Paul Pierce

I’m watching SPORT+, a channel on Greek cable, and they’re replaying a Lakers/Celtics game from this year’s NBA finals. One of the Celtics players, Paul Pierce, was famously featured in a Chappelle Show episode a few years back getting stabbed. Pierce was stabbed 11 times (in real life) at a Boston nightclub in 2000. Miraculously, the following season he was the only member of his team to start in 81 games or more.

Paul Pierce was the MVP of this year’s NBA Finals, and as I watch this game, I can see why. He’s draining 3’s all over the place! Clutch!

Basketball is really popular in Greece. The Greek National team has beat the United States plenty of times, including in the 2006 FIBA World Championships, when they rallied from a 12 point deficit to defeat the Dream Team.

When I consulted the FIBA World Basketball Championships winners table, I found very few US victories (Spain is the current world champion titleholder). Most world titles have been won by Brazil, Yugoslavia, or the USSR. In fact, half the time, the US didn’t even make it into the final game! Well, I guess it’s not really surprising considering it’s not really “our” game, being invented by a Canadian and all.

Next week, the Olympic qualifiers for basketball comes to Athens, and I’m defnitely going watch Canada, Puerto Rico, Greece, and the 9 other contenders battle it out for a chance to play in the Olympic Games in Beijing.