The new #22

As a kid, "22" was the most important number to me. Whenever I played on a sports team I tried to get that number. Its importance may even explain my slight fetish for palindromic numbers. And yes, palindromic is a word, I looked it up.

What made "22" special? It was the number worn by my childhood hero Will Clark. The Thrill, as he was known, played my favorite position, first base and was the best player on the Giants during my formidable years. I would show you some videos, but baseball is stupid and has pulled all of them from YouTube. Anyway, for further proof of my infatuation, the combination to my bike lock was 1-2-2 and I always remembered it by saying #1 is #22.

So why is the #22 important to me again? Anthony Morrow.

He's the undrafted rookie on the Warriors who scored 37 points on Saturday to lead the Warriors over the Clippers in his first NBA start. He followed it up with any 25 tonight in a victory over the Blazers and he would have had more if Nellie would have played him in the 4th quarter. Oh, and he wears #22.

Morrow is a pure shooter, in the Ray Allen or Chris Mullin mold. Everytime he touches the ball I am excited and I rarely have been this impressed (kiddy, really) by a player I had never heard of before. In fact, Morrow didn't even make my Warriors Preview blog. But don't take my word for it, watch his highlights from Saturday's game.

To say my level of enthusiasm for Morrow is high would be an understatement. Between getting married, Obama being elected and now Morrow I'd have to say this is shaping up to be a great year. Some of my favorite Morrow-related comments on www.WarriorsWorld.net today were:

• "Where does Morrow rank among NBA greats?"
• "Can Morrow be elected into the hall of fame yet?"
• "He will make 22 of 20 shots tonight" (in response to a question for predictions)
• "Morrow woke up and three Blazers were guarding him, and when he went to the kitchen Greg Oden was there" (referring to the fact that the blazers would need to be guarding him tight)

Don't say I didn't warn you, it's going to be beautiful toMORROW.