The final opportunity: reliving Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Pistons in 1987.
All professional sports were canceled due of the pandemic, but NBA TV continued to air “Film Room,” a mid-April program that included reruns of some iconic 1980s games. The major teams in this flashback series are the Celtics, Lakers, and Pistons. Former opponents will be providing live commentary as the teams relive past moments in basketball history.
Boston’s defeats in Game 6 of the 1985 NBA Finals and the 1988 Eastern Conference Finals were two of the games portrayed. The one I’ve watched depicts the Celtics defeating Detroit in Game 7 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals. Even still, the broadcast’s extreme bias took away from Boston’s thrilling victory. That annoyed me.
An announcer will almost always make a stupid or incorrect comment when I’m having writer’s block, which makes me feel the urge to address and correct them. Thus, I was once again inspired by this NBA TV show.
Wearing headsets, NBA TV analysts Kevin McHale and Isiah Thomas represented their respective teams during the show, providing side-of-the-screen commentary from their homes. In keeping with the theme of matching up twice with the irresistible Celtic center of gravity (and going double on Boston), the program also featured Rick Mahorn, a former Piston bruiser and occasional NBA TV analyst.
Celtic Hall of Famer Kevin McHale, who plays with a fractured navicular bone in his foot, does a nice job of blocking a long jumper by star guard Isiah Thomas of the Pistons. In the 1986–1987 season, McHale was selected to the first team of the NBA and the first team of the defense. Without the injury, he would have placed higher in the MVP voting that year, where he ended fourth. Getty Images / Dick Raphael/NBAE photo
In his analysis, host Matt Winer displayed a slight bias in favor of the Pistons by giving the voluminous and repetitious Thomas a lot more airtime than McHale. Additionally, I believe that Isiah had a tendency to talk excessively in order to steal airtime that could have been better spent analyzing