June 18, 2008

  • Damn, it has been a rough year for the state of Illinois. Earlier this year we had the shootings at that Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park killing 7 people. Then there were the 5 people killed and 18 injured in the shootings at NIU. We also had a weekend in Chicago a few months ago in which there were something like over 20 people were shot. Now this month we have had some severe flooding that some are saying is almost as bad as Katrina, except the cities that our flooding has occurred are much smaller. Then again, one of our senators is the Democratic nominee for president, so I guess we have that going for us. Still, I certainly hope the rest of the year is much better than what we have had so far.

    With the Boston Celtics winning the NBA Finals last night, one of my all time favorite players finally has won a championship, Kevin Garnett. I know some people don't like him because he went straight from high school to the NBA and also signed a rather immense contract years ago. But, I've always been a big fan. He is a classy guy who always plays hard and has always played with youthful exuberance. Most of you aren't NBA fans, so you might not know that he played his first 12 years with the Minnesota Timberwolves before being traded to Boston last summer. He also went to high school in Chicago and grew up in South Carolina. Yet in the first interview on the court after winning the championship, an emotional Garnett thanked the people in Minnesota, Chicago and South Carolina for their support. And when they started to pass the trophy around he could be heard excitedly saying "I touched it!". And shortly after the game he embraced former Celtic legend Bill Russell saying "I hope we made you proud". In all my years of watching sports I have never seen a player as happy as he was to finally win it all. He was already a very likable player and after last night he is practically impossible not to like...............assuming you aren't a Laker fan!