A picture is worth....oh, I don't know... a lot of words.

When I was about 12 I had the walls of my room completely plastered with full-page color photos from Sports Illustrated. There was no place on the room where you could see the panelling. Every square inch was action sports, edge to edge, perfect rectangular symetry. Back then you had no other lasting memory of a great sports moment at your fingertips - no VHS recording, no ESPN highlights - it was just your memory, and Sports Illustrated. A lot of the pictures I had on my wall were of athletes I didn't know. It wasn't about being a fan of a particular sport or team as much as being a fan of the great photograph. There was something compelling about the fluidity, focus, intensity and power captured by those still cameras. If a photo also could tell the story of a whole game, if might become a true classic.

I think we may have a nominee for true classic standing in this one from the SF Chronicle:

I am no basketball fan, but we happened to be watching when the Warriors pasted Utah the other night, and this was a defining statement toward the end of the game that the series was far from over. 6'3" Baron Davis takes the 6'9" noted shot blocker Andrei Kirilenko to school - with a little help from a forearm shiver that would make Fred "The Hammer" Williamson envious. I have looked at the video of this slamma-jamma, and nothing compares to this still shot. I don't know if Sports Illustrated got a frame like this or not, but if they did maybe I will tape it to my wall.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Too bad the Warriors are down 3-1, Barry. Looks like they 'll be watching the rest of the playoffs from their couches. Golden State proved to be a one trick pony - only wanting 3-pointers. Check ot the stat called "points in the paint" for this series. Then check out the three point percentages - both attempts and those made. And talk about a pasting...how about getting beat by 14 at home - ouch!
May 14, 2007 at 7:53 AM
Anonymous said…
Nice picture, though...

Wouldn't that be a foul?
May 14, 2007 at 10:02 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How I have neglected my blog and the sadness that results

So jeez, I am feeling a little contrite because I have neglected this blog. Feeling a little like I have let an old friend fall by the wayside while I have been spending all my time with someone new.I even got needled by one of my (few) readers today - "Wow, no blog post since April 2!"  Feeling a little frivolous and superficial because my good old reliable Blogger blog here has fallen victim to my other time sucks - namely, Facebook, and of course, what I like to call "real life." Maintaining a blog is no simple task, my friend. Just mouse up there to the top of the screen, left of center, and start clicking on "Next blog." You will soon soon discover there are lots and lots people who start a blog, make two or three posts, and discover it's kind of demanding. (You'll also discover that about two-thirds of all the random blogs you'll see in the "next blog" mode are in Spanish, which I find strangely fascinating. ) Maybe those whose ...
Read more

"Mikey Angels" flies off in both directions at once

Image
The expression we've all heard is "you can't be too rich or too thin." I suppose that gets said a lot around the tennis court at the country club, the changing room at Sak's? I suppose it draws a wry smile every time. Or is it really said in the aisles at Target by people who are at no risk of being too much of either? The expression we've never heard is "you can't be too smart," because we all know it is possible to be too smart. Kind of ironic since we spend a lot of energy trying to force kids to be smart. We pound them with homework, make them take tests, tell them the kids in Mumbai are going to take your future job. We try to get them into the best schools, the ones for the smart people, but they are always at risk of becoming "too smart for their own good." Based on what I've heard about last weekend's Presidential candidate activity, Obama is running the risk of being too smart for his own good. He and McCain did these l...
Read more

Burgers with daddy

Image
Sometimes on Sundays I am transported to a place that was called Gene and Darlene's. (OK, that sounded kind of Shirley MacLaine. I am not talking about out of body experiences here. It's a memory, ok?) Gene and Darlene's was a bar down on Shoal Creek south of Joplin. The building still stands (photo proof here, taken August 2008.) No telling how many other names the place has had since it was Gene and Darlene's, but that's the name it has in my mind. On Sundays sometimes, when I was a kid, daddy would come up with the notion that burgers from Gene and Darlene's would really hit the spot. Being always in favor of food in general, and carry-out food being really exotic to me, the idea was always a winner in my opinion. I would be eager to climb into the car with daddy and ride along. It was a short trip down to Redings Mill, around the infamous curve that topped a bluff over the creek, where all kinds of carloads of people had suffered hideous deaths in spectacula...
Read more