There's a thread about SP's copyrighted phrases, U23 and Posterphobia.  I was commenting about the exchange between Marv Albert and Steve Kerr about Clipper Nation (Marv:  There's a Nation?), and I realized that the story of the broadcast by Mike Smith and Don McLean hasn't really had any run.

I thought it was kind of classic, myself.  Early on they had no intention of trying to do any play-by-play.  McLean, the old gunslinger, is a nice match for Mike Smith in his own way.  They're both stretch 4 broadcasters, whatever that might mean.  Good eye for putting the ball in the hoop, natural scorers.  McLean could be a great color man for the Clips, but somehow he never played for them (otherwise we would have heard "former Clipper Don McLean" a few thousand times, right?), and Smith and his ten children got there first.  And no one would want to mess with the fine Milph chemistry at this point.

I remembered how I saw McLean as a color man of a game that Kevin Love played in high school, for Lake Oswego, against Mater Dei.  It was awesome and hilarious.  Love was so highly skilled and so effective, and he did so many things, that McLean kind of ran out of things to say.  "Go ahead, man, just throw in the left-handed skyhook off the glass because, you know, why not."  And a lot of "I really think that people don't understand.  Guys in high school just don't play like this.  They can't do these things.  And he does ALL of them."

McLean's comments last night about Blake Griffin were eerily similar.  The Beast gave him just enough plays to marvel over:  there was the early monster jam, when McLean promised himself that he wasn't going to get into any long stories, because Griffin could do something spectacular at any moment.  The soft bank while falling down to the ground was a nice one.  Then there was the direct reverse throwdown, when McLean chastized himself for breaking his promise.  It was the same thing:  "I really think that people don't understand.  Guys just don't play like this.  That can't do these things.  It's amazing."

Just part of the fun.  What did the Citizens think?