Something like an announcement

Posting will be slow in the coming days. I've issued that statement before, but this time around something of an explanation is in order. I will be moving to the Midwest to pursue my dreams of living in a place as cold as Finland. This could make things better around here. Being outside of the bubble can help one see things more objectively. Or it could make things even worse. We'll see.

Speaking of announcements, H.T. let me know Michael Jordan will be visiting Finland soon (or here if you can read Koponen). MJ joins Pippen and Rodman as another member of the Bulls' dynasty to take in the Finnish hospitality. Will Purdue keeps leaving messages hinting that he'd like to visit The Island Fortress of Suomenlinna, but Finland is always busy washing her hair.

NBA ballers should probably stop letting people record them losing to civilians

Every blog and their Mom will link to this, and should. Revealed (to me) by Skeets at BDL, the long-rumored to exist video of Jordan getting beat at a game of 1 on 1 by some random executive attending his camp for grown-ups:



I'll spare you my thoughts on grown men paying a ton of money to be pretend buddies with pro-athletes for the moment. This video is great. I like to imagine one of Jordan's kids showing him this on youtube. Knowing what we do about Jordan's competitive streak, I see him then angrily calling up John Rogers and demanding a rematch. Pretty awesome.

There has been such an amazing rash of these videos lately; first LeBron losing at horse, then Devin Harris falling for the Billy Hoyle. This one trumps them all. It would be fitting if this trend ends now, at its zenith. I imagine a lot of players would figure out that they have nothing to gain by being recorded playing basketball against average humans. Thankfully the competitive nature and boundless confidence of some, coupled with the world of youtube and cheap video recorders, will ensure that these videos will trickle out from time to time. Magical.

Pippen versus the Finnagler

With DeceptivelyQuick's powerful and dark association with the Invisible Finnish Hand, it is no surprise that we were very excited about all this Scottie Pippen in Finland business. This anticipation was heightened when we learned he would be playing against he, Petteri Koponen, The Finnagler, and our beloved Honka Playboys.

The epic battle went down January 5, and Pippen's squad came out on top. Thanks to a rally from 16 down, Pippen and his team Torpan Pojat prevailed over our Honka Playboys 98-85. True, his team was already favorites going in, having been riding an 17 game Finnish League winning streak and all, but let's hope Pippen added something. He struggled with his shot on his way to 9 points and 9 rebounds. After checking in with Tim Kisner, an American who plays for Honka, any struggles could be understandable:

Pippen played two games here one on Friday and then against us on Saturday. He missed his original flight here so he did not arrive until Friday morning, so needless to say was not in the best physical shape to be playing, besides being 42 years old with creeky knees. I thought Pippen played ok, he could not make a shot, I think he was 8-28 in the two games, but played good team basketball and they won both games. It is crazy to see guys that you grew up watching, it is also hard to watch them being a shadow of their former selves. The people of Finland were very appreciative of him and both games were well attended with a good atmoshphere, which is saying something for Finnish basketball.

Strange indeed, seeing a former NBA great show up in Finland for a few runs, but remember this sort of thing isn't exactly unprecedented. Tim was around when Rodman blew into town as well ,"two years ago Rodman came and played for the same team against us and it was huge, but Rodman is more famous over here due to his off the court stuff."

Which champion Bull will be next? The obvious choice to pull for is Jordan, but don't sleep on Ron Harper.

UPDATE: Ball In Europe has the best coverage of Pippen in Finland, including links to his boxscores. Also nice to see the Finnagler still putting numbers up. They also showed a clip from Pippen being introduced, they pulled out the classic Bulls intro. In Finland, no expense is spared.