Top of the World (Wide Web)

I’m-number-one! I’m-number-one!

Just decided to do the Google search for the first time in a long time, and it is, once again, official. I am planet Earth’s (or at least the internet’s) #1 Michael O’Connell. If you Google that name, there you’ll find my site – on top and riding high, baby.

I had jumped up there for a time when the whole van thing was going on (which, of course, got my site a lot more traffic than normal), but after that died down, I had fallen behind a couple of the others. But once more, the world has shown its wisdom by appointing me its favorite Michael O’Connell.

I have beat the oil painter. I’ve beat the musician. I’ve beat the English professor from UC Santa Barbara. I’ve beat the hockey guy. I would brag about beating the L.A. comedian, who’s been on Jimmy Kimmel, Comedy Central and everything, but technically, he’s “Mike O’Connell” (and clearly wins that Googling, as a search will show you), so it’s more a testament to his popularity that he’s so high in MY category. Yeah, that’s right. It’s MINE. PWNED, other, less fabulous, Michael O’Connells! PWNED!

I’d like to take a moment to thank the peoples of Earth for their confidence in me, and in all that I do. I promise to do my level best to live up to this honor, and to earn your obvious faith and admiration by continuing to develop countless book and screenplay ideas that I never complete, to never be on time for anything, and to remain a renter instead of a homeowner even though I’m about to turn forty years old. And to you other Michael O’Connells—you general managers of hockey teams, talented and heralded artists and musicians, and tenured professors of literature—I vow to continue to set the bar high, to give you an apex to reach for, to inspire you to mediocrity in a career where all of your customers hate and despise you and comment colorfully on your mother. I share the dream with you, and invite you to believe. If one Michael O’Connell can achieve such heights by accomplishing so little, then maybe we all can. Your destiny is in your hands, my brothers. Walk the road I have plowed, and one day you, too, may find yourself at the pinnacle.

Probably not, but feel free to try.

So I’m officially declaring June 28^th to be Michael O’Connell Day, and invite future generations to celebrate the joyous occasion, whatever nation you hail from. Know that the love of Michael O’Connell knows no borders and no language. Let this be a day where we all pause and reflect on what can be, and where all can reaffirm their faith in themselves and their fellow man. Humanity is wise beyond comprehension. That much, now, is clear.

Cards and gifts are welcome. For the record, I’m a fan of high-end consumer electronics. If you’re stumped.

Have to run. I have a moving speech to deliver in the kitchen while I’m microwaving my dinner.

Kings Flashback - Kings 2000 Home Opener!

After starting their 2000 season with a tough 4-game road stretch, the hard-traveling Kings finally made it home...home to the Mecca of basketball fandom, Arco Arena, where the walls shake and the rafters tremble (and soon, the cowbells would ring). This was a big game. They'd started things out nicely on the road, but now they had something to prove to the home crowd - the die-hard Kings fans who'd been cheering the team for over a decade, even when the vast majority of that was quite depressing. No bandwagon fans, the Kings faithful were ready for a show and a big win. Would the team give them one? Also, please enjoy a little historical political moment in the first paragraph, just to give you a feel of what was going on during the time of this game. So join us next as the Kings host the dreaded Trailblazers, right here on the Kings Basketball Network. And if you don't like THAT...

Portland at Kings
11/07/2000

This is a late entry, by the way, as after this game—the Kings home opener—I had to get off to bed for an early rise to vote the next morning. Which is a good thing, because this year, my vote may actually decide who’s going to be President.

Sadly, we got the Portland feed on the NBA League Pass broadcast, as I was hoping for Grant and Jerry to call the home opener for me. But the good news was that Portland has a really cool game graphics set up, which flashes up current points for each player that makes a shot, and pops up what foul was called. Very cool. More teams should get hip to this.

So this was the team we so feared last year, one of two teams (Suns being the other) that always seemed to have our number. Yeah, we’d played some pretty tough teams up until this game, but this was to be the test, playing one of the recognized best teams in the league. And the freakin’ Portland announcers had to spoil my joy by talking and video clipping over the home game intro stuff. Grrr. You could still feel the roar, though. The best fans in the NBA were making the noise the whole league knows us for, and it was music to my ears.

And we’re not going to get into too much analysis of it tonight, because I’ve got an early day tomorrow.

Suffice to say…

Big Kings Love.

After 11 straight losses to the Trailblazers, the boys fed off the home crowd and took it right to their Oregonian bane, playing fierce defense (defense? I’m sorry, could you repeat that?) and holding Portland to 34 percent shooting in the first 3 quarters, which finally paid off with a 79-75 victory, and a big win at home. You had to see these guys! Hands in every Portland face, hustling for everything, plucking up the rebounds! We wanted this one bad, and got it, finally exorcising the Portland fear. How good was our D? Davis was 3 for 12. Smith was 2 for 9. Stoudamire, who’s always made me cringe every time he gets the ball he’s so unconscious, was 4-14! Sure, you can attribute that to a bad shooting night, and it’s true. But you had to see these Kings hustle and make these guys work for everything. We owned most of the game, but started falling apart in the end, thanks mainly to Wallace (24 points for the night. And 17 technicals. Okay, kidding…), and things got pretty scary in the closing couple of minutes. But there was Webb to feed a beautiful Vlade layup with 22 seconds left to go, putting us up by 2. Portland still had their shot to tie and take it to overtime…if not for the eagle eyes and quick hands of Bobby Jackson. He stripped Scottie Freaking Pippen (where’s your triangle now, fool?!), and Scottie was forced to foul him. Bobby sank both free throws, putting the game away. And Portland no longer has our number on speed dial. They’re actually going to have to pull out the black book and look it up from now on.

This game was all about Webb and Vlade. Webb was en fuego with 29 points, shaking off some bad juju from recent games. And Vlade was doing some shaking of his own, surely thinking about all the Sac Bee talk of him being out of shape and non-productive, when he put up 16 points and grabbed every board in sight (11 for the night). The downside, and what surely kept us from a major victory, was ice-cold Peja shooting 1 for 11 and totaling 2 points for the night (THAT’S got to hurt the average…). Don’t know what’s riding on Peja’s back lately, but he’d better work it out pretty soon. We’ve got a lot of games to win, and we count on that guy to make big numbers. Hey, everybody’s got a bad night once in a while. Don’t think we’ll see this become a habit.

Doug was looking great, with 8 points, 6 rebounds and a steal. Bobby was 6 and 4, with 6 assists (Bobby Jackson if you’re nasty!). Barry got a solid 26 minutes of play (much to the joy of the Barry-loving home crowd) and put up 8, a pair of those 3-pointers. Nick gave us a 3 (that’s pretty much his job this year, isn’t it? Come in, shoot a 3, sit down and enjoy watching the game). And Fundy was hard-working but non-scoring. Worked the boards nice, but couldn’t get his shot to come together. No Darrick or Turk tonight. Too much on the line, I suppose. Probably a good choice this game, which was a big statement we needed to make, and the boys stepped up and did so in style.

With the exception of a little bus trip to Oaktown, we’re now in for a nice long home stretch, which is right where the Kings always shine. And if they keep shining like they did tonight, it’s going to be an amazing season. That’s Portland. Now it’s time to see what we can do with the Lakers, obviously our big target this year after getting dropped in game five in last year’s finals. Lakers haven’t really got it together yet this year that I’ve seen. What are the chances that the torch of destiny has been passed up north this year? Could I just be dreaming? Could be. But keep an eye on this Kings, sports fans. They have come to play this year. And last year’s taste of post-season glory seems to have only made us hungry for more.

Kings Flashback - Kings at T-Wolves

And time for more flashbacky sportswriting from 2000, following the opening of the Kings' season. The Kings were still on their big road trip to start the year, which meant they kept landing on other team's home openers (while still not having their own yet). But when they hit Minnesota, they walked into a really awkward moment, as you'll read below. Bad night to try to show up another team. But did they? Read on and find out!

Kings at Minnesota
11/04/00

You know, there are probably some games you SHOULDN’T win.

And if any game was one of them, this was it. Sacramento, ending their 4-game season opening road trip, ended up in Minnesota on the T-Wolves season home opener. Hey, we’ve hit three different cities on their home openers this week, and aren’t above showing up a team in front of its home crowd in their inaugural. But this also happened to be a team that lost one of its players—Malik Sealy—to a drunk driver last May. Tonight’s game opened to a moving tribute, with his family there for the ceremony, and his jersey was retired—hoisted up to the rafters with his family pulling the ropes. Very sad and somber, most of the players in tears, all the Timberwolves, of course, were going out to play for Malik.

So, really, the last thing that needed to happen was us beating them tonight.

Thankfully, we didn’t.

Not to say it wasn’t a good game. Well…it wasn’t, actually, for a while. The Kings just lost it, and suddenly were down as far as 23. But in the second half, the boys were back, and went on an amazing run that pulled us to within 7. But that’s as close as it got, mostly (mostly is unfair…let’s just say it was a contributing factor) due to an ice-cold Chris Webber, who put up 15 one night after a 31 point game. He just couldn’t get it going, not matter how hard he tried (shot 6 for 19). Nor could we as a team, actually. Costly turnovers, poor shooting—just not our night. But again, there was some very good play, too, during the big runs. The best news for us was that Vlade was back, and in full effect. Right from the start, he was out to eliminate the previous couple of games, and he was on fire, posting 20 points by game’s end and pulling down 12 boards. Watched the game, like the previous game, with Tim and Aaron, and we were all quite proud of him, and happy to see him back in form.

Peja was looking like his old self, really charging the hoop and getting physical, and ended up with 22. Bobby Jackson was looking fine, doing the crazy foot thing again and pulling off a couple of steals between making his 10 points. Christie was mostly just there again, not lighting it up too much, but dropped a couple of buckets and made some nice assists. No hot Scot tonight. Scot was 0 for 6 in his 9 minutes of play, but picked up 5 rebounds (I’m sure his stats would have been more impressive had Vlade not been so in the zone tonight and keeping him on the bench). Jon Barry was working hard, but not making too much noise, contributing 7 points. Darrick came in for just a few, trying a 3-pointer (as I always insist he does at least once a game) and missing, but getting another bucket and pair of rebounds. Nick came in for a whole minute and didn’t do much but miss a shot (how much can you do in a minute, really?). Lawrence made his presence known, with 6 points and 3 rebounds in his 10 minutes. If you notice a pattern, you’ll no one was really breaking out and doing anything spectacular. And this was just enough to keep us out of this game.

But let’s not put it all on the Kings, now. The T-Wolves were playing with a purpose here, and doing exactly what they needed to for the home crowd on a night like this one. Garnett hit 28 points, with at least three highlight reels in there—one of which will probably end up as the “Play of the Day” on CNN Headline Sports tomorrow morning (which will make the 3^rd time this week the Play of the Day has been someone scoring off the Kings). And I’m sure it’s going to be the monster windmill slam that had the crowd roaring for what seemed like forever. And they needed that. And Garnett did it right under Malik’s jersey and flashed two fingers (for Malik’s number) and pointed to the sky after. A beautiful move and a fitting tribute to a teammate. It was just plain gorgeous. Garnett was amply assisted by Terrell Brandon and Wally Szczerbiak, both of whom contributed 16 points to the effort, and we were definitely feeling Peeler’s 13. When it got down to the last 3 minutes or so, it was obvious that we weren’t going to pull this one out, and the T-Wolves took it 99-91.

As they should have. There are some things just more important than another win. You had a stadium filled with mourning fans, players and family, who waited on the tribute until the opener, and they deserved a win. They deserved to walk out of there feeling refreshed, excited, and filled with hope. And they did. All went as it should. I’ve got no problems with this loss. It’s certainly nothing compared to the loss of Malik Sealy, who will be missed by more than just the city of Minnesota. The NBA lost one of its greats, and he will be remembered.

In a nice side note, Bobby Jackson returned to take on his old team for the very first time, and I was happy to see that he received a warm reception from the fans. Bobby was great against Terrell, where few men are, and he did the Kings credit tonight, too.

Okay. One road trip down. Let’s get back home and take care of business, and get our record up where it should be! Bring it on, Portland!

Weirdest weather report I'VE seen lately...

Okay, so I've been locked in my apartment with the A/C on most of the day, talking on a couple of phone calls that took a combined several hours. Apparently, I've missed something by not going outside. I happened to check My Yahoo page before turning in, and did a double-take on the graphic where I get my local weather. Okay, never seen THAT happen before.

Seems I wasn't aware that there are (and I quote) OVER 600 FIRES burning in northern California, mostly sparked by lightning and being spread by winds. None of them TOO close to here, but close enough to change my local weather report to SMOKE. Is that an actual weather condition? I've never seen that used before. You would think, having lived for seven years in San Diego, that I would have.

Man, I was thinking about going out and having a cigar before I turn in, but now that seems like it would just be derivative.

Hulk...uh...Hulk...Mike not sure WHAT Hulk does...

Just back from the seeing the Hulk.

Hmm.

Did Hulk suck? No. I was waiting for a giant sucking. It's running in the 60s on the Tomatometer (tm), and considering how I felt about Crystal Skull, and it was running in the high 70s? Let's just say I had my fears. So the film began, and I prepared for the sucking. I was surprised at the lack of it. This was suddenly a film with locations. And character development. And stuntmen. And moments of small revelations, not slam-you-over-the-head revelations. I found myself more than pleasantly surprised...I was really enjoying it, particularly how it took its time. That's such a rare thing in film, and definitely a big no-no in action films. But sure enough, they were easing me into the character and into the story, building the world and the situations, making me care about the lead character and connect with him. Wow. I started getting excited.

Did Hulk smash? Well...no. But let's make something very clear that I knew walking in - over 70 minutes of this film were cut out. The writer in me is just getting the shivers thinking about that. You cannot cut over an hour out of a story and have it be the same story. Assuming it's written correctly, all the different parts of the story contribute to the whole. They give layers to the plot, they develop the characters, they illustrate the themes. When you do this kind of surgery, what you're essentially doing is the cinema equivalent of the greatest literary atrocity of the past century - the "Reader's Digest Condensed Book". Aw, we don't need all that boring stuff in the middle! Let's just pick out the interestin' parts and slap those together so's you can read this sucker in half the time! Wow, I just got another shiver. That's creepy. So I knew that I was going to be seeing the condensed version of the originally envisioned film, so I was ready to forgive quite a bit with that in mind.

I didn't have to do a LOT of that, but I was aware of it. The problem was that the first half of the film was really great. To me, at least. It felt like a real movie, and that's really all I ask of my super-hero movies. But then came the CGI. Sigh. Yeah, I knew it was going to happen. We got it in chunks here and there in the first part of the film, and they spaced it out nicely, I think. But the whole final act of the film might as well have been an X-Box game. I was with a couple of friends who, after the film, were discussing the final fight itself, and how it was done pretty well. Well, true, it was. They're right. The problem for me, really, is that at that point, it stopped being a film. I have an emotional connection to actors. Turns out I really don't care that much about what happens to obviously CGI creatures. I know...what are your options, right? Get a bodybuilder and paint him up, like Lou, and have him bend rubber prop girders? To do something like the Hulk right, you do have to slip into the computer graphic realm. It's a built-in liability. You do the best you can. Could they have done better? Yeah. I think so. I saw all of the Lord of the Rings movies, and at least for the first two, I wasn't distracted or emotionally removed from the story because of the CGI use (a little too much of it in #3...just my opinion, Ringheads). Maybe that's because they had the luxury of operating in a completely mythical world. Whereas Hulk and company had to do the duking out in Harlem. I think the main difference is that in the LOTR films, the combo of film and CG fit together. Here, not so much. You get to watch the film, then the film goes away, more or less, and you get the Playstation cut-scene. That keeps the film from its completeness, which is too bad. Because it was off to a pretty good start.

All that being said, it's really going to be up to you how you feel about this movie. I can't tell you that I thought it sucked and warn you off. It was definitely better than the Ang Lee mess, and it was entertaining, and it did not offend. It didn't thrill either, at least didn't thrill me the way I'd hoped it might (I've been so spoiled by Iron Man). Did it disappoint? Well, yeah, to me, but not near as much as I was expecting, and I still feel that the whole will make much more sense when I'm able to see the final version on DVD. Regarding that drastic cut, by the way? I have to admit, it was probably for the best. Me, I like my films nice and long and full of character moments and meanderings. Most people going to see a Hulk movie in the middle of summer are NOT looking for that. So if it's a choice between satisfying me (the guy who actually owns the director's cut of Wyatt Earp? The guy who actually DIDN'T want Return of the King to end when everyone else started yelling "Enough already!" at the screen?) and alienating 90% of the audience, or making a cut that will keep folks happy and make sure the film makes some money and doesn't put a smear on the remarkably upward turn of the super-hero film genre, then I can wait for the extra scenes. Even I felt myself thinking, "Wow, this film is REALLY taking its time", so I can only imagine what fidgety summer movie fans who came to see HULK SMASH things were thinking, or would have thought if they'd been forced to sit through an extra hour of Bruce Banner feeling guilty and talking about his feelings and wandering the Earth (allegedly, this is what comprises much of the cut material). We'll see, once I get the two-disc DVD set I'm waiting for, if the cut really spoiled the film, or if it saved it. So far, seems like it was the right call. People seem to be having a great time with it, and if that means the highway stays plowed for the upcoming Thor, Captain America and Avengers films, then smash on, Hulk.

Quick actor notes - mostly quite good for Norton, William Hurt rocked, Tim Roth was awesome, big props to Tim Blake Nelson for his surprisingly show-stealing character, Liv Tyler could still use some acting lessons but didn't tank it too much, and give it up for the obligatory Stan Lee cameo! Can't have a Marvel film without The Man showing up.

Note to Edward Norton, who, I notice, had his writing credits removed from this film based on his displeasure with the cut: I'll drop you a line, pal, after the DVD comes out, and let you know if you've earned the "I told you so". I'll let you all know when that day comes. Keep it tuned here.

(Cue CBS Hulk piano music here - fade out).

Kings Flashback - Kings at Detroit

The flashback b-ball action continues from the start of the 2000-2001 season, with commentary I wrote and then never did anything with. This one's a reminder of the good times Aaron and I had with Tim living in L.A. at the time, as Tim would make the drive down to San Diego to watch games with us on some weekends. This one was the Kings still on our long season-opening road trip, back in Webber's hometown of Detroit. Could the Pistons stand against the might of the re-energized and goal-focused Kings? We shall see!

Kings at Detroit
11/03/00

Okay, got to make this a quick one. It’s late, and I do have to get up in the morning.

Getting up, actually, because Tim’s in town. Tim came down to catch these two road games with us (Tim not having the NBA package available to him at his current residence). We taped the 5:00 pm game with plans to watch it after Tim, Aaron and I went out for an evening at McGregor’s, where a little send-off was going on for a co-worker of mine. So here we are, in a sports bar, trying not to find out the score—with SportsCenter playing on a screen in the background. Aaron looked up and caught the score accidentally. I accidentally looked up once myself, and saw no score, but saw the Kings and Piston names, and the Kings name was in white…meaning they won. Didn’t tell the other guys this. Let’s just say it would have been a lot more depressing if I’d looked up and seen it in yellow and had to sit through the game.

Great, monster game. All about the Webber. Webber’s back in his hometown, putting on a show—and in a side note, we found out that Mrs. Webber (Chris’ mom) cooked dinner for all the Kings before the game (I’m sure Jason probably had seconds, dealing with the munchies and all). Chris was all over, making one monster show-stopper slam after the next, and grabbing every board in sight. He ended things with 31 points and 12 rebounds.

But the big news—two games in a row—was Pollard. Vlade picked up two fouls in…what was it, a minute? And had to sit most of the game. So Rick put Big Kansas in again, and he rocked the house!!! In his 31 minutes, Scot put up 15 points and hit a career high 14 rebounds. He was everywhere! This could be his year to really up his resale value. Love that guy!

And Jon Barry’s back, folks. Lots of great moves on both ends, and sunk 3 of 3 3-pointers. Ah, it was beautiful to see. Peja was in there, but not doing his normal job. 11 points for him, though, and a couple of nice defensive moves. Bobby Jackson was back in effect, being a King to the hilt—doing ridiculous moves that cost us the ball, and then turning around and striking gold in big Sac style. More great footwork on the D, 3 big steals, 7 rebounds. Doug was off again, but managed to land a 3. Darrick Martin stepped up, and in addition to getting us some great fouls, sunk 2 3-pointers. Ah, the Darrick of old. Good to see him back again…though we probably won’t see much of him after Jason’s back in a couple of games. We just realized that Jason’s going to miss the home opener, darnnit. But that’s a sentimental “damnit”—I believe Bobby, with Darrick backing him up, can easily T.C.B.

Vlade was just off, once again, but his 4 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals made a big difference in the outcome. Not much of a night from Nick and Funderburke. Nick’s 9 minutes didn’t add up to any points (I wanted a Nick 3!), but his 3 steals were proof he’s in there working hard. Lawrence just couldn’t get anything going in his few minutes, just adding 1 point on a free throw. But hey…some nights it’s just not your night to shine. He’ll get another shot tomorrow when we take it to Garnett and friends.

Detroit was really looking good, I felt, mainly because of Chuck Atkins. Man, he’s good, and was doing it all for the Pistons. He picked up 18. And then there’s Stackhouse, posting 22 and making it look easy. But tonight, I became a huge fan of Ben Wallace (and his big afro). Holy cow! His defense was really frightening in and of itself, but he also used us for 14 points and 10 boards. This guy’s really great, and has joined my list of favorite players in the NBA right now. I was also happy to watch Cedric Ceballos playing again, as he was part of the amazing Suns team I loved and called my own when I moved to Phoenix in ’93. He landed a couple of big 3’s that took me back to the old days.

But for all their hard work and precision, Detroit just couldn’t hold onto the ball on their opening night, with 25 turnovers that the Kings made painful use of. The only way to beat the Kings is to outscore them, as you’re not going to stop them from making the points. Just handing them more chances is a surefire way to make what happened happen. 100 to 93 at the end. Got to give the Piston’s credit, though. They got down, but fought back brilliantly and had a couple of great runs, one of them turning a deficit into a lead and igniting the crowd. A very good effort, and I gained a lot of respect for the post-Grant Pistons.

So we’re now 2 and 3 on this 4-game road trip, and that’s saying a lot for the Kings, as everyone in the league knows we just don’t have it happening away from home. If we can pull this off tomorrow in Joe Smith’s house…oh, wait, that’s not called that anymore, is it? If we can manage to outshoot the Timberwolves in their home opener, we fly back to Sac with a lot of confidence and respect, ready to host Portland and start a great home series, where we should be able to really shine.

Stay tuned, Kings fans. We ain’t out of the Midwest yet.

Disturbing moment of the night—the Detroit fan holding up the sign begging Chris Webber to sign with the Pistons next year. We’re really going to feel that ax hanging over us all year, aren’t we?

Hulk Smash! (Or Hulk Suck?)

Either way, I'm wanting to find out. Since last weekend got trashed, I'm shooting for this weekend. So if anyone's down with the green, I'm planning on the 8:00 show this Saturday night, 6/21, at the rat-infested (you think I'm kidding...) Century Theater on Ethan. I don't think we have to worry about this one selling out on its second weekend, but still might be a good idea to get your tix before hitting the theater.

Good summer fun? Or radioactive gamma droppings? Join us and find out!

The 100th Post!

Holy crap! I made it!

This post on Michael O’Blogger is the official 100^th post since I started this thing in July of 2007. I had originally designed my web site to serve this purpose, a place to express myself and talk about my life regularly. It, however, started before the age of bloggery came upon us. I did mess with LiveJournal for a while, but didn’t really advertise that fact much. I resisted starting a blog, though, mainly because of my hatred of the word “blog”. Not only was it not a real word, and not only did it sound like an alien race created by George Lucas in his later senile years (you know, any year that came after Empire was released?), but it was anNOYingly overused by the media once they caught onto it. Be sure to read our blog! Lots of bloggers are talking about this subject! Let’s see what’s going on in the blogosphere! Blog blog blog blog blog!! They just had fun using the word – and, apparently, fun driving me monkeypoodoo (I’m swearing like George Lucas now…) by doing so…again and again and again…

It took me a long time, but I finally came to peace with the blog craze and surrendered to the word. It was the craze that made me so forgiving. I was stunned by how many people – in 21^st century America, mind you – were suddenly WRITING. It was amazing! People who had probably never seriously expressed their thoughts in print on anything were cranking out diatribes on politics, movies, sports, American Idol contestants, cooking, music, motorcycles, EVERYthing. Were they all writing WELL? Did most of them even know what the shift key is used for? No, but who cares?! Americans were writing! I was excited! And as a bonus, I, as a reader, was getting to read all about their thoughts and lives and experiences. What an amazing view into our world and our times, and into the minds of people from every walk of life. I remember emailing a (wannabe) writer once who had posted up the start of something she was going to publish. It was written in a journal or diary format. I really enjoyed it, and wrote her a note expressing this. SEEMED like a nice thing to do. But she shot back an email, all pushed out of shape at me and offended as I had mistaken it for a journal of her life. She tersely pointed out that it was fiction she was going to be publishing, and was NOT a journal, and made a point of stating “I don’t care to read someone else’s journals”. Um…you want to be a writer, and you don’t “care” to read people’s journals? Isn’t sort of a prerequisite (call me on this if I’m wrong) of being a writer having an interest in the world around you, in humanity as a whole, and seeking, through your writing, to tap into that great truth and our shared experience as a civilization? Guess not. I thought it was more than a little ironic (which is cool, because as a writer, I’m sure she appreciates irony) that someone who was writing a fictional diary of someone got offended at the idea of reading people’s REAL diaries. Takes all kinds. Good luck with that publishing career. Cough cough FUTURE BITTER EDITOR cough cough…

Anyway, I had started jumping around to the blogs of total strangers and really enjoyed the great tapestry of life experiences there. And then a few friends of mine started doing their own, and I found I LOVED reading their stuff!! What a great way to have “discussions” with far-away friends, to find out what’s going on in their lives and what’s important to them. I loved reading one friend’s book reviews, and another’s tales of his joys with every new magic moment with his new daughter, and another’s always entertaining annoyances with the world as a whole. And as I was trying, at the time, to get myself writing on a regular basis, it seemed like it was finally time to give up being a blog-hater and join ‘em instead of beating ‘em. So Michael O’Blogger was born. I started off slow, with just a few occasional posts, but, while not as prolific as many others I know, I at least managed to get something of a steady rhythm going.

A couple of my friends reached their 100^th posts on their blogs, and I found out that it’s a blogging tradition that, when you do so, you’re supposed to do a post citing 100 facts about yourself. I’ll admit, I was starting to think I’d never make it that far, and considered cheating and making 50 my milestone and doing half as many facts. But I stuck it out and kept grinding out posts, and eventually, I got here. Pat on the back to myself! I set a goal and met it! Rock on, me! And I hope to keep it going from here on out. I don’t even know…is there some prize for 500 posts? I wouldn’t be so lucky as to have it be getting a $500 check from some prestigious blogging society, would I?

So here, then, is my reward. I get to think up 100 facts about myself to post. Sadly, your punishment for sticking around this long is to have to sit through them. So let’s get to our centennial facting!

1. I was born in Sacramento, and my first home was less than a mile away from where I live now (that’s kind of a sad fact to start out with…). I also live less than a mile from my old high school and from my first college.

2. At age…five, I think?...I was the Muscular Dystrophy Poster Child for Santa Clara County (my family was in San Jose at the time). I was on billboards and did appearances and stuff, and was even on the local broadcast of the telethon. I have a clear memory of being held up by the host as the final local tally was put up on the big board, and as people in the studio cheered and balloons dropped, and him asking me what I thought about that and putting the mic in my face. I was on the spot and completely tongue-tied, but managed to finally get out “I didn’t think you could raise that much money!” Hey, I just remembered also being in the locker room, post-game, of a soccer team – the game must have had some kind of M.D.A. fundraising aspect to it. Mom tells me she had a cowboy outfit on me for the billboard shoot, and whenever she’d take me out in that outfit, people would recognize me.

3. I have one tattoo. It’s on my left shoulder. It says “Fire and Rain”, based on the James Taylor song. I got this the day I flew home from my father’s funeral. The song had a special meaning for him and me, and a fondness for James Taylor seemed to be one of the few things (good things, at least) he and I had in common. Irony – Dad would have thrown a fit if he knew I’d gotten a tattoo.

4. I used to be on the radio in the mornings when I was in high school. I used to call the local “Masters and Johnson” morning duo on KWOD-106 and do little bits, and they knew me as “Mike from Carmichael”. I have some of those on tape somewhere, but even if I could find it, the cassette (which was cheap to start with) has probably disintegrated by now.

5. On Dad’s side of the family, my line alternates initials from “D.A.” to “M.D.” My grandfather, for example, was Morgan D. O’Connell. My father was Daniel A. O’Connell. And I’m Michael D. O’Connell. Were I to ever have a son, he would have to have a first name starting with “D” and a middle name starting with “A”. For the record, ladies, I’m thinking Damon Allen O’Connell. Get used to it. I’m not sure how far the tradition goes back – I’ll have to look that up. All those D.A.’s and M.D.’s, yet no lawyers or doctors. Interesting.

6. I started a newspaper at school, with my best friend Tim, in the 5^th grade called “The Campus Chronicle”.

7. I was then a journalism major my first semester in college. Only to find out that I didn’t have what it took to be a journalist (I have a soul). I wrote only one piece in the campus newspaper (The American River Current), a report on an upcoming fundraising carnival. I had to interview the student body president, and was so focused on trying not to screw up that I realized I’d left there without a single quote. So I had to go back and ask her (feel free to cringe, journalists), “Is there anything you’d like to be quoted as saying about the event?”. I probably would have gotten better at it. How could I NOT have? But, again…soul.

8. In the 4^th grade, I wanted to be a stuntman. Like-minded friends and I used to practice falling down. While I let go of the career aspirations, I continued to practice later in life, unintentionally, after nights of heavy drinking.

9. My first completed short film script was called “Love Stinks”, written as a semester project in screenwriting class as CSU Sacramento. Like love, it stank, but in some ways, it was a later source of inspiration for “The Nice Guy”.

10. I was officially baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist church in 6^th grade.

11. I can blow two smoke rings at once, one out of each corner of my mouth. Not as impressive as tying a cherry stem in a knot with my tongue, but still a unique skill.

12. I used to do a badass Mickey Mouse impersonation before my voice changed.

13. I have two metal rods fused to my spine that I got in 1984 as a corrective scoliosis measure. They immediately started breaking for no good reason, and are still broken now, as I really have no interest in being opened up again and having someone take a welding torch to me.

14. That’s my most impressive scar (neck down to arse), but I have four others – two on each heel from heel cord lengthening surgeries as a kid, one on the side of my foot from a muscle biopsy, and the one on my chest where they put in the pacemaker. Few people have seen all of these. Ask your mother, she’ll tell you all about them (dude, you walked right INTO that one! Sick burn!).

15. Thanks to my mother playing his records over and over, I know the lyrics of several Barry Manilow songs by heart. Thank your feeble gods that I don’t do karaoke.

16. I smoked a whole pack of cigarettes at once. On video. It was a bar bet. I still have the footage.

17. I was president of the “Toro Toastmasters” in high school.

18. I have a “B” in Spanish from college, but I never took the class. I signed up and never showed up to drop. And yet, I got a pretty decent grade. Mooey Buenas!

19. I was a huge fan of the Adam West Batman series as a kid, but while I had both the Batman and Robin action figures, I never had the Batcave playset. The kid next door had it. Little bastard.

20. I own a certified limited edition replica Luke Skywalker lightsabre from Master Replicas that my sister got me for my birthday one year. Oh, screw you, you know you want one…

21. I don’t put ketchup on my burgers. I put ketchup on my plate and dip my burger in it as I eat. Don’t ask me why. I just do.

22. Like most guys do at a certain age, I wanted to be a musician and start a band. I decided to be a keyboard player and went out and (with my then-brother-in-law co-signing) financed a badass Yamaha keyboard and started taking lessons. Didn’t continue with it, and eventually ended up selling the keyboard (and the dream) to pay my phone bill. Friends who were really sick of hearing me play The Police’s “King of Pain” over and over rejoiced in private.

23. In case you didn’t know, I used to have a body perm. It was the 80s. That’s the only defense I can muster. I actually sat in a stylist’s chair for, like, three hours every few months and got permed. To be more manly, of course. Nothing says “sex machine” quite like sitting around with rollers in your hair.

24. I once entered an Atari Pac Man videogame championship, along with Tim. We both practiced for weeks. And we were both blown out within minutes.

25. I had a cheesy mustache period. Most guys do. Those guys unable to grow one are the ones that bitterly make fun of us.

26. I wrote and “produced” my first play in the 4^th grade. It had to do with shipwrecked people on a raft. Don’t remember what I called it. Several classmates were my actors and my teacher arranged a performance and invited the third-grade glass to watch.

27. In junior high I started my own locker-cleaning business. For a fee, I’d totally clean and organize your locker. And yet, mine was always a mess.

28. I’ve read the Bible, cover-to-cover, five times. Once in the King James Version, four times in the New International. I won’t ruin the end for you.

29. In the 7^th grade, I wrote an essay called “My 6^th Grade Dream Girl” about the attempts of me and three other guys to win the heart of Jenny Juarros. My teacher, Mrs. Grenberg, entered it in youth writing contest for me and I won 1^st place. There was a Grand Prize award above 1^st place, so technically I came in second. This was when I decided I wanted to be a writer.

30. I hate spinach.

31. I don’t like tomatoes, and yet I love ketchup.

32. The only bone I’ve broken is my left arm, and that was when I was five years old (or was I four?). Technically, *I* didn’t break it – my sister did. I was lying on the couch on a pile of freshly-dried laundry and she decided to tackle me. SNAP! The cool thing was that my dad, a motocross enthusiast, broke his arm around the same time on his bike, so we both had casts.

33. I can’t sing, but I was in the choir in high school. You didn’t have to try out for our choir or anything (small school), so I joined just for the social aspect and to go on band and choir trips. Got to go to the World’s Fair in Canada in 1986 and “performed” there (I did a lot of lip-synching).

34. I went to a small Adventist school, and there were only 27 people in my graduating class.

35. I was in Drama Club the first half of my senior year, and played “Mr. Wibble”, the mailman at the North Pole, in “Santa Sees a Shrink”.

36. As a kid, I wrote a letter to President Jimmy Carter, and I got a letter back from the White House. They obviously have a staff of people that answer these, as, instead of a form letter, it was one that actually echoed back the points I’d written about. Brief and generic, but personalized. Sadly, that letter’s disappeared over the years.

37. I’ve been a groomsman in six weddings and a best man in one.

38. I can’t roll my R’s. Even if I’d actually attended that class and learned Spanish, I’d still always sound gringo trying to speak it.

39. I’m a sucker for disaster movies (movies about disasters, not movies that ARE disasters). The bigger the disaster, the better. This is the one place in film where I can put up with bad storytelling and/or acting and still enjoy myself. Hence my being one of the seven people who liked Devlin and Emmerich’s “Godzilla”.

40. I freaking love Star Wars. I’m part of the Jedi Generation – I saw Star Wars in the theater as a kid in ’77, and was hooked. Saw every film after in the theater, multiple times. I loved Star Wars enough to kid myself for a while about the prequel trilogy, but learned that perhaps I’m not as big a fan of disaster as I thought – because that disaster I cannot forgive. George Lucas pisses me off.

41. The first time I ever learned about films selling out was going with my mom, my sister and my step-siblings to see Empire Strikes Back. I was in line, almost shaking with excitement, and someone came on the loudspeaker and announced that the shows were sold out. WHAT?! To wait that long and then to be turned away at the theater, and to have to come back the next DAY? I was crushed. That was the longest day of my life, up to that point in my life. How did civilization ever function without Fandango?

42. Everybody knows the story of me accidentally picking up a hooker in my van while being chased by police with a Bible on my dashboard, right? If not, read HERE and believe.

43. I wrote my first comic book script for publication in the mid-90s, a psychological horror short story called “The Girl Next Door” for a company called Empire, an imprint of Ripoff Press. It was for an anthology series called Mind Probe. The first issue of it came out, and in it was a full-page ad for my story, with my name on it, set for Mind Probe #2. Mind Probe #1 sucked so bad that Empire went under, and there never was a #2. Unless, of course, you consider the fact that #1 was pretty much #2 (get it?)…

44. Between 2000 and 2004, I was an NBA junkie. Though I lived in San Diego, thanks to League Pass, I never missed a Kings game. I lived basketball. I would take the day off work for the NBA draft. All-Star Weekend was the highlight of my year. Sadly, when my Kings started getting sold off, and my time grew less optional, I fell away from it, and now maybe see one game a year.

45. My first web page I did for money was a campaign page for a man named Nanjundappa who was running for State Assembly (72^nd District). He lost. I don’t think it was because of my web design. Probably had something to do with the fact that even I, his webmaster, couldn’t spell (or now remember) his first name. Good guy, though. He was a college professor known to his students as “Dr. Nanjun”. It was a really good experience for me.

46. I build web pages regularly, and yet, at this point in time, I still don’t know a damned thing about HTML. I’m a slave to Dreamweaver.

47. I had a finch named Dobie. He was a gift from my ex (before she was my ex). I think he actually lived for about eight or nine years before he died. I don’t know if that’s a long finch life or not.

48. I fell off a horse once. Don’t blame me – my sister was driving. We both fell off, but luckily for her, I broke her fall. Haven’t been on a horse since. That old saying about getting back on the horse? God made taxis for a reason.

49. I’m in love with Cynthia Rhodes. You have no idea what that is, do you? If you’re my age, you might remember her as the dancing girl from Toto’s “Rosanna” video, or from (sorry) “Stayin’ Alive” with John Travolta. Or maybe from “Runaway” with Tom Selleck. You probably know her best as Patrick Swayze’s knocked-up dance partner from “Dirty Dancing”. I wonder if she’s still with Richard Marx? Poodle-haired jackass. Oh, wait…I used to have that same hair…

50. I got to see Cynthia in person when I was in high school, when Tim, through his brother, got us in to hang out at this celeb tennis tournament. We were sitting one table away from her. I was just enjoying being near her and seeing her up close. Then some soap opera actor dude (I had no idea who he was. Still don’t) was nice enough to sit down and talk with us. Thought he was a cool guy, until I mentioned, quietly, that we were mainly there to see Cynthia Rhodes. Suddenly he says, loudly, for her to hear, “What? You guys are here to see CYNTHIA RHODES?” I was, of course, mortified, not being smart enough at that age to realize he’d totally given me my opening as Cynthia turned around and smiled, amused, at all of us and then went back to her conversation. I’ll never forget that smile (which was probably from her seeing my face turn beet red). I just looked it up, by the way – she and Marx are still happily married, with three kids. Damnit. I should have kept my perm.

51. I think Tom Jones kicks ASS!

52. I dig salsa music. I’ll sometimes just have that playing in the background when I’m doing stuff. Not often, but when the mood strikes.

53. In the late 80s and early 90s, I was a full-on hair-band rocker dude. Saw most every embarrassing band of the era in concert. Including Cinderella. And Dokken.

54. I’ve been in one at-fault auto accident. I’d let my brakes get bad, and one night, while I was keeping an eye on the guy rushing up behind me as our lanes were merging, I didn’t notice the light ahead turning red. The guy in the Mustang had just left the freeway exit, from a stop, and I hit the brakes, but they weren’t good enough to make it happen. He ALMOST made it past me, but I clipped his rear end and spun him around. He was okay. I did about $6000 in damages. I know this because my insurance was with USAA, and I used to work there, and my buddy and former co-worker Kyle ended up with the claim and set the guy up right and let me know the status.

55. I dig everything about the Rat Pack era, and can listen to Frank, Dean or Sammy tunes anytime.

56. I hate seafood. It’s not even really a hate, it’s just that it all does bad things to me. Can’t truck with the fish. A tuna sandwich is about as aquatic as I can go.

57. My coolest spring break ever was my senior year of high school. My stepfather agreed to rent a house on the beach in Mission Beach (San Diego) for me and my sister and a few of our friends. No adults with us, just us for a week. Drunk, drunk, drunk. Had an amazingly fun time. I think…

58. I’ve had three stepfathers. But only one rents beach houses for a bunch of high school kids, see we kept that one.

59. I have one sister, four step-sisters, and two step-brothers.

60. My mother’s family and my stepfather’s family have known each other all their lives. Both Mom and Jack went through three marriages before finally getting together twenty years ago. So I’d already known my step-relatives my whole life before they officially became family. Made for a pretty easy transition.

61. This isn’t about me, but my step-brother Kamron won the grand prize of a national Weiner Schnitzel contest – a trip to Chile – when he was, like, 20. He passed it on to my sister, and she went. Cool, huh?

62. I saw my very first live TV celebrity as a kid when my family was at the Universal Studios theme park in L.A. and Jm J. Bullock from “Too Close For Comfort”, a show that my family watched all the time, was hanging out in the crowd at the wild west show we were watching. You’d have thought I’d just bumped into Brando as blown away as I was.

63. For a lot of my childhood, I wanted to be a DJ, and I used to do my own radio shows on my crappy tape recorder to practice for that day.

64. When my dad asked what I wanted for a gift for my 8^th grade graduation, I told him I wanted a file cabinet. Dad had a weird son. I got it – and I’m still using it today (one of two that I have in my room). How many people can say that about gifts they got in the 8^th grade, huh?

65. I sleep with the TV on every night. I just find it easier to fall asleep, and easier to wake up, with it on. So when I get ready to crash, I look for some movie on cable that I’ve seen before that I won’t pay THAT much attention to. So the last thing I do every night is flip through my dozens of movie channels, and generally can’t find anything to fit the bill. I usually end up pulling something up on On Demand. I’ll often waste 15 minutes or so of sleep time searching for just the right thing to have on.

66. I have a pacemaker that I got in 2001, the month after 9/11. My heart was slowing down and trying to stop one night, and I drove myself to the hospital, parked (and made sure to lock the van because I didn’t know when, or if, I’d be coming back to it), and went into the ER. I had surgery the next day and got it. In about a year and a half from now, I’m going to have to go in for surgery to have my battery changed.

67. I bought the Tony Robbins 30-day “Personal Power II” CD program off eBay, and completed it.

68. I hate breakfast. I never eat it. I get my vitamins from a can of Slim Fast (Chocolate Royale) every morning that I take with me to work, and I drink it while my computer is booting up.

69. I’ve had a goatee since 1995.

70. My first computer was a Vic20. I then got a Commodore 64. When I started college, I stepped up to a Commodore 128 (ooooh…). I didn’t get my first PC until 1994 – a DX66 (not even an Intel) that I got for $3000 on my Montgomery Wards card.

71. I hate cold weather. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I count the days when winter comes, waiting for spring to roll back around. When I get rich enough, I’m moving to the Bahamas or something.

72. I was in the studio audience of a Geraldo taping in Phoenix. You can see me for a moment as Geraldo goes past me and totally ignores MY hand being up and takes a question from another audience member.

73. I’M GAY!!!!!

74. Okay, okay, I’m not gay. I just thought I’d see if you were still paying attention after seventy-three of these. Awake now?

75. I have lived in – Sacramento, Fresno, Modesto, San Jose, Fremont, Cool (yes, that’s a town), Pilot Hill, Auburn, Citrus Heights, Carmichael, Folsom, Rocklin, Tempe, San Diego, and a perpetual state of mediocrity.

76. I spent one summer, as a kid, living in the back seat of a yellow Ford Galaxy 500. Well, “living” is a strong word. I just slept there. It was in the country, and it was parked next to our little trailer. What can I tell you? Jimmy Carter was president. That’s probably what I wrote to him about.

77. The first girl I ever fell in love with was named Cindy, when we were both in Kindergarten. I asked her to marry me on the pretense that I was in this “boys’ club” that required its members to get married. She didn’t buy it. In retrospect, I should have made up a fake membership card to sell it better. If we’d had Photoshop back then, I’d be a happily married man right now.

78. I saw my first live boobies when I was 14, in Vegas. I was there with my dad, and he took us to the Charo show, a musical revue that involved ninety-nine topless showgirls (which adds up to 198 boobies, if you’re doing the math). My father did this, basically, to be able to get a kick out of watching my nervous reaction to the whole thing and tell everyone he knew about it. Dad had that kind of sense of humor.

79. I have a goddaughter named Zoe, the daughter of my friend Kevin. She’s both a musician and a Doctor Who fanatic.

80. MY niece (Danielle) can beat up YOUR niece. I’m not bragging, I’m just stating a fact. Warn your niece to tread lightly.

81. My favorite cigar is the H. Upmann #100 Robusto.

82. When I was having kidney stone surgery in 2004, I woke up in the middle of the operation. But get this – without my knowing it (because they didn’t realize they had to do it until they put me under…and to tell you the truth, I’m still not exactly sure WHY they had to do it), the doctors decided they had to “chemically paralyze” me. So I woke up in the middle of surgery, completely unable to move any single muscle in my body. Couldn’t even blink. I couldn’t even draw a breath – they had a tube down my throat doing my breathing. So, suddenly awake while being operated on, and completely unable to let anyone know it. Thankfully, I wasn’t awake very long.

83. I have two TVs in my bedroom. I originally just had my 13” set in there, but when I got my new HD set for the living room, I moved my old 29” set into the bedroom. I was just going to get rid of the 13”, but my pal A.T. was the one moving the sets, and he grabbed some cables and did a split on the cable box. So I have the 29” on top of my armoire right across from the bed – the one I watch while I’m in bed – and the 13” up on this swivel mount that’s off the upper shelf of my computer desk, one that’s turned so that I can watch it from the desk while I’m working, if I feel the need. This makes me feel like Marty McFly (“He’s kidding you, honey. Nobody has TWO televisions…”).

84. I use three alarms to get up in the morning. Getting up? Not a natural process for me.

85. I own over 380 DVDs. And that's by UPC code, so many of those are box sets, not individual discs. 87 of those are TV show seasons. And that’s just as of this writing.

86. Since I’ve reached #86, I’ll point out that, if you didn’t know, I graduated in 1986.

87. I’m a complete packrat. I’m better than I used to be, but I used to hold on to just about everything that would have any kind of sentimental or historical value to me. Ticket stubs, greeting cards, invitations, party flyers, cocktail napkins, everything. This makes for a great living history of my early years. Thankfully, my later years are much less exciting so I don’t feel the need so much anymore.

88. I have broken three hearts that I’m aware of, and all of them out of my own cowardice.

89. I once rode in an elevator with both the actor who played Uncle Owen in Star Wars AND a Playboy Playmate. I’ll tell that story another time. It’s pretty funny.

90. I got my first VCR, as a Christmas gift, when I was in high school (was I a sophomore or a junior? Not sure), and since I was on Christmas break, I went to the local hole-in-the-wall video store (there weren’t many video rental stores back then, and definitely no big chains yet) with Tim and Wayne, and we rented 15 movies. I don’t think we slept for the next two days – just watched movie after movie in my living room and drank lots of Mountain Dew.

91. If I had to trace the origins of my particular sense of humor, I’d say it grew from Mel Brooks movies, the Airplane movies, and Kentucky Fried Movie. And early SNL. These, to me, defined what comedy ought to be – unexpected, subversive, with the appearance of dumb but with the legs of secret smartness beneath.

92. My computer gets left on 24-hours a day, and I have a minimum of seven or eight applications/windows always open. I also have two monitors on my computer, as I’m often referencing one thing when I’m working on another. I’m comfortable with having as many windows as possible open, and I get amused with people who see that and want to strangle me for it.

93. I was in Washington, DC in 1985 for Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration. My high school band played there, and since there were only a handful of us NOT in the band, the whole school got to go.

94. I’ve fallen out of moving cars twice in my life. The first time I was about three or four, in the back (middle) seat of the family station wagon, unseatbelted (it was the 70s…), leaning back against a door that I obviously hadn’t closed all the way. It opened and I fell back, and my sister grabbed my legs and held me. If I close my eyes, I can still see the street rolling by beneath me, and my hair dragging along it, as my mother screamed and tried to get pulled over. So I guess my sister breaking my arm later was balanced out by her saving me then, so we’re even. The next time I was 18 and really drunk. Technically, the car wasn’t moving as I started getting out. My pal Chris, behind the wheel (also drunk), thought I was already out so he hit the gas. I don’t remember tumbling down the street (being drunk as I was), just the next memory being me looking up at the night sky and blinking, and Chris standing over me. He asked, casually, if I was okay. I shrugged and said sure. “Okay,” he nodded. “I’m going to go park.” And we went back into the party. I attribute both my early stuntman training and lots of vodka to the happy ending there.

95. I refuse to get an electric wheelchair until I no longer have a choice. Using one might be easier, but it would also eliminate the only exercise I get. Easier is not always better. When it does happen, it will be because I have no other option, and when that happens, I imagine wheeling myself will have become such a pain in the ass that I won’t mind the transition so much.

96. When walking was getting too hard for me at the end of high school, and doctors were just ready to put me in a wheelchair full-time, it was my father who suggested I try a cane, and he gave me his own – the one he had used after his big medical event, when he had to work his way up from bedridden to a wheelchair to a walker to crutches to a cane to walking again. Because of that, I kept walking for a number of years before needing the chair 24/7. While I don’t use it anymore, I still have it, and it’s a reminder to me of not only the wisdom of my father, but the lessons he taught me – and anyone else who knew him – about perseverance and patience.

97. I’m a huge proponent of the space program, and I think we need to keep putting our resources into it, and into space exploration in general. Why? Can you actually look into the night sky and ask me why? Mankind, at our best, are explorers, seeking new answers, new frontiers, new challenges. How can we turn away from the great mysteries awaiting us out there? You want to have a conversation about mismanagement at NASA? Okay, I’ll back you there. But people thinking we don’t need NASA? I just can’t understand that kind of thinking.

98. I haven’t counted lately, but I think I own something like 70 domain names. Some of those are for projects and/or properties I’m working on, some are ones I may want to use someday so I grabbed them up so no one else would get them first, and a lot are just ones I got on speculation to sell (before I understood the realities of domain speculation…).

99. I’ve come to realize that I really loathe politics. It is inherently dishonest at its core, in this day and age, because politicians know that we, as a people, would never elect them in the first place if they actually told us the truth. Nor would we re-elect them if they didn’t just tell us what we wanted to hear. We, the people, are the real problem. We need to expect more of both our government and ourselves. I think the polarizing effect of the two-party system has ensured that nothing ever really gets resolved. I wait for the day when we decide to start declaring ourselves Americans, and not forging our identity and decisions in our party affiliation. Now, more than ever, in this internet age, we have the chance to find the facts ourselves, instead of just being fed them by biased media and leadership, and to share our views and ideas and dreams directly with one another. We can find our common ground, together – and we can the elect representatives that will bring form to our ideals. Ones that work for US. It can happen. Let’s stop with the bumper sticker slogans, with the chants, with the surface-only thinking and the demonizing and the quick-fix unreality. Let’s find our common needs and goals and do something about them, together.

100. I am grateful for every day of my life, for every person that’s come into my life, either for a long stay or a brief layover, for the country I live in, for the world I share with billions of amazing and unique souls with so much more potential than they even realize, and for the God that brought me into it and let me play a small role in this big dramedy we call humanity.

And that’s a fact.

Kings Flashback - Kings & Cavs, Double O.T.

And here we continue my game-by-game breakdown from the fall of 2000, where I summarized my thoughts on the second Kings game of the season, a not-so-pretty showdown with Cleveland in the Cavs' season opener. Notable here is the very first on-court appearance (in regular season) of Hedo Turkoglu, our drafted rookie from Turkey who become a big fan favorite (and a national obsession for his home nation, whose citizens got up in the middle of the night to catch Kings games live via satellite, waiting for any chance of Hedo getting off the bench and making them proud. Every road game we went on, there would always be a shot, no matter what city we were in, of a group of Turkish folks up in the stands, waving the Turkish flag and going crazy for Hedo). Also notable is commentary on what it's like to watch a game with a very drunk roommate...

Back to the year 2000...

Kings at Cleveland
11/01/2000

So exciting. And yet so ugly.

No, I’m not talking about your mom. Calm down.

The opening game jitters out of the way, the Kings moved on to…what the heck was that? Can’t quite put a name on it, but it wasn’t good. Not until the end, that was, where the Kings, who trailed nearly the entire game, finally got it together and caught up long enough to take it to double overtime. Double overtime in game two of the season. Not bad at all.

As I mentioned, this was not a pretty game by any stretch. The team was just out of synch. Lots of flailing around, nothing falling. I’ll admit, I’m not quite sure how we managed to stay in this thing, especially with Cleveland playing at the level they were. Once again we’re seeing the weird Kings miracle in action—I’m sitting here the whole time thinking how out of it Webber is, and how he’s missing so much, and then the game’s over and I realize he had 27 points! Guess that 10 for 26 stat makes that understandable. With things going like they were, Webb was fighting to take over, and taking it to the basket whenever he could. Not a great percentage, but he got us the points. And we needed them.

For all my praise for Christie and Jackson last night, they seemed stymied tonight, running around in desperation and just not able to land a shot. Doug was 1 for 13. Bobby 1 for 7. At least they made up for it in free throws. Bobby was looking a little more like Jason tonight, going for some crazy circus moves that never quite came together. And one could attempt to credit Christie with losing the game in those final seconds…but I personally feel that would be an unfair stretch.

The big news, in my opinion, was Scot Pollard tonight, baby! Did I manage to forget mentioning his new samurai ‘do last night? It’s all style with the Butcher, baby. But more amazing than his hair was his presence at both ends and his fat 37 minutes! Scot was almost the man that won the game, in fact. It was the final seconds of regulation. Game is tied. Webber does the stutter step…Webber wants the points. He jumps it up…he’s short…and there’s Scot, the garbage man, to snatch it up and put it in, putting the Kings up by two. BIG smile and protruding tongue from Big Kansas after that one. He was already feeling the glory. Little did he know that sort of the exact same thing would happen at the other end with the clock ticking into zero, when Wesley Person would do a little amazing trashman move himself, right in the middle of the freaking buzzer, and send the game into the first overtime. And what does Adelman do when it’s post-regulation? He chooses to leave the feelin’-it Pollard in over the more obvious Vlade substitution. Thumbs up, Rick! Takes a lot of coach to be able to feel out when someone’s in the zone and let them stay in it. Big night for the Butcher, giving us 12 points in important moments and keeping the final drive alive.

When we hit double overtime, I was really starting to get into the game—even with the knowledge that if we did pull it out, it wouldn’t be a win worth wearing with pride, and one that would have come to us compliments of some very lucky ref calls. It was back and forth in that final five, and I really thought we had it. In those final moments, the ball was lost—and I thought the game had just slipped through our fingers—but Webber was able to tie up Matt Harpring and get the refs to whistle a jump-ball (another questionable call in our favor). They jumped it up, and Webb got it, tipped it to Christie. It was all up to Doug. Smothered by Cavaliers, he got ready for the shot that could have tied it up and sent the game into three overtimes.

And then Lamond Murray—who, by the way, scored all of Cleveland’s points in the second overtime—just swatted the ball away from him, leaving Doug with a post-terrorist-bombing kind of stunned look of disbelief, and ended the game, finally, at 102-100. Hey. At least we hit the century mark, right?

To be honest, Cleveland really deserved to win this game tonight. They looked better than we did, played better than we did, and did it all under a mountain of ref calls that were close to starting a riot on the Cuyahoga River. As out of shape as Chris Gatling is looking, he is still the man, and put on quite a show. The aforementioned Murray was all over the map, capitalizing and taking the Cavs team high with 18 points (18 points for a high. Feh!!). Traylor was…okay. Traylor was just scary, actually. He just made my list of people in North America I wouldn’t want to piss off (or even mildly annoy). How someone so big can move so fast is beyond me, but the man makes it happen, and makes for a really tough target if you’re trying to keep him out from under the bucket. Andre Miller was looking great, and put up 17 for the Cavs…and will be wincing every time he watches the replay of that overtime moment where he slipped on a wet spot and went down hard, bruising his knee. NOT the thing a Cleveland fan wants to see happen on opening night. ‘Spoon was a force to be reckoned with, as was Ilgauskas—when he wasn’t giving them like their 8^th illegal D of the night. We can thank that man for a few free throws. They looked loose out there, comfortable with each other, confident. That’s two in a row for them, and they earned it both times. They’re looking good this year. I’m looking forward to getting another crack at them.

As for the rest of the boys tonight…

Vlade just didn’t have it going, and was 2 for 5 on his 4 whole points. Didn’t really make himself felt, but managed a couple of good flop moves. Darrick got a little time, enough to put up another of those pretty acrobat layups and get himself a deuce. Some great use of Funderburke (not much of it, as Webber played 50 minutes of the extra long game). He came in for 8 minutes and managed 9 points, and was at the receiving end of a flagrant that put him down and had me holding my breath for a few seconds. Nick came in, made his 3, sat back down. Peja got his 23 again…man, what a mixed bag. 6 turnovers of his own, and some pretty sloppy ball all around, but some moments of pure Peja love, too, with three 3-pointers that we really needed, too. Hmm. And another not so great night for Jon Barry. Again, he’s out there, working his butt off (5 assists in his minutes), but no points and a lot of unprofitable time. I’d like to see a little Barry of old step up before we get too far into the season, as that, besides Jason, is what’s really missing for me so far.

Hey, I got to see Turkoglu play finally! Interesting choice, Rick putting him in when the chips were pretty south. Sure, it was only five minutes, and I’ll admit that in the first minute or so, I was decidedly unimpressed with what I saw—the kid looked lost out there, and really out of place. But suddenly, there was swiftness and skill from nowhere, and the big Turk put up a 3 before sitting back down. Way to go, Turk! And welcome to the Kings. Looking forward to seeing a little more of what you can do.

Again, not a pretty game, but hey…on the final scoreboard, it’s a two point loss in double overtime, which looks a whole lot better than, say, Orlando’s 26 point loss to Miami tonight (go Brian Grant! Love that guy!), or Detroit’s 20 point drop to Boston. If you’re just looking at the scores, we looked pretty good. But in truth, this was a not Kings joy. But as we Kings fans all know, you’re just NOT going to get the joy every game. Aaron, by the way, didn’t even hang around to finish the game tonight, finally getting ticked off with several minutes left in the 4^th, slurring out phrases like “This is crap. They’re going to lose. Thing is the old Kings. They can’t win on the road” and drunkenly stumbling off to bed and missing a pretty exciting double overtime. As Aaron’s not often prone to walking out of a game (unless you count game five of the playoffs last year), made me wonder if he didn’t whip through the game tape before I got home from work and already knew the outcome. If so, I’d better get used to it this season, as with my hours, I can’t expect the man to always feel like staying up until 1:00 a.m to watch the game on my hours. Ah, the tragedy, when work must get in the way of roundball.

Number two behind us. Detroit’s up ahead, waiting for us Friday night. Going to have Tim in town for that one, and well as for Minnesota the following night, so it’s back to the old Chicos watching the Kings again. A little La Casa reunion. Going to be great having Tim down here in SoCal this season. And hey, just took a good look at the schedule, and we’ve got a nice little 5-game home series coming up this month. That’s the third thing that’s missing—the glorious roar of the Kings fans at Arco. Counting the days until that sound.

Kings Flashback - My Early Sportswriting Days

All this basketball talk is bringing it all back to me - how big a part of my life the NBA (and the Kings, in particular) was. The last 24 hours have raised a lot of memories. And mostly good ones, too. When did I ever have time for THAT kind of dedication to daily NBA obsession? Whew.

As proof of just how deep I was into it, I've gone and dug up an unpublished bit of writing of mine. I had this grand plan for my web site, you see. I had a whole monster Kings page in mind, one with facts and stats on all the players, and with detailed game-by-game analysis by...well, who do you think? The site IS "michaeloconnell.com". As the summer of 2000 passed, and as the 2000/2001 NBA season began, I was still putting the pieces of my big Kings page (which, by the way, was called "BigKingsLove") together, but figured while I was, I had better get started on my game analysis. Yeah, THAT didn't last long. I wasn't getting home from work until almost 11:00pm those days, and then had to watch the taped game, and THEN sit down and write up my analysis of it. Those late nights were not to last. And hey, that's okay, because my Kings page never happened either! That's the problem with wanting to build a page based on something as fluid as an NBA team. By the time you've built the page, all the news is out of date, and all the players have changed! I kept trying to restart for a few years, but finally gave up on the big dream.

But because of that idea, I did manage to do my first sports writing. I think I did maybe ten of these post-game write-ups, but wow, just looking at the first one, does it ever show how into the sport I was. This, and the other recaps, have never been anywhere but on my hard drive until now (and not read by me since they were first written). So take a journey back in time with me, will you? Back to Halloween of the year 2000, when the Kings were just getting the big show started and starting to make a name for themselves. This was the beginning of the golden era of Kings basketball. Back when we still believed that it was our time, and that we were going all the way. It was the age of J-Will excitement. It was the age of monster Webber slams and hilarious Vlade flops. It was the age of Jon Barry game-winning miracle shots, with the chants of thousands of Arco fans shaking the rafters with "BAR-ry! BAR-ry! BAR-ry!". It was the age, my friends, of Kings.

Season Opener:
Kings at Chicago
10/31/00

Okay, let me join every sports writer in Sacramento by opening with this one.

Kings fans get a treat on Kings Halloween opener!

Okay, with that out of the way…

My boys are back! It’s the happiest day of the year here at the Leisure Dome, the day when the NBA League Pass action kicks in on the digital cable, and the first Kings game is on the tube. As per last season with my schedule, it was tape it and rush home for it. Aaron, who’s schedule is slightly different and will usually end up having to watch the game before me (as I’m usually stumbling in from work between 10:30 and 11:00), opted to wait for me on this opening game. Just took the time to come in the door and grab my Kings hat (Aaron, in kind, donning his “55” jersey for good juju) and it was off to Chicago.

The good news? The Kings won. Please. This was one of those “had to win” situations. First, they were playing the Bulls, whose magical “threepeat” dynasty has sunk so low that three wins in a row in one season is a miracle. Don’t mean to put a team down here…just saying the perception these days is that they’re one of the coveted NBA punching bags, and if you lost to Chicago on your opener, you’re going to hear about it. The Kings didn’t. Not for lack of a trying a couple of times, mind you. But hey…that’s all part of Kings ball, too. The tear-your-hair-out moments. I’m sure moments like those will really gnaw at me later in the season. But tonight? It was like coming home, baby.

The other good news? The backcourt! Woo hoo! Now I’ve been following the box scores in pre-season (since League Pass was nice enough to make sure none of the Kings pre-season games were broadcast…not even the Laker game in Vegas!), and I knew, objectively, that Doug Christie and Bobby Jackson were fine additions to the Kings arsenal. But reading about it and watching it are two different things. From the get-go, I was stunned! The talent on these guys! I immediately got the sense that what was holding us back last year—the lackluster regularity of Nick Anderson and Corliss Williamson (don’t get me wrong, I love ‘em both) keeping the starting five from really taking care of business—might just be a thing of the past. These are the new guys, for crying out loud. Neither rookies, of course, but still, new to the team and the way Sacramento plays. And they rocked the house!

Thanks to Jason Williams’ summertime “high jinx”, we ended up with Bobby starting on point, something we all knew was going to happen (Darrick’s place in the doghouse seems quite set, even into the new season) and will certainly continue through J. Will’s 5-game sit out (I wasn’t aware, by the way, that suspended players aren’t even allowed in the building during the game. Jason watched it from the hotel). Was anyone actually worried about this? Bobby made sure they all forgot their troubles and (come on) got happy. The moves on this guy! He stunned me. MONSTER defense all up and down the court, with amazing speed and natural instincts. He was everywhere! Slick, lightening-fast, footwork like you couldn’t believe. His four steals attested to his hair-trigger concentration and always-on work ethic. Ended up with 6 assists and 14 points tonight, and with one new big fan here in San Diego. I love this guy! Still, I find myself a little sad because knowing how hot he’s going to be backing up Jason, it’s kind of obvious that Darrick’s going to see most of his play this season backing Bobby up in these first 5 games, but when you get down to it, sentiment just don’t get you the “W”. He’s going to do some amazing work. We’re very lucky to have him, and can applaud the choice in bringing him into the fold.

Doug Christie. Oh, my. He, too, blew me away in the opening minutes. Sure, I’ve seen him around before, as he’s been in this game for a few years. But I never really paid attention. Now, I’m definitely wide-eyed and attentive. We’ve got a real franchise star with Doug. He’s going to do some really fine work here, and make sure the starters don’t have to get bailed out by the bench quite as often. Loved watching him shoot. Totally natural and fluid on the floor, deadly on the jumper or in the paint. And as with Bobby, great defense. You really have to be a Kings fan to be properly shocked by really good defense. This is just isn’t something we’re used to. He played his 36 minutes with style, putting 9 points on the board and, more importantly in my opinion, showed me that he can play Kings ball. Hey, anybody in the NBA can play basketball, man. Kings ball is a totally different animal. It’s about the pizazz, the telepathy, the Hollywood edge, the style making the substance sparkle. He’s going to fit in remarkably well, and just may be the edge we need to get us all the way to the prom.

So the new guys were pumping me up, but tonight was more about seeing what the old gang’s up to, seeing how my boys are shaping up this year. Yeah, it’s still Kings ball. Moments of disbelief and pure joy, following up by wincing and head-shaking. But the latter really didn’t play that big a part for me. Hey, to tell the truth, winning wasn’t even all THAT much on my mind. It was just about seeing my guys throw that ball around again. And, yes, my boys are back.

The big news—Peja! We all knew, even last year, that Peja would be stepped up to starter this season. Worst thing that happened to Nick Anderson’s career was that injury problem last year that put Peja in the stoplight, and let us all see what the kid could do. Kid’s going to be a star this year, you just watch. Some commentator oh-so-accurately referred to him last season as “one of the best pure shooters in the game”. Peja does it all. The long ball, the pick and roll, the jumper, and the monster slam. What CAN’T this guy do? He’s stepped up in defense to supplement his ball artistry, and I think we can count on him for some game-changing moments on either end…and a regular 20 points to keep us up above the century mark where we like to be. I was also quite happy to see that the boys finally cooled him out and talked him into getting a better haircut. The Opie look really had to go. 23 points, 8 boards and 3 steals for the big mouth-breather tonight. He was everywhere and everything. It’s going to be an amazing season for the kid.

Webber? What can I tell you? Who else can play an off game and still put up 23 points? Highs and lows for Chris tonight. Obviously was a little off his game, and it was obviously bothering him (still note quite sure where the technical came from, though…seemed to have happened after he scored. Hmm). But it’s easy to forget that part when you look at the one-man highlight reel he gave us. Could we get MORE patented Webber power jams in one night? It was GREAT to see him back and playing again. It was REALLY a long summer, believe me. And a summer with news of Chris maybe looking for greener pastures after this year, which should make all of us sweat a little (and bend over backwards to hold onto him). But I think Chris is going to find out this year that he IS, in fact, with the team that’s going to get him to the Finals. I really think the guys have a strong chance to take it all the way this year, and with Webber stepping up in on- and off-court leadership, he could be the guy that makes it all happen.

With the exception of a few bobbles here and there, a pretty good night for Vlade (we got a couple of flops! Both horizontal and vertical! Flopmaster V is back!). I was pretty impressed with a pass from the floor to save a bobble and turn it into opportunity. Good to see him acting and yelling at refs…and, as ever, giving support from the sidelines when he’s on the bench. And speaking of centers…what’s up with Pollard’s hair?! I love this guy! He’s a freak! Great seeing the butcher back in action again, with fouls-a-plenty (hey! That’s what we pay him for!) and some near-homicidal boards. Some nice work under the net, too, including one tasty power jam. Nick got a few minutes, and managed to drain a three (always puts a smile on my face). Darrick got a few minutes in there, and gave us a couple of those patented kamikaze layup moves that always make me think of Kevin Johnson back in the day. And, of course, I got my Darrick Martin crazy 3. He didn’t make the shot…if he did, it wouldn’t have been my crazy 3! It was a staple of the first part of last season. At least once a game, no matter if they just put him in for a minute or two, Darrick always had to launch up this monster 3-pt shot and miss it. It became kind of tradition. Not a good idea to mess with tradition, so I was happy to see it. Funderburke, who really reminded us of his value in the preseason, came off the bench and put on a show, giving us a solid 7. It’s a shame that with Webber playing so many minutes (does that guy ever get tired?) that Lawrence only gets to show what he can do when Webb’s out with an injury. But it’s good to know he’s still hot off the bench when we need him. Ah, yes, and then there’s Jon Barry. This was vintage Barry (I’m almost sad to say). Giving it his all, but not always making the wisest choices. Just tries to do too much sometimes. Man does love the drama (and that’s one of the things I love about his play, actually), and he’ll always go for the highlight…and most of the time come through. But, in some cases, a simpler move might just do the trick. Aw, he was looking good though. Diving for stuff (it’s not a Kings game if Barry doesn’t end up face down or in some fan’s lap), pumping up them 3s (wish he would have made one tonight, but I can wait until next time), and making free throws look so bloody automatic. Can’t wait for another season of Jon Barry 4^th quarters. I predict many a last-second backbreaker out of him, as usual, and know I won’t be disappointed.

Oh, and I guess there was another team playing there tonight, too, wasn’t there? Hey, Chicago put on a good show, taking back the lead a couple of times and putting up some highlights of their own (gee, do you think Fizer’s near-half-court 3 at the halftime buzzer will be on SportsCenter a few times tomorrow?). I’m actually kind of excited about an NBA team that’s just SO chock full or rookies. Young team, full of potential, poised to maybe become a Cinderella story (okay, maybe not)? There’s a lot of talent there. Didn’t see as much out of Elton Brand as I’m used to, but what was there was amazing, as ever (that kid’s nuts!). The big story was Mercer, who just couldn’t be stopped. Some great moments and 11 points from El Amin really helped keep them in the game. I was actually very impressed by Hoiberg, who had some pretty slick moves and a couple of MONSTER 3s. Guess the experience shows through there. Man’s been six years in the NBA, which makes him, by at least two years, this team’s veteran (a 6-year man is your vet?!). Ah, but as I mentioned, Fizer was the big news. Tonight was his debut, and he stepped up and flew the flag, big time. Brother put up 16 points in his NBA debut! That’s 6 more than Pippen did on his first night! He shined bright, and may be one of the main things keeping Chicago alive this year…if such a thing is possible after things have gone so horribly for the once-blessed franchise. As I said…it’s all about the rookies with this team, and I like that, and I hope they do well and blow everyone’s mind. They gave us a couple of scares tonight, that’s for sure. But they’ve still got a long way to go if they’re going to survive even the first half of this season.

All in all, it was pure basketball joy for me, just seeing my boys in action. So it begins. 1 down, 81 more to go. We really need to prove we can make it on the road this year (our great bane in the ‘99/00 season), and we’ve certainly got a chance to make a go at it with this four-game trip through the Midwest. But the good news is that the opening-game jitters are over, and we got to get that out of the way while playing a team that wasn’t able to properly take advantage. Now it’s time to go to work. We’ve got Cleveland, Detroit (did I mention Stackhouse got 44 points tonight?) and the dreaded, cap-busting, fine-paying Timberwolves to get through before we can get back home and really play where we play best. Against Portland. I’ll start shuddering now. We took them in preseason, and they got dropped pretty well by the Lakers tonight, but they were always one of those big two teams (along with Phoenix) that always had our number last year. We’ll see if we can take it to them when the stats are really being counted, and when the great Pacific battle is in full swing.

Welcome back, boys! We’ll see you in Cleveland!

Wait....we actually DID get cheated?!!

(Please note that this entry was written last night, when it actually WAS breaking news, but Blogger's FTP server decided to go down for over twelve hours, so I'm just able to get it up this morning at almost 11:00am. COINCIDENCE? Or is the NBA trying to shut me down to keep me from sharing the truth? I smell conspiracy...)

If you’re from Sacramento, chances are you’ve never been able to get May of 2002 (and one day in June) out of your head. It’s in your subconscious. You tell yourself you’ve moved on, but a handful of times a year, your mind goes back to what happened. To what happened, and to what might have been.

In 2002, I was a basketball fanatic. I lived it. God help anyone unfortunate enough to work with me, because every day, I was there talking about what happened in the NBA world the night before. I was living in San Diego, but thanks to the League Pass on the cable, I never missed a Kings game. Scratch that… I missed two each year. And that’s only because those were the home Clipper games that were blacked out by our cable system due to broadcast contracts going on in L.A. And those would be two of the most frustrating nights of my year, too. I knew what was happening with every team in the league, what the standings were, who the hopeful rookies were. I read basketball news online, including having to read the analysis of each game I’d already watched, and listened to sports radio daily. NBA All-Star Weekend was the highlight of my year, and I even took the day off work each year for the NBA draft so I could watch it live.

It was a time when Kings mania had reached its apex. Since moving to Sacramento in 1985, the Kings—regardless of the fact that they stank most of the time—were completely loved by their new hometown. Sacramento had not had a pro sports team. Having our own NBA team made us a TOTAL NBA town, obsessed with the sport. For years thereafter, basketball was a major topic of conversation around Sac, but after the massive changes in the team and the beginning of the Maloof Brothers era (the really rich brothers that bought the team, in case you didn’t know), it was all ANYone here talked about. Why? Because after so many years of selling out games at Arco Arena, despite the fact that the low-rent team rarely scored a win, suddenly the Kings couldn’t STOP winning. There was a whole new team, and one that meshed like magic. Chris Webber. Vlade Divac. Jason Williams. Doug Christie. Bobby Jackson. Peja Stojakovic. Hedo Turkoglu. Jon Barry. Scot Pollard. They were all great players (even if they didn’t even know the meaning of the word “defense”), but more importantly, they were SHOWMEN. They DAZZLED the crowd with jaw-dropping laser-guided passes, eye-bugging slams and a seemingly endless rain of three-pointers that made them one of the most consistently high-scoring teams in the league. And they had more than skill and flash. They had personality. They were this amazing international mix of characters who clearly loved the game and loved playing it together. And that showed between seasons every year, when the management of the team did something quite rare in basketball and actually tried to keep their core team together.

There was improvement each year, but respect was coming slowly. Word was getting out, especially about the circus-style play of rookie Jason Williams (whose jersey, his very first year in the league, became the #1 national best-seller ). Sure, Jason could frustrate as much as he delighted, but that was half the fun…you just never knew what he was going to do, or if that ridiculous half-court shot he let fly was going to just sink right in like the freaking hoop was a leather-magnet. I think it was his dedication to entertaining that became infectious, and his teammates fell into the same rhythm. People couldn’t even watch the scoreboard because they were afraid to take their eyes off the floor and miss seeing the next highlight explode.

Our nemesis (in our minds, at least) became the L.A. Lakers. Part of it was a norcal/socal thing, a little in-state rivalry. The other part was that, to us, they were the evil empire. They were Hollywood. They had all the big stars. They had two of the best players in the league in Kobe and Shaq. They were arrogant. They were cocky. And the reveled in kicking other teams when they were down, as seen in Shaq’s smirking post-win interviews filled with not-very-veiled cuts on the team he’d just stomped all over (often, quite literally). But the greatest reason for the Sac hatred of all things L.A. was the Lakers coach, Phil Jackson. One famous interview – before one of the early Lakers-Kings playoff series – Phil referred to Sacramento Kings fans, who considered themselves (and were called so officially, actually, by Sports Illustrated one year) to be the best fans in the NBA, as “half-civilized rednecks”. This led to the initially comedic but thereafter kind of embarrassing “cowbell” practice. To show their “cow-town” annoyance at Phil, fans brought cowbells to the game. Lots of them. And they spent the entire game, right behind the Lakers bench, ringing them as loud as they could. Our proudest moment? You be the judge. But he’d pissed us off. You wouldn’t like us when we’re angry. Seriously, you ever had a cowbell rung right next to your ear? You REALLY wouldn’t like us.

But for the most part, that “rivalry” existed mostly in our minds, as we could never seem to get passed the Lakers in the post-season. But 2002 was different. With the shocking trade of the undependable (but well-loved) Jason Williams, the Kings picked up a new point guard in Mike Bibby. Me, I was excited about the trade. I missed J-Will, don’t get me wrong, but I’d liked Bibby’s game for a long time, and was thrilled at the idea of a less random guard leading the floor. Mike started out pretty good that year. Nothing to really go crazy over, but he was pretty solid. But we learned something when spring came around that maybe Mike himself didn’t even realize. Mike Bibby was BORN for the post-season.

We watched, though the first two series in the west, as he came more and more alive with each game. First came a tough series against the Jazz that went all five games (this was before round one went to seven games). His game grew tougher. He became a leader, something he hadn’t been up to that point. Then came the semifinals against a fantastic Dallas team, and Mike Bibby just plain exploded. He had one big game-changing shot after another. Until then not very emotional, Mike was now screaming in victorious warrior rage to the home crowd, whipping them into an ecstatic frenzy. Where did this guy COME from, we all wondered? We lost one game only to the dynamic Mavericks, and that was game 2. After that, three victories in a row, one in overtime and the final one with a thirteen point final lead. And in this, we had achieved the goal that we, the fans, wanted as much as the team themselves – we weren’t just going to the Western Conference Finals, as we’d dreamed of for so long. We were going there to face the Lakers.

People will argue, and with reason, that the Kings/Lakers series of 2002 is one of the best in NBA history. And it wasn’t even the Finals, just the Conference Finals. Two heralded teams – one, in the Kings, that had finally earned some respect, selling out their road games all over the nation all season long and having become the darling of the sports media, the other the worldwide best-known and seemingly unstoppable monolith that was the Lakers. For L.A., it was a return to golden era with this team, a memory of the years of Magic, Kareem and Worthy. Now they had Kobe, Shaq and Rick Fox. The buzz on this series, even though most of L.A. figured it would be a sweep anyway, made it a matter of Hollywood pride, and as Hollywood goes, so goes the nation. So suddenly, plenty of non-basketball fans were into this, trying to find out what all their favorite stars were so excited about.

We also pulled out home court advantage to start this series, so things began at Arco, one of the most powerful home court advantage arenas in the world. The battle began. This is what we’d waited for, and the Kings were hungry, and fought with sweat and blood for it. Yet, by the end of game one, the Lakers took a 1-0 lead on us. In our own house. Not the inspiring start we’d hoped for, but it also wasn’t a blowout, something we’d suffered at their hands so many times before. So Sac fans were tense but hopeful. Laker fans were cocky, trash-talking, and already celebrating.

Then we won the next two.

It was unthinkable, at least in L.A. Our boys made a comeback and took their house back on May 20^th, redeeming themselves and the city’s pride and tying up the series. We had worked so hard all year to get that home court, and had felt we needed those first two wins. But we walked away with one. Would it be enough? It seemed so, because we walked into the dreaded Staples Center in L.A., facing not only hostile fans but Jack Nicholson (YOU try to make a free throw with him staring you down), and won again, trouncing them by 13 points. At HOME. Back in Sacramento, the city was going out of its collective mind, knowing it wasn’t over yet but finally starting to believe that maybe, maybe, our time had come.

Game four, still at Staples, was all-out war. We knew if we won this one, we would be up 3-1, and therefore only one victory away from taking them down, and three chances left to do it. Both teams were giving their all. And suddenly, in the final seconds, we found ourselves up by two points. L.A. had the ball. They tried to inbound…the clock was ticking…with the ball close to the net, Vlade used his height and his reach and did the one thing that was the smartest he could do – he swatted it as hard as he could, the other direction.

Right into the hands of Robert Horry, past the three-point line. A cool-as-ice Robert Horry who lined it up, took his shot, and dropped it on the buzzer, winning the game (by one point) and creating one of the best-known replays in NBA history. We even knew it then, sitting at our TVs, stunned, still trying to figure out what had just happened when it seemed that victory was in our hands. We were going to be seeing that shot for the rest of our lives on sports TV. And if we didn’t win the series, it was going to really, really suck, each and every time.

But game five proved that the Kings could finish in grand and dramatic fashion themselves, and it was Mike Bibby who dropped the final heart-stopper in that one, right in front of the home crowd in Sac, and gave us the back-at-you victory. You have not SEEN crowds go wild like that before. I was in San Diego at the time, and could still feel the ground rumbling from the shaking walls of Arco. National attention fell squarely on this series now. If people hadn’t been paying attention before, they were now. Because the word was out. Come the next game, a Lakers loss would do the until-then impossible and put them out of the playoffs. It was fascinating, being in southern Cal and so close to L.A. as I was, to watch what happened to Laker fans. For the first time, they knew real fear. And they knew anger. Not at the Kings as much as their own “beloved” team, who they suddenly turned on, not hoping for victory but demanding it like it was their birthright. It was a tough time to be cruising around San Diego in Kings gear, but I loved every minute of it.

And then, game six.

We come now, to the point of this entry. Here we sat, poised on the precipice of victory, about to become the team that knocked the world’s number one NBA team out of play for the rest of the year, and out of Finals contention. Imagine, if you will, that you’re in upper management in the NBA. And you realize just how much of your money – your ratings, your merchandising, all of it – come from Kobe, Shaq and Company. This was a looming financial disaster for the NBA. Sure, there was lots of buzz about the Kings, but buzz does not make guaranteed ratings – and dollars – in the Finals. The idea of the Lakers NOT going all the way was finally starting to sink in for the league. We knew it. It was being talked about all over sports radio. This was going to be an upset on many levels if it happened.

Which is what made you wonder…when everything went down as it did on May 31^st.

There’s a thing sportscasters talk about when it comes to the playoffs, how officiating is different. The refs tend to let the teams “play the game” – in that they call a lot fewer “ticky tack” fouls that would just slow things up and make the game less exciting. The theory is that it’s not a conscious thing – it’s not a mandate or anything – it just happens, as refs try hard not to get caught up in the flood of a playoff series, but part of them does tend to go with the flow.

The opposite happened in game six. Suddenly, it seemed every foul that could be called WAS called – against the Kings. Little fouls. Dumb fouls. Questionable fouls. Time and time again, the Lakers kept getting back to the free-throw line for more free points. For most of the game, we were just frustrated as Kings fans. But then we, like the Kings themselves, started to feel something else was going on. Per a later interview from Chris Webber, he stopped at one point, after yet another ridiculous foul was called, looked grimly at Vlade, and said “We’re %$*#ed”. He could feel it. It was nothing TOO obvious. Just enough things in a row, at just the right time. It was enough to give the Lakers 27 foul shots in the fourth quarter…compared to 9 for the Kings. Obvious fouls seemed to be ignored when committed by the Lakers (including an elbow to the face from Kobe to Bibby), and fouls that seemed imagined were being called on the Kings. In the end, the Lakers won 106-102 in Laker-friendly Staples Center, so there was certainly no one booing the calls there. Back in Sacramento, though? There was heartache. There was confusion. There was outrage. And Sacramento folks weren’t the only ones crying foul. Ralph Nader (I’m not making this up) and the League of Fans—a sports industry watchdog group—sent a letter to NBA Commissioner David Stern and wanted an investigation. But that wasn’t to happen. No, everyone got what they wanted at this point – the drama of great sports…a series going down to the final game in an evenly-matched (no one could deny that any longer), feverish rivalry. It was a dream come true for the NBA.

And one game later, the end of a dream in Sacramento. Game seven went back to Arco, and the Kings, trying to overcome forces seemingly aligning against them, gave it their all. For most of the game. It went to overtime. You couldn’t write a better sports moment – game seven overtime. Nothing that had happened the previous game mattered. Our destiny was in our own hands. This was our final chance. But this time, no one could point a finger at refs. Our shooting fell apart. As did the game. As did our season. The Lakers took the series with a 112-106 OT victory, in front of a heartbroken Sacramento crowd…that still stayed and cheered their boys for all the effort, and for the most amazing season of basketball in the franchise’s history.

Many felt that this was our best chance at making it to the Finals, maybe our one chance. They seemed to be right. Things started coming apart after this. Slowly, the long-held players started getting traded. The magic was draining away, and it did, bit by bit. The perfect storm of Sacramento basketball greatness had shaken the pillars of heaven and brought their fans so close to the promised land. But with each year after, we seemed to back further and further away from that mark. It happens. There are cycles in the NBA. No one wins forever, mainly because it’s nearly impossible to keep a team together long enough to get them to the point of being able to read each other’s thoughts and moves. Our Kings had their time, and in the first several years of the new millennium, they climbed from the depths of perpetual obscurity to the cover of Sport Illustrated, the racks of sporting wear stores around the world (especially in Turkey, thanks to Hedo…) and the heights of prime-time NBA network gold. We had our shot. And if there was as defining moment that signaled the end of it, was that overtime in game seven. It was all in our hands, then, and we lost it on our own. Sure, we could complain that it never would have gone to game seven if not for the terrible officiating in game six that seemed to hand the game to the Lakers, but that argument lost its punch after so many air balls from Peja in what should have been the biggest clutch minutes of his career. So it goes. And all of us, like so many other sports fans over the decades who’ve had victory so close they could taste it, live with the “what if” thoughts. And we wait for our team to put together just the right combination of new players to at least spark some of the old magic again.

So, yes, we really stopped, for the most part, whining about game six, because it came off as weak and bitter to do so.

Enter Tim Donaghy. And today’s news story.

You know the name Donaghy? He’s the NBA ref that’s facing prison time over gambling on games? That was pretty big news a while back. Well, now as he’s trying to get as light a sentence as he can, ol’ Tim is calling out other refs for bad behavior. And guess which series he’s alleging some fixery went down in?

Let me just quote the article:

The former NBA referee facing prison after admitting to gambling on games claims the controversial Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference finals was fixed to ensure the Los Angeles Lakers would beat the Kings.

In a letter to the sentencing court attempting to show his level of cooperation in hopes of receiving a lighter jail term, Tim Donaghy alleges two of that game's three referees were "company men" who used "manipulation" to extend the series to a deciding seventh game. The team that lost Game 6 had two players "ejected," the letter claims, and later lost the series.

Donaghy does not specify the teams or the referees. But Lakers-Kings was the only 2002 series to go seven games. And while no Kings were ejected, Vlade Divac and Scot Pollard did foul out as Shaquille O'Neal attempted 17 free throws.

"Referees A, F, and G were officiating a playoff series between the Team 5 and Team 6 in May of 2002," the letter states, using placeholders instead of names. "It was the sixth game of a seven-game series, and a Team 5 victory that night would have ended the series. However, Tim learned from Referee A that Referees A and F wanted to extend the series to seven games. Tim knew Referees A and F to be 'company men,' always acting in the interest of the NBA, and that night, it was in the NBA's best interest to add another game to the series."

The letter goes on to say the two referees heavily favored Team 6, ignoring blatant fouls committed by its players and calling "made-up" fouls against Team 5, giving Team 6 more free-throw chances.

"The referees' favoring of Team 6 led to that team's victory that night and Team 6 came back from behind to win the series," the letter states.

Iiiiiiinteresting…

Now, let’s be honest. What you’ve got here, so far, is a dirty ref who’s scraping for anything he can to get less time in jail. Not exactly damning evidence, certainly not from a trustworthy source. This just the initial news, and more will be coming out in the next couple of days (and believe me, every bit of it will be covered in Sacramento). We’ll see if any more comes out of it. But if you watched that game (like EVERYONE from Sacramento did when it broadcast live), you can’t help but feel a certain gasp of hope for validation. Could it be there is actual evidence somewhere that could show this to be true? Is it so hard to believe that the NBA would influence a series like this to maximize profits and extend the series (for more commercial dolla’), to insure that the Laker-loving world got yet ANOTHER Laker Championship to cheer…leading to more Laker merchandise, more “Lakers Championship Season” DVDs, more sponsors the following season?

The paranoia of the bitter? Maybe. The slanted beliefs of those felt jilted? Sure. But I, myself, with an open mind, will be keeping a close eye on this story and seeing what, if anything, comes from it. If by some miracle such allegations are proven, will it give our 2002 Kings their Championship rings? Will it give Sacramento the pride it would STILL be high on, claiming evermore that this is the city of the World Champion Sacramento Kings? Will it get me my Kings tattoo that I was seriously planning to get with a couple of friends of mine if we’d gone all the way? None of the above. But it will give us some peace. And maybe, some justice. Justice for a crime that may have put dollars above the pure spirit of sport, and profits above the dreams of hopes of some of the most faithful fans the NBA has ever known. To betray such fans is to betray the foundation of the NBA, and if such a thing did actually happen, people need to go down. Guess we’ll see.

Ah. I just noticed that the Lakers, down 0-2, managed to take game three and keep their Finals hopes alive tonight against the Celtics.

Imagine that.

:)

Nicole update for June 8, 2008

Some new words to start your summer off right from America's favorite fake web site assistant. Click here to check it out.

Hey, did anyone else notice that yesterday's date was 06/07/08? How cool is that? And how lame is it that I didn't think to go to Vegas last summer when the date was 07/07/07? I could have brought home BANK! Damn. Okay, every year this decade I've told myself I'm going to throw a "sequential party" when the date hits it just right. But I keep blowing it. So next summer, let's do it, and hook it up MAD style on 07/08/09! Be there!