The True Meaning of Chandlermas – In addition to hitting some insane threes last night, Chandler Parsons sacrificed his greatest asset to honor a 10-year-old cancer patient named Patrick Hobbs-DeClaire. Jason Friedman has the skinny:
But it is Parsons who has formed the tightest bond with Patrick, with each providing the other something neither one could have possibly anticipated or foreseen. For Patrick, the hospital visits and in-game, personal gestures from his real life hero produce the kind of eager anticipation and ear-to-ear smiles that can be the nourishing lifeblood necessary for any person or family that finds themselves locked in a perpetual battle between hope and doubt, life and death. Parsons, meanwhile, has been exposed to a brand of heroism that strikingly transcends anything that can be found on a basketball court. He was so moved after visiting Patrick last week, in fact, that he decided to shave his own head as a sign of solidarity. Parsons’ signature locks were shorn last night.
Professional athletes have the means to brighten the lives of kids in a special way. Because of the way kids idolize stars, a gesture from one of those guys has value in the eyes of a child that money can’t match. Parsons laid it all out there. He let the world know he was playing for the happiness of one little kid. Then he marched out on the court and drilled incredible shots on the way to a win.
LeBron James threw down some amazing dunks yesterday. James Harden had a fourth quarter for the ages. But Chandler Parsons delivered the most this Christmas. Tweet That – James Harden scored 28 points–16 in the fourth quarter–against the Spurs last night for the win. Pat Beverley started tweeting about it even as it was happening.
Video game JH…………
— Patrick Beverley (@patbev21) December 26, 2013
And this was the picture of the night:
James Harden scored 16 of his 28 points in 4th quarter in Rockets win. He scored on shots from all around the court pic.twitter.com/2yp0Wqa6YB
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) December 26, 2013
As I wrote at the time, I always look forward to getting a Christmas present from a bearded man in red.
The Giver - Via SB Nation, and Marc Stein Dwight Howard gives nice gifts for Christmas. Just to sum up his Christmas list:
- Rolex’s for the whole team
- iPads for all the coaches
- “Back To The Future II” shoes for Aaron Brooks
Ho ho ho.
Caution – ESPN’s Marc Stein writes in the article linked to above (linked to again here) about how the Rockets are trying to not to rest on the laurels of the win over San Antonio because they’ve already been there, done that, and fallen on their face to an inferior team right afterward.
The trick is what happens now? What next? The Howard & Harden Rockets followed up their Nov. 30 conquest of the reigning Western Conference champs with a demoralizing loss at lowly Utah.
“We won here about a month ago and we [still] went up and down,” McHale offered without much prompting.
We’ll see how they respond against Memphis tonight.
View this discussion from the forum.
