Lakers Hit "Rock Bottom"

A few days ago, I e-mailed Eddy Zucko to see if he wanted to watch Game 4 of the NBA Finals somewhere. He responded back that we should and we decided to invite fellow basketball bloggers ShavedAsian and Young Randall. Yesterday, Eddy texted me to let me know that he was going to try to get a table at the new Hooters establishment in Campbell. Thankfully we had a Plan B because people in the Bay Area love their Hooters. There was a line and they were only letting folks in one person at a time. Plan B was Rock Bottom Brewery.

(My cousin Tomiko showed up later in the 4th quarter and decided to bash the women of the Campbell Hooters establishment saying that they were all butter faces and then bashed two women sitting at a table who she thought were speed dating participants because they weren’t wearing any makeup. Women are mean. Just so you know.)

Because I work in San Francisco and it takes me an hour to get to San Jose, I didn’t show up until half time. When I got there, I was surprised to see not only my three fellow basketball bloggers, but also the Coach and Priscilla. I was already happy. Just knowing that the Coach is going to entertain me by just being the Coach makes me smile. Pris was there sans the boyfriend and I think she was trying to out drink the Coach. Bad move there.

Eddy and ShavedAsian were on the side of the table where you could actually see the game, but the TV was very far away. I was on the other side, so after I ate, I decided to walk over to the bar to watch the game, which became the best game in the series near the mid third quarter after being the worst game in the series for everything up to that.

Here are some details of the night.

- Eddy had one beer and change and was seen laughing and saying, “I’m giddy!” over and over again.

- ShavedAsian, a UCLA grad, was cheering energetically for Trevor Ariza and Jordan Farmar. We then started dropping Toby Bailey, Ed and Charles O’Bannon, Kris Johnson, and George Zidek all over the place.

- Pris had to deal with my “where’s Tik” jokes. She was tired of it after the second one.

- Young Randall stayed eerily quiet. It was so unlike him. It was like I didn’t even know who the guy was.

- Our friend Stella came right around when the 4th quarter started and was immediately cheering vehemently for the Lakers. I asked her if she was a Lakers fan and she said no. Okay ...

- Eddy Zucko was a rabid Lakers fan on this evening. That’s what you get when you are raised by a Lakers fan named Teodoro who missed a family engagement to watch the game and no one blinked an eye.

- We were discussing how much Leon Powe looks like Jason Richardson. And I think Powe also looks like a great man named Morris Chestnut.

 

He’s Up All Night!

- We all wondered exactly what Luke Walton brought to the table and ShavedAsian concluded that they just want him out there because his last name is Walton. My idea was that he doesn’t screw anything up so it’s more of a precautionary measure to play him.

- Late in the game, Sasha Vujacic, who has become Eddy’s favorite player, guarded Ray Allen for 22 of the 24 seconds of the possession, and then seemingly let him go for an easy lay-up and looked at Pau Gasol as if to say, “Where were you?” This did it for me. After watching him literally throw his palms up in terror whenever he is called for a foul time and time again, I told Eddy that after his defensive spectacle, I simply can’t enjoy watching him. Great shooter. Terrible sportsmanship. And though I didn’t see this, allegedly, a terrible cry baby on the sidelines too.

- As Stella and I went closer to the bar so that we could get a better view, a young woman wearing a green sweater over her very revealing shirt asked me what the score of the game was. She was just as close to the television as I was. She let me know that she didn’t have her contacts on. In a matter of 10 minutes I learned that she was from San Diego, just finished college, sent out 20-30 resumes a day, and was there with her boyfriend who was wearing an Andrew Bynum jersey and she was quite worried that a Lakers loss would ruin her boyfriend’s weekend, thus ruining hers. At first, he seemed upset that she was talking to me, and when I figured out she was here with someone else, I continued to watch the game with Stella. But even after that, she kept talking to me while I was watching the game. And then Miko and Steph came and I was holding 4 conversations while watching the game all at once. I would say that was a shining moment for me. What would you call that? Ambidextrous?

I was about to say bi-conversational, but then that reminded me of a great Triple H quote when he said, “I’m bi a lot of things, but lingual isn’t one of them. Wait, did I just say that?”

- After Big Play Ray Allen proved that he could still jump, and after Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce went mano y mano in a great display of “who has the biggest balls”, and after James Posey hit two big threes, and after Pau Gasol and Kevin Garnett posted each other up and scored, all I can say is that it was a great game and unfortunately for the Lakers, makes every game a must win from here on out.

As it was, we went back to Tomiko’s and Dan’s place and Dan invited some neighbors over and they discussed how to get a Russian neighbor, who plays his music too loudly, kicked out. I think the conversation ended with the thought that threats of violence would be the best way to go about it. Eddy tried to get Young Randall to go upstairs and threaten the man in only his boxer briefs, but Young Randall wasn’t up for it.

(The best laugh of the night was Eddy’s back and forth text messages with cousin, who determined that he didn’t want to go to Hooters. If Eddy wants to tell that one, I’ll let him do it in the comments section.)

We missed the Mystery Cow.

Update:

This latest commercial is great.