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You shoulda seen him against Schulenberg

Alright. We have our first NBA discussion, thanks to loyal RFS reader and RFS Chief Basketball Commentator Dan “Chitwood” McGillicuddy. Believe me, if you saw him back in the day… you’d know where the name came from. Many a team got caught watching the paint dry while Dan dropped 35 and 10 (assists) on them.

***Random RFS Trivia*** - The actor that played Jimmy Chitwood in the movie Hoosiers was the only actor in the movie (that portrayed a Hickory High player) that did NOT play college basketball.

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In his submission, Dan writes:

“I would like to throw this out as the “greatest” starting five of all-time (that would actually function as a team is one of the key components):

I think you have two of the greatest passers (Magic and Bird), the greatest clutch shooters in Bird and MJ, the one-on-one ability of MJ and Duncan, and then the rebounding/blocks/hustle/winning plays of Russell.”

-RFS Chief Basketball Commentator Dan “Chitwood” McGillicuddy
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We’ll get to the argument in a second, but in the interim, enjoy the following video of Magic.

Make sure to notice the following:

-The badass threaded pass to “Big Game” James Worthy (at 1:00)

-”Around the World” (at 1:05)

-The Magic to Michael Cooper “Coop-A-Loop” (at 1:09)

-SICK wraparound (at 1:25)

-Cheesy 80s-style celebration by AC Green and Magic (at 1:47)

The main thing to note is that Magic was doing these things when it was UNTHINKABLE that a 6′8″ guard could/would/should do them. Maybe Steve Nash (or his progenitor John Stockton) have some better highlights, but the thing about Magic is that he broke the ground. I don’t watch much NBA basketball - maybe 20-30 games per year - but I still don’t see threaded passes through traffic like Magic pulled off.

Anyway, my official RFS comment is that there are 2 spots up for debate on Dan’s list (5 years ago there would have been 3).

Five years ago many people would have argued for Karl Malone at PF, but since I hate that whiny foam-front, mesh-back, spandex-wearin’, free-throw-line-mumblin, sonuva… I’ll leave it at that. Tim Duncan is the right choice - for you hoops connisseurs out there, I think you’ll agree that NOBODY has ever used the glass better than Duncan. And I’ll fully admit - since “Chitwood” and I have known each other for many years - that I didn’t expect Duncan to be one of the great ones. Dan saw him at Wake and saw a Hall-of-Famer.

On to the All-Time Team argument:

The two possibly glaring omissions are… Oscar Robertson and Wilt Chamberlain. The Big O and Wilt the Stilt didn’t win many championships, but they changed the game.

Everybody knows that Oscar was the first guy to average a triple-double. Everybody knows that Wilt was the first to average 50 points per game.

But who do you kick off?

MJ is a lock. Magic is a lock. Bird is… a lock (we’ll cover the “if he was black, he’d be just another good player” topic at another time).

That leaves me with Duncan and Russell, both of whom I respect.

Very tough.

So tough that I can only bump one. Here’s my squad:

PG- Magic Johnson
SG - Michael Jordan
SF - Larry Bird
PF - Bill Russell
C - Wilt Chamberlain

A very tough decision, but Wilt changed the game. Head to head, he DESTROYED Russell, and count me in the camp of people that believe a supporting cast IS important.

Wilt never had anybody around him. Big Russ had Hall-Of-Famers.

Furthermore, I think that Russell - while he couldn’t shoot a lick outside - would be an ideal power forward on a team-oriented squad.

And that’s just one man’s opinion. Thanks to Chitwood McGillicuddy for the submission.

And as one final treat, enjoy the video from the guy that just might be my favorite NBA player of all time. At the very least, he’s the captain of my all-time NBA Warrior Team (which we’ll cover at another time).

Even if you don’t watch the entire video, make sure you catch the dunk 37 seconds into the clip. Probably my vote for my favorite dunk ever (yet another topic), but at the very least you gotta love him rearing back and cranking on Bill “Tuuuurrrrrrrrrriiible” Walton. And keep in mind that the Round Mound was only 6′5″.

As always, comments and emails are welcome.

Peace and Chicken Grease,

RFS

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Well, I couldn’t put a Homer Simpson clip on here without giving Peter Griffin equal time.

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RFS will be returning with a little more content later this week (particularly since I’ve received some good email recommendations).

In the interim, enjoy the holidays - WOW WOW WOW!!!

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Consider the following:

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-The 10 best-selling drugs generate revenue (or cost consumers, depending on how you look at it) of over $60 Billion per year.

-Lipitor. Nexium. Zocor. Prevacid. Many others.

-Pfizer, Merck, Sanofin-Aventis, and Bristol-Myers are the four largest drug companies. They have a combined market capitalization (shares outstanding x share price; or in plain English - the amount that the market thinks they’re worth) of $455 Billion.

-They spend billions on R&D to create new drugs for old diseases, discover new diseases, and create drugs for those new diseases.

-They spend billions more on lobbyists.

-And they definitely spend billions on advertising in the form of TV commercials and drug reps schmoozing your family doctor so that everyone knows just how badly they need Pro-Ex-Vasa-Zo-Whatever.

-Drugs to put us to sleep, drugs to keep us awake, drugs to treat the recently-discovered malady of Restless Leg Syndrome.

The Cap’n had RLS and EBP

-Yes, you read that correctly - 3 Million years of human existence, and we’re just now getting around to discovering and treating Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS if you choose to attempt to lend it additional credibility by turning it into an acronym; RFS his ownself suffers from EBP, or excessive booger production).

-But be careful if you take these drugs, because if you have (1) high blood pressure, (2) low blood pressure, (3) normal blood pressure, or (4) any of a number of other characteristics; it could result in (a) nausea, (b) vomiting, (c) stroke, (d) seizure, (e) heart attack, (f) memory loss, or (g) erections lasting longer than 4 hours.

-Simple blood tests can determine if you have liver disease. For erections lasting than longer than four hours, consult a physician.

-And just in case you met all of the requirements, have a time machine on standby just in case you took Bextra, Accutane, Celebrex, Vioxx, or any other drugs that were recalled by the FDA for causes of death, blindness, etc.
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By now you’re probably thinking my name is Tom, I have a wife named Katie, I like to dance around my house wearing only underwear and sunglasses, I’m a big fan of L. Ron Hubbard, and I think all drugs are evil.

Only one of those is true (I’m a boxers man, no briefs), and as far as I’m concerned, medication is a personal choice.

My point is this - I think you would be hard-pressed to find any drug discovered in the last 25 years, during the modern era of gigantic drug companies, that had anywhere near the positive effect on the world as the polio vaccine.

Polio crippled and killed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people… many of them children. When asked if he planned to profit from it or patent it, Jonas Salk had the famous quote:

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“Who owns my polio vaccine? The people! Could you patent the sun?”
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I wonder what would happen today.

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Finally, a project worth the breadth and depth of RFS readers… not to mention another quality submission from RFS Midwestern Bureau Chief Brett “Shooter” McGillicuddy.

Some of you may be familiar with an artist named Jim Croce. He is without a doubt one of my favorite artists, and one of my favorite songs is “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”.

Ignore the skateboarding part of the video and just listen to the first few seconds or so of Bad Bad Leroy Brown as recorded by Jim Croce (all of the Jim Croce videos were the wrong version of the song, which - as you will hear - don’t count, so that’s why it’s a skateboarding video).

I’ll wait.

Do you hear that “WHOO!!!” about five seconds in? Good.

Now listen to this:

Did you notice a difference? And by difference I mean the renditions of Bad Bad Leroy Brown, not a difference in your pants, which you may or may not have soiled because you were laughing too hard.

Before I go any further, let me just stipulate that (1) I can’t sing worth crap, and (2) this guy clearly has a passion for it. All I’m saying is that his “style” isn’t particularly suited to popular music that has complicated keyboard and percussion parts. So no offense, Mr. Singer of Songs, if you’re reading this.

In fact - congratulations on knowing 100 Million times more than I do about running a website since it took me hours of my time (which means Derrich’s time) just to get the stupid flash player running.

Anyway - check out Singer of Songs and tell us what your favorites are using the comments section. My top 5 are:

5. Bad, Bad Leroy Brown

4. Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me

3. Old Time Rock and Roll

2. Eye of the Tiger

1. Coming in the Air Tonight

Seriously - just imagine watching Rebecca DeMornay in the El Train scene of Risky Business with that version of “Coming in the Air Tonight” in the background.

RFS Shout-Out #2 to you, Mr. Singer of Songs.

Onward and Upward,

RFS

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