On the hardwood, the Toronto Raptors ruined the final season of the building originally known as the Oakland Arena back in 1966, and, in doing so, won all three games they played in the building that had served as the home of the Golden State Warriors since then, and also ruined what many people considered the latest "dynasty" in the NBA; also, they technically brought the NBA championship to its "ancestral" home for the very first time, as Almonte, Ontario-born James Naismith went to Springfield, MA, to create something that could satisfy his early-1890s YMCA students through the harsh winters in that part of the country; returning to the present, though, the Raptors held off what seemed like a million comebacks, and comeback attempts, throughout the entire series by the Warriors in order to clinch the title; personally, I'd once again still put 2013 ahead of this series, since, at least back then, the Miami Heat did to the San Antonio Spurs what the Golden State Warriors couldn't do to the Toronto Raptors, with the crazy ending to that game 6, followed by the incredibly tight game 7 afterward!
On the ice, meanwhile, in the NHL, the St. Louis Blues made history, at least for them, and, in doing so, once again made the Boston Bruins lose at home, after the Chicago Blackhawks, as I initially mentioned about a couple of weeks ago, scored twice within the final minute of game 6 in that series (2013); as with the NBA, personally, I'd still put that series ahead of this one, if only 'cause it seemed like multiple of the games this year were blowouts, which end up getting "anticlimactic" after a while, you know? In contrast to that, 2013 was an epically back-and-forth series, again, coming off the lockout the previous fall (2012) that cut that season short (48 games), and, at least for me, personally, was when what the Devils had done just before then (22-3-2 throughout the early months of 2011; reaching the SCF the following year), so there was still a "buzz" around here back then, followed by that ending to the 2013 season, following the shortened (regular) season!
(also, some "opposing perspectives" on the most recent game 7)
Also, there's been a change in the Wednesday night, 7/24 (Red Bull Arena, Harrison, N.J.) game part of the International Champions Cup European international exhibition soccer series, as AS Roma backed out of that night's game after reaching the 2019-20 UEFA Europa League qualifiers, leaving Benfica, from the Portuguese Primeira Liga, facing Fiorentina, which, just like Roma, is also from the Italian Serie A, so there'll be a different professional Italian soccer team around here, specifically inside Red Bull Arena, this summer!
...speaking of Europe, DYK there's a Spanish quiz show that's been on for so long now (1997-present, and showing no signs of stopping anytime soon) that it pre-dated the Euro currency? We actually got the "international" channel operated by Television Española, the Spanish public broadcaster, for a few years here, but have since lost it to the various "machinations" of cable/satellite TV operators, as Optimum restricted that and many other "international" channels to that specific "extra" level of its cable offerings a few years ago; as such, unfortunately, the only time I've seen that show, at least in recent years, was actually in the Dominican Republic, of all places, one afternoon that whole week back in 2016, and I'm more than willing to admit that I'm honestly too lazy to keep checking out the show's website often for different episodes, although, back over here, ABC returned a couple of '80s game shows to the air this week, and, from the looks of it, every week this summer, so there'll be that to go along with the MLB/MLS regular seasons, along with all the various soccer tournaments in various parts of the world these next few weeks!
Also, there's been quite the "uproar" in video gaming circles the past few days, specifically regarding the two newest editions of the Pokémon game series - you know, the Japanese "creature catching + raising" RPG series; personally, I've been with each "generation" of that particular series of games from the very beginning, back in the late '90s, but, with the recent announcement by developer Game Freak that the two newest games will not allow those of us who've been around for previous "generations" of that series to "transfer" older team members forward - to make a sports analogy, which you know by now that I like, it would basically be like the leagues basically getting rid of things like free agency and/or trades, which were, ironically, introduced because players, specifically within Major League Baseball, were fighting with, and/or suing, their leagues/teams, in order to be able to no longer make their original teams "exclusive" - suffice it to say, Game Freak, and possibly Nintendo, basically did the opposite of what the pro sports leagues did decades ago, and essentially made the newest games in that series "exclusive" in ways that none of the previous "generations" had been; combine that with the games pretty much all being incredibly similar, with very few changes, since the ones that released during my initial undergraduate semester, and it seems as if this has suddenly become the beginning of the end for those games, at least in my opinion!
On a more personal note now, the physical therapy and podiatry appointments are done now, at least in terms of the surgery I had back at the beginning of February, so let's just hope now that nothing else suddenly emerges in the future that would require another such process!
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