So, I had no idea until a few weeks ago that Bill Walton was a literary figure in any way. Seems that in 1979 David Halberstam stashed his Pulitzer in his bottom desk drawer and sat down to tell his countrymen everything they had no idea they wanted to know about the Portland Trailblazers. And about some other things as well: the NBA in general, Walton and his career-threatening foot injury, Kermit Washington's roundhouse that nearly killed Rudy Tomjanovich, and even a little bit about the 'big picture' of American race relations at the time. Halberstam won another Pulitzer for The Breaks of the Game and it's on my list of sports books that I'll never get around to I plan to crack it open this weekend after my wife and I finish the first season of Downton Abbey on Netflix. (Seriously. It was her idea. It's okay. Not bad.)

Anyway, I'm about to get more of BIll Walton then I ever thought I would in my life. And I've suffered through so much of his 'aren't I sooo representative of the counter-culture?' shtick when he use to do weekly spots on The Fabulous Sports Babe in the late 90's. He was always like, "BlahblahblahBLAHblah.. I talk a lot and I read big words from this script I wrote last night and it's funny because you know I just burnt one and I couldn't possibly come up with this stuff if I hadn't written it last night."

"Yeah, whatever," I would think as accompanying strains of the Grateful Dead wafted from my boss's AM radio and tired-cliched in the air. "I get it. You're old and you smoke pot. Good for you. Enjoy yourself. Can you do it without like.. joking about it?"

And I gather that's how a lot of you feel about the main subject of this Serious Issue, Seriously thread: the NBA. Hey, pal, watch it, if you like it and you must but please don't come over here where I'm not talking about the NBA and start telling me things about it. It might be cool for you but I've tried it and it's not cool for me.

Buuuuut, I've also discovered that there are a few NBA fans here at Red Reporter and there may even be a couple of folks who are ready and willing to sit down and watch an NBA game if only there were someplace fun to blog about it.

And here we are.

I'll try to add something of a little game preview later this afternoon. For now, just know that you need to get some hooch because you have some friends who wanna drink and watch a game with you tonight after you get all your chores done.