In an effort to help you get through these sports-free days (months), I'm combing the Internet archives to bring you OPTIONS.
This week is all about playing the hits. We started with Gophers vs. Clemson in the 1997 NCAA men's basketball tournament, and now there's this: The full Game 7 of the 2004 Western Conference semifinals between the Wolves and Kings is on YouTube.
There will be several clues immediately that this game is 16 years old — from the production quality to the style of play to the fact that there were 163 points scored in the whole (redacted) thing instead of with 5 minutes left in the third quarter.
If for some reason you do not know the outcome of this game, I won't spoil it for you entirely. Suffice to say it was one of the most intense sporting events I've ever attended/covered — right up there with Game 163 in 2009 for the Twins vs. the Tigers — and still there are many things about it that I didn't remember.
Kevin Garnett is an absolute beast, but you probably would have guessed that even if I didn't tell you.
The Carlos Gonzalez photo (above) probably gives it away, but it's worth it because 1) It's such a great shot and 2) Sid is in the picture, back when he was only 84.
