Dream Sports Journal Corner

So I read Lindsey's Facebook status about her childrens' night terrors. Strange... I still have night terrors. In fact, I had one last night. It's always the same yet progressively worse--there I am, having a good time, and then I remember that my teeth are rotting away, and I find that there are now three teeth on my bridge and they keep falling out. Poor Waylon... he never was happy in his home. Then my bottom teeth start to rot and fall out. All a man can do in such a situation is cry, and then awake in the morning in a cold sweat, checking with your tongue that they're all still there, and let the vivid sensation of despair slowly ebb over a few hours before I can return to normal activity.

Phil Jackson joined the bandwagon for saying that the Rockets' championships were tainted by the absence of Michael Jordan. Can you say "Sour grapes"?! Wow, for a while I kind of respected the simian man for his humor and lightheartedness with the media, being a minorly respectable person on one of the nation's most disrespectable teams. No more. Now the zen master can keep his title, but only if zen means surrounding yourself with the biggest egos in basketball to bring you championships.
And as for all you morons who want to downplay the Rocket's championships because Jordan decided to go baseball those years or whatever, guess what... You don't know if it would have turned out any different. Jordan didn't play, and the Bulls didn't win. The Rockets did. And that first championship over the Knicks in 94 was done with but one superstar on the team and a bunch of role players. Who else can claim that, besides maybe the Pistons? Phil Jackson certainly can't with any of his teams.

If I were to agree with your assumption, Phil, (and we all know what happens when we assume) that the Rockets would have lost should Jordan have played, and the wins were indeed tainted... then perhaps your game seven victory against the Rockets in the 2009 playoffs was tainted because Yao didn't play that game... and perhaps your ensuing championship was also tainted because Kevin Garnett was out for that post-season, as well as Jameer Nelson for the Orlando Magic. I mean, maybe they can't be compared to Michael Jordan, but you just never know what sort of difference they could have made. You just never know... and there's no way you could ever know.