20 years ago today, Luc Longley — aka Australia’s Bill Russell, aka Lucky Luc, aka the 7-foot John Stockton — suited up for his reigning champion Chicago Bulls and went into Portland’s Rose Garden and laid an almighty smackdown on Arvydas Sabonis and the Portland Trail Blazers only bettered by Shane Warne against the Poms in ’93… and set a CAREER HIGH in the process!
Clearly not at all tired after carrying Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen to the previous two NBA championships, Big Lucien had a game as glorious as Jimmy Barnes’ mid-‘80s mullet, giving the Blazers the ol’ Don’t Argue with 14 points.
Not bad, sure, but nothing to get mouthier than Dickie Knee having a go at Red Symons during ‘Red Faces’ about, right?
Well, the Big Sandgroper wasn’t done yet, no bloody way! See, while he wasn’t busy swiping two steals, or perfectly boxing out the paint for Dennis “The Worm” Rodman to get 20 bloody rebounds (leaving big Lucien with only 3 for himself – reckon he probably would’ve had 40 if he did it all himself)… Luc was dominating and showing off his playmaking skills, proving to be a 7-foot John Stockton on his way to a jaw-dropping EIGHT ASSISTS, equalling a CAREER HIGH!
That’s better than not snapping your tooth on that bloody frozen bubblegum nose in your Bubble O’Bill!
While it was only Outback Shaq’s 23rd best game of the year — and he had five turnovers and four fouls — remember, stats are for nerds and that just means Big Luc was an even bigger legend the rest of the year as he led the Bulls to his third straight NBA title!
And just to commemorate his career night, rumour has it Big Luc also Reverse Kanga’d the Rose Garden visitor’s bogs just for good measure!
#ONYA Big Lucien!
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