When we decided to flush out the five best NBA Finals games of the David Stern Era, we didn’t think we would have so much trouble with Game 3. Since Stern became commissioner in 1984, no Finals game number has had more duds than Game 3. While other games had seven and eight candidates for our top five list, we had issues coming up with five truly great Game 3 showdowns. Three of the games making our list took place in the
When I was a young player growing up, my teammates called me “Mookie.” Partly because my favorite baseball player was Mookie Wilson, but also because my point guard skills at the CYO level apparently reminded my coach of the University of Oklahoma’s Mookie Blaylock. Irony would have it my favorite band, Pearl Jam, once called themselves the same name and even called their first album Ten, which was Blaylock’s number. It just so happened to me mine, too. When I think of the