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From the Darkside - The EJ Files Other Sports

THE GREYHOUND SPECIAL

(Editors Note:  With the sad news that the one and only Darryl Dawkins left this world and returned to Lovetron yesterday, our East Coast correspondent, EJ, felt it was his duty to submit this piece about the lasting memories supplied by the former NBA great.)

 

From the Dark Side – 8/28/15

 

For many sports junkies and general entertainment fans in general, August 27, 2015, was a sad day in history.  Darryl Dawkins, forever known as Chocolate Thunder, passed away at the age of 58.  What is truly remarkable is that nearly half of his life (25 years) was dedicated to entertaining fans, running up and down the hardwood, occasionally breaking a backboard or two, and playing the game he loved – professional basketball.  For my generation, he was one of the first NBA superstars that we tried to emulate in every way.  His dunking was ferocious and following his first backboard shattering dunk in 1979, Dr. Dunkenstein had a global following.  He nicknamed that first dunk:  “The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Teeth-Shaking, Glass-Breaking, Rump-Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Wham-Bam, Glass-Breaker-I-Am-Jam.”  Who couldn’t fall in love with that?!

 

DD

 

He had names for most of his dunks and I can remember trying every single one of them growing up on nerf hoops or lowered rims which allowed for 10 year olds like us to dream big.  Some of the more famous ones were:  the Rim Wrecker, the Go-Rilla, the Look Out Below, the In-Your-Face Disgrace, the Cover Your Head, the Yo-Mama, the Spine-Chiller Supreme, and the Greyhound Special (for the rare occasions when he went coast to coast).  At one point, Dawkins claimed to be an alien from the planet Lovetron, where he spent the off-season practicing “interplanetary funkmanship” and where his girlfriend Juicy Lucy lived.  Only one word comes to mind…CLASSIC.

 

DD1

 

Chocolate Thunder, along with many other NBA stars, adorned my bedroom walls with some of the best all-time, classic sports posters in history.  Ever.  My friends and I woke up every morning and went to sleep at night dreaming and looking up at Ice Man, Silk, Dr. Dunkenstein, Moses, Mailman, Sugar, the Supreme Court, and many others.  These guys were bigger than life and loved every minute of it.  For my money, these guys were the best ever.  I have no doubt that rims are rattling, glass is shattering, and wherever Darryl is now, people are having a good time.  Darryl Dawkins may no longer be with us, but I guarantee that Chocolate Thunder, Doctor Dunkenstein and the Greyhound Special, will live forever.

 

R.I.P Darryl Dawkins (1957-2015)

 

Some additional photos of a few of Darryl’s friends and our heroes.  Every kid should be allowed to dream big like Chocolate Thunder.

 

Iceman

 

silk

 

Moses

 

 

Mailman

 

Sugar

 

munn_dunkenstein

 

Sid

vinnie

defense

Supreme Ct

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From the Darkside - The EJ Files

Are You Ready For Some Cricket?

From the Dark Side

EJ

Numbers Are Deceiving

So it’s been over a week now since the Superbowl was played in what was one of the better games in recent memory.  In a game that has traditionally been a blowout with the majority of viewers more excited and interested in the newest commercials (LOVED the Snickers-Brady Bunch commercial!), this game actually kept the interest of the majority of Americans for four hours while the commercials disappointed (did anybody really think the tortoise would actually lose in the Mercedes-Benz commercial?!).  However, what really got everybody talking on Monday morning was the “impressive” 114 million viewers who tuned in for the game. Supposedly this was the most watched TV show in U.S. history.  That’s 35% of the entire population watching Pete Carroll make the worst call in the history of sports.  Impressive.

This seemed like a huge deal last week.  The Superbowl was the greatest sporting event, wait, TV event…ever.  I mean, come on, 114 million people watched it!  But what about the rest of the world? There’s another six or seven billion people out there!  How many people outside of the great US of A actually care about American football?

When I was young, I remember watching M.A.S.H.  I was probably too young to really understand the comedic genius of that show but at least I was introduced to Hot Lips Houlihan and my first TV crush.  The M.A.S.H. finale in 1983 drew 125 million viewers across the globe.  I guess since these were not all in the U.S. it doesn’t rank as the most watched show in American history.  But 125 million is 125 million.  The Superbowl was having a hard time competing with Hawkeye, Col. Potter, Hunnicutt and Klinger.  But, my glory days consisted of religiously watching Cheers, Seinfeld, and Johnny Carson. In 1993, the Cheers finale pulled in 93.5 million viewers in the U.S.  Not bad. Right when I started dreaming of my first Ferrari and moving to Maui with an English butler, Magnum drew over 50 million viewers in 1988.  All respectable numbers but nothing compares to the big global TV events.

I also wasn’t around in 1969 to witness the first moonwalk but 530 million people, or 14% of the world’s population at the time, watched.  I was around in 2011 for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, but was not one of the 161 million people to watch those vows.  But seriously, those events are all peanuts.  Getting back to what people really love to watch, sports, a paltry 150 million watch the 100 meter sprint final in the Olympics.  Each and every year, 175 million watch the UEFA Champions League soccer final and 300 million people watch the UEFA Euro Indian fans burnFinal.  But the clear leaders in global viewership are the soccer and cricket world cups.  Over 700 million people watch these events.  That would be the equivalent of every single person in the United States and half of Europe stopping everything for two hours and watching the game.  And there aren’t even commercials during soccer games!  But the true granddaddy of them all, the #1 most watched television event in the history of the world is…..wait for it…the 2011 cricket world cup semi-final between Pakistan and India.  That game drew over 1 BILLION viewers!  Granted, that was probably every single Indian and Pakistani glued to their television, but a billion viewers is still pretty impressive.  The Superbowl’s 114 million seems a little less impressive.

So next time you hear about the Daytona 500 drawing 16 million viewers and celebrating, remember that the Brazilian Grand Prix averages over 85 million viewers.  Numbers can be a little deceiving.  Don’t believe me?  The 2015 Cricket World Cup begins on Friday!  Will you be watching?

 

Indian Fans

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From the Darkside - The EJ Files

All-Star What?

From the Dark Side

EJ

All-Star What?

All-Star games?  I’m not sure we’ve had one of those since 1987 when an NBA Eastern team with Doc, MJ, Bird, Moses, and ‘Nique, defeated a west squad consisting of Magic, Hakeem, Worthy, Kareem, and one Tom Chambers.  Yes, Tom Chambers who was filling in for Ralph Sampson and went on to score 34 in the west’s 154-149 OT victory.  That game featured 13 future hall of famers.  It was a game full of ultra-competitive superstars wanting nothing more than to win.  Do you think Jordan and Bird enjoyed losing that game?  Not a chance.  Those games were classic and a joy to watch.

Flash forward to today, and I wake up to an NHL “All-Star” game score of 17-12!  What?! Was this hockey?  Did they play with open nets for three periods?  Were two lucky fans selected by Allstate Insurance to play the role of the mayhem guy and suit up in goal for 60 minutes getting pelted by little black pucks?  No, as far as I could tell, these were actual NHL all-stars, actually spending a night in Columbus, Ohio, to the delight of 18,000 onlookers, and not a soul more.  Team Toews (I think they need to use spell check) defeated a Team Foligno (no idea what that is) in what will go down surely as an instant classic.  Yeah, right.

Now granted, I’m no hockey expert.  Growing up on the west coast, I never played the sport, never really followed a professional team.  My knowledge of hockey centered around Lake Placid, 1980, and the Miracle on Ice.  Up to that point, ice was what went into my big gulp cup after soccer practice.  But I can now hold my own at the water cooler when talking about ‘Ovi’ and the Caps, or the Winter Classic, which was a fantastic game.  I’m also knowledgeable enough to know that hockey games do not involve 29 goals!   I read somewhere that this year’s all-star game was meant to be a “celebration of the game”.  What?  A celebration of the game?  What game?  Last time I looked, a game involves offense, defense, strategy, maybe even somebody breaking a sweat.  There was even a fake fight.  WWE would have been proud.  I doubt the fans, including this one, were.  Come on NHL, you are better than this.

All-Star games, unfortunately, have been trending this way for the past few years.  But at least the other pro leagues have tried to stop this madness.  The MLB all-star game plays for home field advantage in the World Series.  That’s worth something.  The NBA is entertaining due to the fact that points are encouraged to be scored!  Fans love an old fashioned 159-153 NBA game.  MLS (yes, America does have a professional soccer league) has their all-stars play an international club team filled with many of the world’s best players.  This year it was Bayern Munich after Germany just won the World Cup.  At least we get a little U-S-A, U-S-A, us vs. them, thing going.  I like that.  Why don’t we bring over the Red Army squad from Moscow to challenge our NHLers?  At least then, it might become more of a game, rather than an All-Star vacation.  But hey, at least ‘Ovi’ had three assists.

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From the Darkside - The EJ Files

Klay Thompson Breakdown by EJ

Editors Note:  The following post is the work of a bonafide sports nut currently residing in DC.  This person, EJ, was a college soccer goal keeper, a lover of King Cobra and once crashed his bike badly en route to interview with Lute Olson for the role of Basketball Team Manager, but still managed to make the interview in ripped pants and a blood stained shirt.  He didn’t get the job.

Later in life he joined the Peace Corps and at one point was the head women’s basketball coach at a Russian University.  He speaks multiple languages, has worked in Afghanistan, has a pilots license, and enjoys a pint or two of Vodka with his Uzbek father in law.

He is the worlds most interesting man and somebody that I’m proud to call a new columnist for Bulseyeview.com.  Enjoy his first post below and be sure to check out his own category, “From The Dark Side.”

 

From the Dark Side

EJ

For those of you living on the east coast, you’ll understand.  It’s rare when you are rewarded by staying up well past midnight to catch a west coast game.  I usually find myself at 1 am wondering why the hell I’m not sleeping as the Gaels of Saint Mary’s are blowing out UTEP or the Dons of USF and Portland Pilots are battling at 48-48 in the 4th quarter.  It’s brutal.  And I can understand why nobody on the east coast cares about west coast hoops.  There just isn’t anybody to care about or worth staying up late for!  Even hoop junkies are just plain nuts to be watching these games.  Is a Nugget/Blazer game really that exciting?

But, the hoop Gods did reward us with a special, once in a lifetime show Friday night.  I’m not sure anybody outside of the Bay Area actually watched Klay Thompson and the Warriors game, but this was the stuff of legends.  Actually, it became an instant legend.  37 points in 12 minutes?!  Are you kidding me?  In an NBA game against actual NBA talent?  13-13 FG?!  9-9 3-point shots?!  Thompson’s career high 52 wasn’t even in the same conversation.  37 points in an NBA quarter is downright magical.  Draymon Green probably summed it up best, “You don’t get that hot in ‘(NBA) 2K”.

It was exactly like a video game, but even better.  Come on!  The previous high was set by the Iceman Gervin in 1978 and it was only 33!  This was headshaking stuff.  I tried to put this in perspective and it was difficult because this scoring outburst was so insane.   Last year, no NBA team averaged more than 28 points a quarter!  When Wilt was on his way to his century mark back in 1962, the most he scored in a quarter was 31.  Of course he averaged over 50 that season, won 33 games in a row at one stretch and secured 55 rebounds in a game.  John Stockton once had 38 assists in a single game.  These records, much like Thompson’s 37 in a quarter, will most likely never be broken.  That’s how incredible of a performance this was.

I loved what Warriors Coach Steve Kerr had to say afterwards, “I was one of the luckiest NBA players ever to play with Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, David Robinson and some of the greatest players ever.  As many spectacular things as Michael did, which he did nightly, I never saw him do that.”

MJ never came close to touching this scoring highlight.  That’s what makes this even more unreal.  And it wasn’t just a spectacular basketball record.  I’m talking any sport.  We’ve seen 5 TD’s thrown in a quarter (Tom Brady), 4 goals scored in a period during an NHL game, a couple HRs in an inning during an MLB game, and even the great Olympos striker Panagiotis Pontikos from Greece, bang in 16 goals against SEK Ayios Athanasios FC to help his side win 24-3 in a Cypriot third division game in 2007.  He scored 12 in the second half.  But are we really going to compare those feats with what we witnessed on Friday night?  Not a chance.  This was history making on a different level.  Period.

Granted, I did find some other comparable, legendary basketball feats like Lisa Leslie scoring 49 in the 1st quarter and 52 in the 2nd for her Morningside High squad on their way to a 102-24 victory.  Or, Clarence “Bevo” Francis of Rio Grande College fame, go for 55 in a quarter back on Jan. 9, 1953, on his way to scoring 116 against Ashland College.  And then there was Mats Wermelin, who back on Feb. 5, 1974, went for 272 points in a game in Stockholm.  But my point is simple…Klay Thompson’s 37 in an NBA quarter equals or betters all of these.  That’s how special of a night it was.  I’m already looking forward to that Utah at Washington State game next week with the midnight tip-off!  You just never know.