Pregame Shootaround

For this weekend in the beaches of Thailand, I imagined myself lounging under the sun, getting some rays, listening to music, and maybe having a drink.

One thing is missing in that pleasant scene, though: a good book.

In preparation for the trip, I set out to find a good book to read that's not too heavy, not too light, not too dark, not too serious and definitely one that I would enjoy reading. So no Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things, no Lonely Planet travel guides, no 1492: How China discovered the U.S., no The Little Book on Investing, and definitely no books on Agile Methodology.

After a bit of looking around in Borders out on Orchard road, I came upon the sports section. This was a good idea. I haven't read a good book on sports as far as I can remember, and there are a lot of good ones on the shelf.

I took some time browsing through wrestling titles. And by wrestling, I mean professional wrestling. By professional wrestling, I mean the WWE, which is professional, yes, but hardly competitive (oh, you didn't know? ;) ). Rowdy Roddy Piper's book, Hulk Hogan's book (incidentally, there's a reality show called Hogan Knows Best, shown here on cable), Terry Funk's book, Mick Foley's book, etc.

And then there are the books about basketball. Unauthorized biography of Bobby Knight, Coach K's book, Michael Jordan's (hardly-a-book-more-of-promo) book, Charles Barkley's book.

In the end, I picked the book which I thought was a bit dated even if it was very recent.

Yes, I finally picked up Phil Jackson's book on the season the Los Angeles Lakers had four future Hall of Famers and lost.

I read the first few chapters on the train ride home and I was hooked! I bought the perfect book for me.

In the immortal words of Samuel L. Jackson, "goooood motherfuckin' choice, motherfucker!"*

*actually it was Dave Chappelle as Samuel Jackson, but you get the point. Or maybe you need to see it yourself.

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The ESPN Truehoops blogs mentions the best NBA commercials E-ver. And boy did it bring back the memories.

The List itself.

#45: 100 Foot Rim, was simple but memorable.

#37: Tastefully Done is pretty funny.

#17: That's a 90-footer. It made the rounds over the Internet rumoured to be actual footage.

#14 Coulda Dunk, Shoulda Dunk was pretty amusing as well.

#10 Nasty Dunk. Don't fake a funk on a nasty dunk!

#9 Freestyle. A marvel to watch!

#6 Like Mike. Gotta be like Mike.

#2 The Showdown. Nothin' but net.

And the number one entry, I have never seen before. But it is definitely one of the best ever.

Why? Because it touches the heart of every basketball fan like me. Non-bball fans won't get it.

Ladies and gentlemen, the commercial: XXI: Let Your Game Speak



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One last thing. Gen-Xers, have a look at this.

I'm outta here.