Celtics beat the Heat...again!

[bbb]

No, he didn't say it, he just did it. It was very obvious. It was right after his vaunted Jazz vinyl collection had been destroyed in a fire...a cold, wet, rainy Sunday morning. The store was pretty empty...I bent over backwards to help him find things, and spent quite a bit of time. I just happened to have an NBA magazine in my work locker, with he and Magic on the cover. It had been there for some time. I asked him to sign it. He wasn't particularly pleasent before that, but seemed really annoyed by that request. We had a very ethnically diverse staff...he was more than happy to sign autographs for anyone who wasn't...uh...pale.

 

I don't hold it against him, it is his right. I thought I was being considerate of him, he shopped for about an hour, I found stuff in the store for him, and he was getting close to checking out. I didn't really think twice about it, until he made a point to sign for all of the security staff...even got his picture taken with some of them.

 

They all got a kick out of it...most were Knicks or Bulls fans. Nobody really liked the Lakers, but the fact that I was an un-abashed Celtics fan made it all the more funny. At first, I thought they may have put Kareem up to it, like pointed out to him that I was a Celtics fan...but that was not the case. I later heard similar stories from others.

 

I think Kareem has eased up considerably, the further he has gotten from his playing days...funny thing is, when I was a kid, I had the chance to see him play in Buffalo, against the Braves, as a Milwaukee Buck. I don't remember all the details of the game (though I sort of remember Dale Schluter, sort of the Braves version of Jerry Korab, getting into fisticuffs with a Bucks player), but I do remember everyone making a big deal out of the fact that Kareem was in town.

 

Funny...it is all coming back to me now...there really was a stigma to being a white Celtics fan back then. I am sure it still holds true for some...when I lived in NYC, I almost felt, at times, I was risking my life by sporting a Celtics t-shirt in public. Once, I went to a Knicks/Celtics game...we were sitting up in the nose-bleeds. I took off my coat, and within moments, was pelted with garbage, and half-eaten hot-dogs...pretty silly, but it only fueled my passion for that team more. The fact that the Knicks were (and continue to be) such a joke made it all the better...

 

Jim Rome has talked about what an incredible ahole Kareem was when he went on his espn2 show years ago.

 

I saw Kareem a number of times. But, I wasn't there this night and I wonder if I remember it right: For some odd reason, the Celts and Bucks (or maybe it was the Lakers then) were playing a game at the Aud. Kareem gets poked in the eye, gets so mad he punches the thing holding up the backboard, breaks his hand and is out for quite awhile....Since that wasn't the first time he got poked in the eye, and he said it was because with his height, guys were always reaching up for rebounds and getting him in the eye. So, ever since that night, he wore goggles.