Games Watched: 1,3,4
Heir Apparently Not
I knew what happened to Reggie Lewis. I didn’t remember it was this game though. In the first quarter of Game 1 in Boston, Lewis had already took control of the game and scored multiple buckets when he collapsed while running down the court, causing him to bang his knee hard against the floor. The announcers weren’t sure what happened. After seeing the replay of Lewis just wobble and tumble over, one of them joked “that looks like the way I jog sometimes.” Lewis got up and walked to the bench. The game carried on and when the camera cut to him on the sidelines, he looked completely weirded out about what had just happened. He looked scared.
The weirdest part was that he checked back into the game in the second half and scored easily and fluidly. His stat line after the game showed 17 points, 13 minutes, two rebounds and one heart attack. I can’t imagine how the conversation must have gone with the team doctor.
“So what happened out there, Reggie?”
“I guess I fainted.”
“Has that happened before?”
“Yeah, once.”
“Sounds normal to me. How about firing up a few more jumpers before calling it a night?”
Clearly, no one took it seriously enough; Lewis died three months later from heart irregularities practicing for the ‘94 season.
Basketball-wise, the Celtics needed Lewis, not only for the Hornets series, but for the team’s foreseeable future. Larry Bird had just hung it up, and McHale and Parrish were operating at a permanent 38 percent battery life. There was no young hotshot ready to take Boston by the horns and make Lewis a number-two option. When Reggie Lewis lost consciousness that night in the Garden, it began the complete overhaul of the team that would first bottom out and then lead to draft picks like Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker which helped turned things around a few years down the road.
Anyway.
ZO!!!
Alonzo Mourning might always be stuck in the ever-expanding shadow of Shaquille O’Neal, but the guy came into the NBA as a fully-formed manchild, ready to be an All-Star from day one (he actually held out briefly, so maybe like day 12). Even the top overall pick from the previous season, Larry Johnson, wasn’t as advanced in his development as Mourning was by the time the Hornets reached their first-ever playoff berth. With both men strong and healthy, Zo and LJ overwhelmed the aged Celtics with their youthful athleticism.
Mourning started the series draining 18-footers and forcing Parish to come out on him. Zo would then do his long-striding, sweeping layup moves that looked both explosive and goofy at the same time, but proved deadly. His buzzer-beater in Game 4 to clinch the series showed that the guy wasn’t shy about his greatness, but after that moment, he never really demonstrated being truly great again. Still, looking at him in 1993 as he smeared blocked shots all over the backboard and showed a warrior’s rebounding mentality, he and LJ looked like the bruising tandem that would be battling the Bulls, Knicks and Pacers for the next handful of years. Instead, taking out a Boston team with geriatric stars and middling role players would be the squad’s proudest moment.
Other Notes:
Dee Brown was a 6’6” guard in a 6’1” body. The series showed that he was more than just extreme leaping ability, but it also showed that he wasn’t ready to knock down the big shots in crunch time.
Kendall Gill looks like the spitting image of the generic 90’s basketball player. Very smooth and looks good doing everything, but in the end is a more of a tease than a great player.
Larry Johnson can shoot mid-range jumpers, but it’s such a waste when he does so. Here is a 6’7” shoulder monster with good handles, an instinctive passing ability and big time power hops shooting and missing sort-of contested jump shots. His team, especially Muggsy Bogues, missed him with great post position in the paint multiple times and you can see it start to annoy Larry more and more throughout the four games. Even if his back wouldn’t have limited the prime of his career, I’m not sure Larry would have elevated his team very much without Zo or some similar level of star to pair with him.
Blazers (4)/Spurs (5) are next. Follow along and watch the games with me on the YouTube links on my Instagram bio.
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