In the waning moments of the first half of the first playoff game between the Bulls and the Philadelphia 76ers last Saturday, Charles Barkley went to the far end of the court and sat down. Michael Jordan was shooting free throws, and Barkley went to the other end, grabbed a towel from a ball boy, mopped his face, and sat down on the base of the Sixers’ basket. It was the sort of thing someone might do during a break in a Saturday-morning game between friends: lounge at the far end, then, after the final free throw, step inbounds, call for the ball, take the long pass, and lay in an easy one. Scottie Pippen, standing at center court, kept an eye on Barkley, but when coach Phil Jackson called on Pippen to take a spot on the free-throw lane, Pippen pointed out Barkley to Horace Grant, whose face instantly broke out in a wide smile. Grant walked down the court, wagging his finger and smiling all the way, and Barkley–realizing the ruse was up–rose to greet him. They met near the Sixers’ free-throw line, where they slapped hands and turned to wait for Jordan to finish up.
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Likewise, these two teams are filled with players who look like normal neighborhood guys. Compared with the sculpted, weight-trained look of the modern professional jock, the Sixers’ Rick Mahorn, Armon Gilliam, and yes, even Barkley, and the Bulls’ Bill Cartwright and Stacey King all have the pudgy, rounded profiles of the weekend athlete. And the Sixers’ seven-foot-seven-inch center Manute Bol looks like the guy picked by one team for the sole reason that he’s so tall, while his Bulls’ counterpart, Will Perdue, is simply someone chosen at the end to fill out the squad.
The Bulls opened the Sixers series with a blitzkrieg victory, just as they had opened the first-round series with a 126-85 shelling of the New York Knicks. The Knicks went down in three quick games, but the Knicks are a team–as it’s commonly called around here–in disarray. The Sixers were hot off their own sweep, against the Bucks, including two wins to open the series in Milwaukee. Even the Bulls seemed a little awed by how easily the Sixers fell prey to the same trap as the Knicks.
The Bulls were impressed with themselves and how easily they had prevailed after the first game, but they knew better. They expected a more physical contest last Monday. And Barkley–who scored 34 points but was the only Philadelphia player with more than 11–was already psyching himself up. He stormed through the Sixers’ locker room afterward, naked to the waist and scolding reporters, saying, “Y’all been stroking us the last week telling us how good we are. Man, you got to do it every night. Fucking beating the Milwaukee Bucks ain’t no great accomplishment.” Then–as no young girls were available in the locker room–he walked over and spit in the trash basket.
SportsChannel aired Jackson’s media conference afterward, but not Barkley’s. Even cable, after all, has its limits.
