The Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz played a thrilling game that came down to a Scoot Henderson buzzer-beater in front of the home crowd. Of course, to get to that thrilling fourth quarter that the Blazers entered trailing by seven, you have to get through another 36 minutes of late-December regular season basketball between two teams that aren't anywhere near the playoff picture.
That's where the announcers come in. You've got to keep fans entertained and maybe even on their toes, which is exactly what Rip City Television Network's Lamar Hurd did in the second quarter when he went on a rant defending the Grinch as "one of the five most misunderstood beings in civilizations. In history."
"What he was trying to tell them is, it's not just about the presents," said Hurd. "Christmas is about the love. The everything. Which, by the way, oh the irony, the Grinch stole Christmas? Oh, no. He stole presents. So he's trying to tell ya'll Christmas is not the presents. And if ya'll didn't make fun of him in the first place he would have been coo and a part of it the whole time anyway. Now Martha May, she knew what time it was..."
Hurd seamlessly worked his defense of the Grinch into the game's call, though he appears to only focus on the Grinch's origin story from the 2000 Jim Carey adaptation. In Dr. Seuss's original story and the other adaptations, The Grinch is just kind of sick of the Christmas cheer in Whoville.
Considering he was welcome to celebrate the holiday in every version of the story and the fact that he's now a beaming icon of Christmas, well, don't you worry about the Grinch. Things worked out just fine for him.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Announcer Goes on Pro-Grinch Rant During Jazz-Blazers Game.