I was one of those kids who grew up with the Atari, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Sega Genesis. Video games were pretty much all we played during those cold New England winters. In fact, I can still probably rattle off to you the first 5 games my brother and I purchased for our NES (let’s see: Pro Wrestling, Commando, Ikari Warriors, The Legend of Zelda, and Excitebike).

Josh and I loved to play sports games, and as such we were always renting the latest offerings from our local supermarket to see which games were worth buying ($40 games were a fortune to a 12-yr old). Tecmo Bowl, RBI Baseball, Double Dribble, Baseball Stars, and John Madden football all found their way into our catalog this way.

One game in particular that I remember renting and enjoying was Lakers Vs. Celtics, a game that has received quite a bit of hype this past week with the matchup in the 2008 NBA Finals. As far as i can recall (and we are talking about 18 years ago), the game was relatively good, though I still remember thinking that it was dumb to name a basketball game after two specific teams.

There were other basketball games that came and went in the Allain household. Remember Double Dribble for the NES? That game was gold when it first came out. Not only did Konami program in a sweet cheerleader halftime show, but they had those amazing dunk closeups when one of your players went in for a jam. Clearly they were ahead of their time.

Or what about NBA Jam, the popular arcade game that found its way onto home consoles? Were there ever better catch phrases spawned by a video game than, “He’s Heating Up!” and “He’s on Fire!”? I think not.

It’s always fun to take trips down memory lane, whether it’s remembering 8-bit video games or watching highlights of Bird and Magic battle it out in short shorts. If you’re not one for reminiscing, you might want to watch something other than ABC over the next 2 weeks. I have a feeling we’re going get a healthy dose of the 1980s sprinkled in with live action from the teams of today.

Speaking of today’s players, who do you like to win 4 games first in this match up between the best of the East and West?

Think the Lakers will steal a game in Boston and keep the series from going to a Game 7?

Think the Celtics are being overlooked and will ultimately hold serve at home to win the title?

Voice your opinion in the first ever Prayers For Blowouts Poll: