Do you watch “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” on HBO? If you don’t, you should — hands down, it’s the best damn sports show on teevee. Anyway, in the installment that debuted last night, there’s a really dynamic piece on how NFL Films was established and how the work of the Sabol family continues to set the bar for excellence for the entire genre of sports documentary filmmaking. The segment is chock fulla fantastic footage AND interesting tidbits; like, for instance, did you know that Steve Sabol invented sports bloopers? I know, me neiths!

After watching this segment, the video iPod IN MY MIND started going bazonker crazed. First thing that came up on random shuffle was Dire Straits and their insanicus “Walk Of Life” video. Gotta admit, I never really got the connection between the song and the video treatment (and judging from the quizzically bored expression on Mark Knopfler’s face throughout the entire vid, neither did he). But then, justlikethat, my brain magically fastforwarded (or did it reverse?) to the all-time best VHS cassette Yahweh ever even DREAMED of creating, “NBA Superstars.” If you were a red-blooded American male who was between the ages of 8 and 18 in 1988, I guaranTEE you watched this video at least a hundred and fifty million times.

Looking back at the video now, with almost twenty years of hindsight, some of the pairings that seemed like the bomb ass whip at the time feel REALLY strange looking through the cultural lens of 2007. For instance, Air Jordan’s greatest moments (at least at that point) were scored to “Take My Breath Away.” Even worse, one could make a valid argument that The Human Highlight Reel began his slide to irrelevance the very SECOND that he was paired with Yanni. These two curious editorial choices aside, the rest of the video is pure bliss, pure magic and just as hott now as it was back in the 80s. Bear witness…

• Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon, “How Ya Like Me Now”
• Magic Johnson, “Control”
• Isiah Thomas, “The Right Stuff”
• Charles Barkley, “The Warrior”

Lest you thought I forgot, there IS one more genius pairing that I have not yet mentioned. Rather than spend precious time regaling you with my boring memories, I’ll let these four simple words speak for themselves: Larry Bird, “Small Town”!

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