In an essay from his pop culture opus, Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, author Chuck Klosterman argues that nearly any aspect of a man’s life — the kind of car he drives, his choice of spouse, his musical tastes — can be traced back to whether he was a Lakers guy or a Celtics guy in the 1980s.
“For ten years,” he writes, ” … you had two teams that were a) clearly the class of their profession and b) completely and diametrically opposed in every possible respect.”
It’s too bad USC and Ohio State had to wait until 2008 for their first matchup this decade — because a rivalry between the two titans would unquestionably produce a modern-day cultural dichotomy to rival that of those Lakers-Celtics clashes.
The Trojans and Buckeyes aren’t “clearly” the class of this decade — LSU (two BCS titles) and Oklahoma (highest winning percentage) would certainly voice their objections — but they’re not far off. Each has played for a national championship three times in the past six seasons. Unfortunately, it’s never been against one another.
si.com
9/11/08
Magnolia Tribune
