This season was a slow train coming, especially after an offseason that saw owners and players and owners trying to paint each opposing side as a band of ruthless outlaws, while portraying themselves as men who just wanted to do the right thing, for justice and basketball, like Gary Cooper, like the sworn in sheriff, like David Stern's ego.
So here we are, finally, after much inner turmoil and anguish and a quick burst of prognosticating, there will be a season, and the only thing to discuss will be what's on the court: the quick and the dead. At noon on Christmas Day, teams will meet and some will win and some will lose. It will be like a Journey song in some ways, or it will be like watching an old Western, but whatever it is, superficial or violent, or violently superficial, we will have basketball at long last after many hours spent waiting.
For me, the Heat and Mavs matchup at 2:30 is actually the most like the classic Western High Noon. Dirk Nowitzki has been abandoned by Tyson Chandler and now stands alone against the outlaws he rounded up and locked away last June. Maybe he should leave town too, but Dirk being Dirk, he's sure to go down guns a blazing:
Do not forsake me O my darlin’
On this our wedding day.
Do not forsake me O my darlin’
Wait, wait along.
The noonday train will bring Frank Miller.
If I’m a man I must be brave
And I must face that deadly killer
Or lie a coward, a craven coward,
Or lie a coward in my grave.
O to be torn ‘twixt love and duty!
S’posin’ I lose my fair-haired beauty!
Look at that big hand move along
Nearin’ high noon.
He made a vow while in State’s Prison,
Vow’d it would be my life or his and
I’m not afraid of death, but O,
What will I do if you leave me?
Do not forsake me O my darlin’
You made that promise when we wed.
Do not forsake me O my darlin’
Although you’re grievin’, I can’t be leavin’
Until I shoot Frank Miller dead.
Wait along, wait along
Wait along
Wait along
– “Do Not Forsake Me [The Ballad of High Noon]”, words by Ned Washington, music by Dmitri Tiomkin
2 comments:
Dwight Howard: "Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'. Don't know where I'll be tomorrow."
December 24, 2011 at 11:05 AMNicely done, sir, except Dwight probably does know. After all, he's making a list and checking it twice.
December 24, 2011 at 5:44 PMPost a Comment