Two Interesting Photos & The Nancy Parish Memorial Tunnel

Photo #1

The picture shown here is a screenshot of my TV of the Wizards game on December 14th.  Andray Blatche was playing well (which is kind of a relative term for him -- evidently, he hadn't made five straight bad decisions that led to fast-breaks for the other team) and coming out of the commercial break, Wizards fans from all over the DMV were treated to a highlight clip of all the special things that Andray can do.

After showing a couple of his 21-foot contested jump shots, we get to this nice shot of Andray throwing down a ferocious dunk.  Facial!  Except for one thing -- in the futile attempt to put a portray Blatche in a kind light, we have to: 1) go back to last year, when he may have still had a pulse and 2) include a move where he obliterates Yi Jianlian, his current teammate.  Way to go, Wizards!  I'm sure you've made great fans out of the 25 million Chinese viewers tuning into the international broadcast of your game.  Ugh.

Photo #2

(If you are under the age of 40, just skip the the next two paragraphs -- trust me, you will be bored to tears -- and jump down to take a peek at the bottom photo.)

Notice anyone familiar in the photo below.  Ok, yes that is Danny Ainge handling the ball.  If you are even more observant, maybe you also recognize the old New York uniforms, which may even lead you to spot Bill Cartwright sporting the goatee on the right-hand side. There, too, you may see Cedric Maxwell, a tangle of rubbery arms and legs shadowing #9 from New York from the back.  Do you remember who #9 is?  Don't peek down too far because if you get this one right on your own merit, you deserve to take three giant steps to the front of the classroom.  Time's up!

It's the late Randy Smith, the longtime Buffalo Brave who was mentioned in this space a couple of weeks ago.  At this point in his career, he had left Buffalo to join New York for a season, and was 750+ games into a consecutive games played streak that would stretch to 906 -- then an NBA record.  I'd like to be able to tell you who that is behind Ainge, but I am not sure myself.  Is it Michael Ray Richardson?  If you know the answer, be sure to tell me in the comments.

Anyway enough with the players.  There is actually someone else in the photo worth noting, if my suspicions are correct.  In his Book of Basketball, Bill Simmons writes about the darkest period of Celtic basketball, the late 70's era, when Cowens was the only link back to the great teams and a rotating cast of castoffs sputtered through some pretty awful seasons:

Within two years we devolved into one of the league's most hapless teams, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing for the Simmons family: not only could Dad (barely) afford a second ticket by then, but thanks to a fleeing base of paying customers, they upgraded our seat location to midcourt, right alongside the Nancy Parish Memorial Tunnel (I'll explain later), where players coaches, and referees entered and exited the arena.  My seat happened to be two rows in front of Dad's seat -- we couldn't get two together unless we moved away from the tunnel, which we didn't want to do -- but I could hop under the railing, stand in the tunnel and chat with him during time-outs  Even better, a bizarre collection of injured players, old-timers and media personalities gathered in the tunnel and watched a quarter or two, leading to one of my favorite childhood memories: a washed-up Marvin "Bad News" Barnes standing eighteen inches away from me, milking some bogus injury, wearing a full-length mink coat and leaning against my railing.  Every few minutes, after a good Celtics play, he'd nod at me with one of those "What it is, Tiny White Dude!" smiles on his face. And since I wasn't over my racial identity issues yet, I spend the entire time marveling at his coat and hoping he'd legally adopt me.  Didn't happen.

Look back at the photo of the Garden.  See the midcourt tunnel?  See the kid who is alongside the tunnel and clinging to the railing, with the mustachioed dude sitting two rows behind him? (Simmons chronicles his father's career, including a picture of the bushy mustache in this piece.)

That has got to be a 12-year-old Bill Simmons based upon his description, right?