The Boston Celtics lost the 1987 NBA Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers in 6 games, but basketball purists and diehard fans will probably tell you that the Eastern Conference Finals between the Celtics and the Detroit Pistons was the real highlight of the playoffs that year. The particular legendary moment that a lot of NBA fans probably don’t even realize they’re viewing a few dozen times per season took place in Game 5, as the Pistons were on the verge of jumping out to a 3-2 series lead, before Larry Bird stole Isiah Thomas’ inbound pass and chucked it to Dennis Johnson for a game-winning layup. Even if you don’t think you’ve seen it, you have. It’s right here. Watch it and then say, “Ohhhhhhh yeah.”

Anyway, the reason that I bring this up is because a group called “Lift the Children” is trying to raise $56,000 via FundRazr to help some orphans in Kenya build a quality sports field so they can have a little fun and be better than my lazy ass at sports.

GRACE CARE CENTRE is home to over 200 children. There is nowhere for them to safely access a playing field. Please help turn their dreams into reality by contributing to this campaign, so the orphanage can purchase a field they desperately need.

Like most wise fundraisers these days, this group is trying to raise awareness by creating a viral video and job well done, folks. Lift the Children’s brain trust created a video of the orphans from the Grace Care Centre reenacting footage of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals, complete with the original game announcers, and it is just spectacular.

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Man, I’d hate to see how they reenact things with kids in Uganda. (via The Other Paper)

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What If Microprocessors Never Existed? |UPROXX|

With Leather Live Discussion: NBA Finals – Game 1 |With Leather|

The Official With Leather Flowchart For Picking Your Team In 2012 The NBA Finals |With Leather|

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The Internet Fittingly Lambasts The Ridiculous ‘Catwoman #0′ Cover |Gamma Squad|

Puffy Finally Came Out! |Smoking Section|

Classic Letter: Gene Wilder has some notes about Willy Wonka’s costume |Film Drunk|

Jon Stewart Perfectly Illustrates Why American Politics In 2012 Is So Damn Revolting |UPROXX|

#ThronesAndRecreation: The ‘Game Of Thrones’ Meets ‘Parks And Recreation’ Brainstorm The World Needed |UPROXX|

10 Points Of Emphasis For The 2012 NBA Finals |Smoking Section|

Lindsay Lohan is working with a porn star and Bret Easton Ellis |Film Drunk|

The Best And Worst Of WWE Raw 6/11/12: Vader Is Here And Nothing Else Matters |With Leather|

5 Reasons We Can’t Wait for “Tokyo Jungle” |Gamma Squad|

If You Ask Nicely, Bryan Cranston Might Send You a Plastic Bag Full of Blue Meth |Warming Glow|

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Normally, Tosh.0 posts on With Leather involve web redemptions for the Phillies tazer kid or the “boom goes the dynamite” guy. Best case scenario, Manny Pacquiao has just punched him in the face and you need to know about it.

This week’s requisite Tosh post spotlights the $150,000 Tosh.0 Marathon, wherein thousands of people gathered to run on treadmills on Hermosa Beach in California to see how far they could get before a Kenyan runner finished first. As if that weren’t enough, the marathon featured magicians, stairmasters, improv sketch comedy and a bunch of horrible racism that is okay because he’s kidding. You can check out the video below, but be aware of all the cursing and slow motion lady-running before you click play.

The best part is even Tosh being unable to mock the affable Kenyan guy at the end. I did the math, and if I’d participated in this with my sharp 17-minute mile, I would’ve logged about 7/10th of one before giving up and having fun on the beach.

[via Tosh.0]

Kenyan marathoner Nicholas Manza Kamakaya won the Gold Coast Marathon in Queensland, Australia, set a course record, and lost $27,000 in the process.

Kamakaya can run a marathon in under two hours, ten minutes. He did it in Beijing, setting a record of 2:08:49. The Gold Coast Marathon was offering a 27K bonus to anyone with a time of 2:10 or under. Kamakaya set the record at 2:10:01, winning $10,000, but if that time had been one second, just ONE second of a marathon shorter, he would’ve more than tripled his pay. That’s the futility of life, isn’t it? Guy Fieri tells you you can do this, but you don’t keep ping pong balls bouncing on a slanted table long enough and you lose like a hundred grand. What the f**k is the point of our lives?

Kamakaya seemed much cheerier about the situation.

“I’m just happy. For me it’s so nice [to win],” said Manza. “It’s very special for me because it’s my first time in Australia and I’m happy because I’ve run the course record.”

This was his first win, having finished sixth at Rome and second at Beijing and Los Angeles. I guess 10K is still a pretty sweet sum for an afternoon of running, and I applaud him for being a better, much less bitter, and way, way faster person than me.

[h/t to Fourth-Place Medal]

Kenyan Olympic marathon champion Sammy Wanjiru is dead, having jumped from a balcony after a domestic dispute with his wife and another woman. National police spokesmen are saying it was a “fact of the matter” suicide, but his agent says it wasn’t. Here’s a quick recap from a local official.

“Wanjiru came home with another woman friend at around 11:30 p.m. and then when his wife came home and found them she inquired who the lady was,” area police chief Jasper Ombati said. “They got into an argument. His wife locked them in the bedroom and ran off.

“He then jumped from the bedroom balcony. He is not here to tell us what he thinking when he jumped. We do not suspect foul play. In our estimation we think he wanted to stop his wife from leaving the compound.”

The interesting thing about THAT (besides the fact that a Kenyan Olympic champion killed himself after being caught cheating on his wife, I mean) is that the balcony is being described as “13 to 19 feet high.” I’m not an Olympian, but I’m fairly certain I could survive a 13 foot drop. There’s an entire thing in The Dark Knight where Eric Roberts is all, “a fall from this height won’t kill me!” and Batman is counting on that and throws him off the fire escape. And that brings up further questions, such as “why did he think doing this would stop his wife from leaving the compound,” and, “how did his wife lock them in the bedroom, or maybe I don’t understand how Kenyan houses work.”

Regardless, a promising, gifted young athlete is dead for an absolutely ridiculous reason, and that’s a shame. People always say “it doesn’t make sense” when somebody dies, and for once, they’re really right.

[NESN]

Weird running story from Iowa: Two Kenyan marathon runners actually got lost while running the Quad-Cities Marathon, which is not to be confused with the Quad City DJ’s, whose 1996 single, “C’Mon N’ Ride It (The Train)” made it to No. 3 on the U.S. pop charts before

Chepses and Njoroge apparently became confused when a pace-setting motorcycle veered left, as it was supposed to, on the Arsenal viaduct, with the course-following pace car and leader [Leonard Mania] Mucheru well out of sight. The Kenyans actually steered right, as they were supposed to, toward the bridge to Rock Island, but then stopped and returned to their original point of confusion. Only when [second-place finisher Ketema] Nigusse ran by did they follow.

Marathon elite race coordinator Ian Frink said other races, notably the Miami Marathon, have taken a harder line in similar instances, but said the local committee took into account the Kenyans’ unfamiliarity with the race course and the English language.

Amnesty? Amnesty.

The decision was to award both Kenyans second-place money ($1,500) along with actual second-place finisher Ketema Nigusse of Ethiopia. –Quad City Times [Whoo whoo!].

Michelle, Tamika and Tanya could not be reached for comment. You know that you’re running a loose ship when you’re more liberal than Miami about your race rules. One of my goals in life is to sign up for a marathon and then finish first via blatant circumvention of the rules. Like “hiding a bike in the bushes at Mile 2″ blatant. I’d be the first sub-90-minute marathoner ever…for about 15 seconds, at least. It wouldn’t be cheating so much as a re-distribution of time.