Congratulations to Coach Bill Cowher! His daughter Lindsay had a baby boy and Bill is now a proud Grandfather. The surprise to me is that Cowher's daughter, the former NCAA athlete is married to my hometown Laker, Ryan Kelly!
I've been a Lakers fan since I was a kid growing up in Pittsburgh, playing little league basketball on the East End. Since Pittsburgh didn't have a team I gravitated to my west coast cousin's team, the dominant Lakers in the days of Jerry West, Gail Goodrich and Kareem Abdul Jabaar. Once I moved to Cali in the mid 80s, the company I worked for had season tickets. I was fortunate enough (because I had cultivated big revenue customers!) to be in attendance for Game 7 in 1987 as the Lakers beat the Celtics for the World Championship. Then again in 1988, there I was for Game 6 (Kareem hit both free throws in the waning seconds of a 114-113 victory) and Game 7 (James Worthy earns the moniker Big Game James pouring in 38 points) wins over the Pistons as the Showtime Lakers clawed back from a 3-2 deficit to claim back to back world titles.
Now with my own seats in Section 106 I have been blessed with the Shaq/Kobe three peat and the Kobe Pau era. The last few years have been tough but I am weathering another storm awaiting a return to greatness for the purple & gold. (Thanks for nullifying the CP3 trade Dave Stern you putz!)
In the meantime I have a new favorite Laker! Wasn't a Ryan Kelly fan before but I am now. Hopefully Nile Kelly is a future star TE for the Steelers or PF for the Lakers. In the meantime Coach Chin is a Grand Pa!
