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Jazz, Bulls flying not-so-friendly skies
Posted: Wednesday June 03, 1998 02:03 PM
The Delta Center versus the United Center. The Utah Jazz versus the Chicago Bulls. The NBA Finals has become a series contested entirely in arenas named after airlines. Great, huh? The winner gets an extra bag of peanuts dumped on his tray table by a cranky, 95-year-old stewardess.
I had thought that the only talk about flying during this series was going to be about Michael Jordan heading to the basket. Or maybe Dennis Rodman's exploits during a day off in Las Vegas. I guess not.
This is a matchup between the Jazz, who "are ready when you are," and the Bulls, who "fly the friendly skies."
The two coaches, Jerry Sloan and Phil Jackson, are "veteran pilots" trying to get their respective teams to "level off at a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet." Each team certainly will have to buckle its seatbelts at some time for some "unexpected turbulence."
When the team is the five-time champion Bulls, expect those little oxygen masks to pop out of the ceiling.
Luc Longley and Greg Ostertag are those two fat boys who sit on either side of you when you have that middle seat on that cross-country junket. Rodman is that annoying pest in the next seat with the headphones. Karl Malone and John Stockton and Scottie Pippen and Jordan are certainly first class.
Veterans like Ron Harper and Steve Kerr and Jeff Hornacek and Antoine Carr are important and should be seated in those emergency rows in case of trouble.
I guess I liked it better when arenas had old-time names -- Chicago Stadium and the Salt Palace -- but I can adjust. The winners in this series, I guess, will land safely and "have a nice day."
The losers, alas, will have to go to the carousel and wait for the baggage that is sure to arrive.
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NBA Finals
