Lithuania grateful dead basketball professional#
Lithuania grateful dead basketball free#

“It always brings the biggest smile to my face because I know how much went in,” Walton told me. They’ve become collector’s items – there are multiple versions, some rarer than others – that re-sell for hundreds of dollars on eBay and vintage clothing sites such as Grailed.īasketball Hall of Fame big man Bill Walton, who has been to over 1,000 (!) Dead shows, says the shirts are at every show. The sportswriter Jack MacCallum has described the shirts as “ a stoned-out psychedelic masterpiece” and his favorite sports memento. Lisa Kudrow’s character, Phoebe, wore one on an episode of “Friends” in 1997. There is a photo of Jonah Hill rocking the same look. Jonah Hill in New York (GC Images / Getty Images) You may have seen this t-shirt before without realizing it. I recognized this as the iconic tie-dye t-shirt worn by Lithuania’s men’s basketball team that won the bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. What could be further from an NBA game than this ubiquitous blend of bluegrass and rock and funk? I started paying attention to the fashion that surrounded me.Īs my eyes scan the rows of people surrounding me, however, I notice that one of the most popular shirt types doesn’t even mention the band.

Lithuania grateful dead basketball free#

But what I didn’t expect, with the draft and free agency behind me, was to think about my day job of covering basketball. When I caught up with Basketball Hall of Fame big man Bill Walton, who was at the concert in Queens as well, he referred to it as the night that “Mayer turned into Michael Jordan.” But I didn’t hesitate at all when one of my friends from college asked me if I wanted to head out to Citi Field for the final show of Dead & Company’s recent tour with John Mayer. Most of the Deadheads are here because for them, in a way, this is home.

I put on another big goofy grin with raised, knowing eyebrows whenever I can look at my friends and sing along to whatever lyric I recognize simply because I recall it from when I heard it for the first time when the song began half an hour prior. I wish I was a headlight on a northbound train. Now that I’ve heard them sing it, you know what? This psychedelic cowboy music kind of rocks. There are so many things to look at around me right now, and the music is getting louder. If you get confused, listen to the music play. But in the stifling heat, I’m trying to absorb as much chaos as possible, and the lyrics are swimming around my brain. Sales of the tie-dyed T-shirts continued after the tournament and the skeleton art’s creator, Greg Speirs, donated 100% of his profit which was over $450,000 to continue to fund the team as well as Lithuanian children’s charities - which is a beautiful gesture in the spirit of The Grateful Dead.This is my second Grateful Dead concert, so I sort of know what to expect. The jerseys that players such as Marčiulionis donned during their triumphant Catalonian summer have become part of popular culture not only in Lithuania but beyond.

Lithuania grateful dead basketball professional#

While it wasn’t a spectacular sum of money, it still remains a collaboration that nobody in the world of professional sport or music expected. It was the first time that Lithuania had played for their flag in 50 years and it wouldn’t have been possible without the Grateful Dead’s immense generosity. The Lithuanians then miraculously managed to win the bronze medal in the most triumphant fashion possible, by defeating Russia in the third-place play-off. The band agreed to fund transportation costs for the team (about five thousand dollars) along with Grateful Dead design for the basketball jerseys and shorts for the team to wear in the competition. The band then invited Marčiulionis and Nelson to a Dead concert and, after the show, Marciulionis later claimed to sniff “a strange smell” in the vicinity which would, of course, be a more than familiar fragrance for any devoted Deadhead. Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh stated that not only were they huge freedom fighters as well as basketball fans and immediately wanted to do whatever they could.

One of the people who was fascinated with the piece was the Dead’s PR manager Dennis McNally who then proceeded to show it to the band who were just as intrigued by it as he was.