Rant #2,287: Come On, Get Happy

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good morning!

The big day came and went for me, and I guess it represented the ultimate gift for this particular overworked person--a few days off to recharge my batteries.

Once my family and I got some things in order that needed some immediate updating, we were able to spend a decent holiday together, most of the time doing next to nothing, which was fine with me.

On Christmas Day, the highlight of the day for my family could not be found in presents, but in presence, and being home to soak it all in.

The holiday simply isn't what it once was, and certain businesses know that there is money to be made even on Christmas. For one, the Burger King by us was open on a shortened schedule, as were several diners and other places where if you didn't want to cook, you didn't have to.

For me, personally, what could have been a real boring day--and yes, it was boring to an extent--was made a little move lively by the fact that the New York Knicks always play on Christmas Day--or for 53 of the past 72 years they have--and they had the Christmas matinee yesterday, against the Milwaukee Bucks at festive Madison Square Garden.

The game was televised on ESPN, and I was there way before the 12 noon start of the game--the first of four NBA games that day--to see the Knicks play one of the best teams in the league, led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, one of the game's biggest stars.

The Knicks are rebuilding, and doing it brick by brick, literally, and it showed, as the Bucks walloped the Knicks--not that I had even a minor feeling that the Knicks would win this game.

When the game was over, I decided to become adventurous, and I went from watching the Knicks--an absolutely terrible team--to a team of yore that was absolutely terrific.

Somehow, on YouTube, somebody found a rusty old tape of the last and final ABA game, from 1976, the year of our bicentennial, when the then-New York Nets beat the Denver Nuggets to win the final ABA championship.

The video can be accessed at https://youtu.be/tmsX7GZbblY

I happened to be at that game--and was at all the Nets playoff games that year--so I was part of history, in a way, because a few months later, the NBA and ABA merged, and the upstart league was no more.

But I got to see Julius Erving at his finest, and during this game and series, I also got to see several other players at the height of their prowess, including Dan Issel, Bobby Jones, David Thompson, Brian Taylor, Al Skinner, and, of course, Super John Williamson.

And the hair, the clothes, the uniforms--pure 1970s schtick, and you just had to laugh at these things, things that could only have been looked at as "normal" looks in the 1970s.

The video, which suffers from up and down audio and video throughout--really brought back so many memories of the original Nassau Coliseum, and when that arena was relatively new.

The colors were so garish, even for somebody so color deficient as I am, but again, this was the 1970s.

And yes, as I marveled at Dr. J and wondered how tiny Monty Towe was even in this league, I also searched for myself in the video. My friends and I were sitting in the middle section to the left behind one of the baskets, and the video did show very long shots of that area, so I probably was on the video, but there was no way I could make myself out.

It was too fuzzy, too grainy, but what I could see was that this was simply a great game, probably the best, most exciting basketball game I ever attended.

The place, for once, was packed with more than 15,000 fans, very unusual for a Nets team that rarely drew half of that amount during normal games.

The place was jumping, it was if a Knicks crowd came to the Coliseum, and the players gave their maximum effort.

Some interesting points that I had forgotten from 42 years ago included that the game was televised by then fledgling Home Box Office--not yet HBO--and regular programming, including several movies, were pushed back or postponed by the televising of this game, which they must have gotten the rights to at the last possible moment, as the two announcers--more about them later--gave a list of postponements and changes early on in the game for Home Box Office across the country.

The two announcers--Steve "Yes My Brother Is Marv"--Albert, who became much more famous for boxing announcing than for basketball announcing during his long career--was the lead announcer, with Bob Goldsholl--a local announcer for hire who was a popular sports figure during the 1970s and 1980s on New York TV--doing the color.

They were the TV announcers for the Nets at the time, and you can hear in their voices that while they were supposed to be impartial, they were out and out rooting for the Nets to win this game.

(As an aside, doing the radio feed was John Sterling, who went on to become the New York Yankees' beloved announcer.)

And I had forgotten a lot of little things about the game. I did remember that the Nets were down 22 points in the third quarter, and managed to storm back late in the fourth quarter, but I thought I remembered that Julius Erving took over the game and really was the dominant force bringing the Nets all the way back and finally winning out.

Boy, was I wrong! Dr. J had his usual game--31 points, and a large amount of rebounds and assists--but it was a relatively quiet, less bombastic game from him. A revelation to me was that Super John Williamson and Brian Taylor were the guys who cemented this win, along with Jim Eakins, a journeyman center who had the game of his life in this contest.

Dr. J won the MVP award for the series, but he was more a cog in the machine than the lead processor.

I had forgotten that, forgotten that completely.

The cameras went into the locker room to view the hubbub that happens after every championship game in every sport, and the two announcers were engulfed in people as well as in champagne.

And I did see one of the ball boys--if I was 19 years old when this game was played, then this kid must have been 15 or 16--take a "zup" of champagne, which you would never see today, and for good reason.

And although this was not on the video, of course, I did remember that it was impossible to get out of the Coliseum that day, and it probably took at least an hour or more to drive back home.

Forty two years later, the Coliseum still stands, but in another form. The New York Nets have morphed into the Brooklyn Nets, and have set down roots in Kings County after a long stint in New Jersey. The Coliseum is home to the Nets' G-League team, the Long Island Nets, but if they get 2,000 fans a game, it is a lot.

And I am in my 60s now. That is a change in itself that when I watch a video like this, I really can't fathom or believe. Where have all the years gone?

So that is what I did on Christmas Day, It was fun watching the game in 2018, but it was even more fun watching the game from way back when, when Dr. J was the greatest basketball player on the planet and I, as a 19 year old, thought that people in their 60s were, well, old.

It is great to look back, isn't it?