by John Walters
K.D. And The SUNShine Band*
*The judges will also accept “Here Come The Suns”
The news started pouring in around 1 a.m. Eastern time. The Phoenix Suns were shipping two starters, Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson, plus disgruntled former starter Jae Crowder, plus four future No. 1 picks to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Kevin Durant.
This Suns fan will dearly miss Bridges, who never missed a game and whose on-the-move mid-range jumper was a surer thing than blue skies in Phoenix. But, the opportunity to land KD, who has the fourth highest scoring average in NBA history (only MJ, Wilt and Elgin’s are better than his 27.28), puts Phoenix as the team most likely to emerge from the West. If everyone stays healthy.
Chris Paul and Devin Booker are both future Hall of Famers. So is KD, of course. Booker is in his prime and DeAndre Ayton just went for 35 and 15 two nights ago—versus the Nets. Ayton remains maddeningly inconsistent, but if he’s playing to his ability the Suns have the best foursome in the NBA.
The Suns just mortgaged their future, but new owner Mat Ishbia (this is only the third day of his tenure) just put the Suns in the best position to win their first NBA Finals since they led Milwaukee 2-0 in the ’21 NBA Finals. And announcer Al McCoy, with the Suns since the beginning, is almost 90. If they’re ever going to win a championship in McCoy’s lifetime… well, this trade was a wham! bam! slam!
Legendary Composer Now Decomposing
Farewell to Austin Powers’ favorite artist, Burt Bacharach, who has passed at the age of 94. Reported cause of death: He watched the Grammys on Sunday night.
Bacharach provided the soundtrack for some of the loveliest, most lush pop songs of the 1960s and 1970s. At his best, no one could touch Bacharach for songs that evince that sense of, what did Don Draper call it? Nostalgia.
These songs were more than just a part of my childhood, and maybe yours. They were the best possible soundtrack we could have had: “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head,” “What The World Needs Now,” “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again,” “The Look Of Love,” “Close To You,” “Walk On By,” “I Say A Little Prayer For You”…
Bacharach, who grew up in Queens, won three Oscars, six Grammys and was married to Angie Dickinson for 15 years. That’s not an EGOT, but it is a DOG.
DOLLAR QUIZ
- What was the name of Charles Foster Kane’s estate in Citizen Kane?
- What musical engineer who worked on the last two Beatles albums, as well as Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side Of The Moon,” went on to form a band that had a fair level of success itself?
- Joe Pesci turns 80 today. Name another actor who portrayed a defense lawyer in a trial set in Alabama.
- Name a country that is the only country that begins with that letter of the alphabet.
- Do the stars in the sky help sailors figure their latitude, longitude, or both?
1) Xanadu
2) Alan Parsons
3) Gregory Peck
4) Oman
5) Latitude
Excellent, Micah.
My readers are smarter than I am. Many of you already realized this.
Also, where I heard Burt Bacharach died, I immediately thought of Austin Powers.