmons column on Game 6

Another casual masterpiece from Simmons, HERE.

No sportswriter is more consistently on target.

The article is mostly about Miami’s stunning collapse, but I like this passing remark about Jordan:

“The best thing about Jordan’s final shot [the series-winner against Utah in the 1998 Finals] wasn’t that he made it, but that we knew he would make it. That’s why we revere him all these years later. Usually heroes come through only on command in movies; Jordan did it in real life. We loved him for it.”

He says this by way of contrast with LeBron, who seemed to psychologically fold his hand in the last few games, much like he did against Boston while playing with Cleveland last year.

LeBron’s still young, and I like him and don’t want to be hard on him, but there’s something wrong with his mental make-up as a player. I don’t have any theories other than the same obvious one that everyone else is throwing around: LeBron’s simply a nice guy who wants people to like him, not a killer shark like Jordan.

I’m going to be such a boring 70-year-old sports fan, bragging to the youngsters about how their stars don’t compare with the great Michael Jordan. But Chicago in the 1990’s was a very special place to be for a sports fan.

biting the hand that feeds you

Tamanya really has a hand-biting problem. That in itself is a bearable annoyance, but once in awhile she goes over the line and bites my lips, or other such things. We’ll have to work on this. I’ve had to give her three “time outs” today for crazy bite attacks.

And no, I don’t think she has rabies. She hasn’t been exposed to other non-vaccinated animals. Moreover, the present behavior is just a caricature of her normal behavior, not anything out of the ordinary in qualitative terms. It’s the quantity and intensity that’s a bit out of control today.