NOSTALGIC ADVANCEMENT by Tannen

With Denver winning their way into the NBA's version of the Final 4 we take a trip down memory lane to the last time the Nuggets made it this far. On May 7th, 1985 they rolled the Jazz in game 5 to win that conference semi led by guys like Dan Issel, Fat Lever and Alex English. Their coach was Doug Moe. I was working in the inventory control department for Kids R Us, the Toys R Us clothing division in a place called Rochelle Park, New Jersey. I worked with two knuckleheads who grew up in that town, but somehow became Boston Celtics fans. Thank heavens for the Lakers that year or I might have had to axe murder those clowns. The irony is Denver likely will run into LA again, but in 2009 they'll have a legit shot. 24 years ago they played Efense(No D), and in falling in 5 games coughed up 153 to LA in the finale. This group led by George Karl has really come together and while we won't confuse them with the great Detroit or Chicago defensive units that owned the league from 1989 thru 1998, they're above average. I've also been impressed with Carmello Anthony. We often hear about the spectacular trifecta from the draft class of 2003, of he Lebron & Dwayne Wade, truth is Melo has yet to achieve that elite status. I think he's taken a big step forward as far as maturity and in his game which has been pretty strong since the switch went on for the playoffs. I think LA sends Houston packing tonight, and they better because they're not 100 healthy and this Nugget team will give them all they can handle. Should be fun.
Lot of build up for last night's game 7 in the NHL East between Pittsburgh & Washington. The Caps had overcome a 3 games to 1 hole to force the decider on their home ice. They got smoked. I know most aren't hockey afficionados but the Caps are on the list with the pre-04 Red Sox, Cubs, Lions, Chargers, and other great choke artists losers in sports. The opening goal was a thing of beauty for the pens by their superduperstar Sid Crosby. Set up in front of the net as a long shot from the point came in, he caught the puck with his back skate, guided it to his stick, and flipped it past a helpless Simeon Varlamov, the rookie netminder for Washington. Pitt buried them 6-2 and advance to play the winner of tonight's game 7 from Boston between the Bruins & Hurricaines. Hopefully this will provide more drama.