…from Wurzberg’s Chelsea American Grille. The LA Times’ J.J. Adande enjoys the hospitality you can only get in Mr. Nowinski’s hometown.
You could spend eight hours on eBay and not find sports memorabilia as obscure as the stuff hanging on the walls in this place. My favorites: a Quebec Nordiques jersey (because nothing says “America” like a defunct Canadian hockey team) and an autographed picture of Pedro Guerrero in a St. Louis Cardinals jersey.
Two dozen hardcore hoop heads were in the bar. It took 11 days in Germany, but I finally saw my first Dirk Nowitzki jersey here! (Although technically I still haven’t seen a Nowitzki Mavs jersery,; this was a 2004 Western Conference all-star jersey).
They all got very quiet as Miami held the lead throughout the second half, the silence broken only by loud applause for Jerry Stackhouse’s big block and three-pointer in the fourth quarter, and the increasingly frustrated shouts of “Nein!” as Nowitzki and Co. kept missing shots.
I don’t feel too sorry for them because they still have Germany’s World Cup squad to follow. I don’t feel sorry for the Mavericks because they’ll be right back in the championship mix the next few years. I really feel like it all came down to this game for the Heat. It didn’t seem like they’d be able to duplicate this effort again in Game 7 if they lost. And if they didn’t get a championship here, it wasn’t going to happen for this group.
Salon’s King Kaufman asks, “How different might our impression of Dwyane Wade have been in the next few years if Jason Terry’s three-pointer at the buzzer had gone in Tuesday night?”
My own impression might well have been, “he’d better get out of Miami if he wants to win a title ; that team is too old.”
Toronto graciously waited for ‘Zo to stop flexing before announcing the following trade : Eric Williams and Matt Bonner are going to San Antonio in exchange for Rasho Nesterovic.