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Robert Horry is the freakin' man. He really is. The guy is a perennial playoff competitor and has just played in his 238th career playoff game. Let's put that into perspective. 238 games divided by a typical 82 game season. That equals nearly 3 seasons of extra basketball in the postseason alone. Oh yeah, not only has he played in a ton of games but he has 7 NBA Championship Rings to show for the efforts.

Furthermore, Horry has been arguably the most clutch performer in the history of the NBA Playoffs and trust me, there have been some phenomenal players/performances in the history of the NBA postseason. He has no less than 5 of those dagger-in-the-heart shots in the Playoffs alone. Huge shots are what he is known for. I'm talking about one of those shots that every kid dreams of nailing as the clock expires to win the game. And not just any game, we are talking NBA Playoff and NBA Finals games. I still distinctly recall him absolutely taking over a game in the NBA Finals in 2005. From dunking it over people to drilling threes, the 4th quarter of that game was one of the most dominant individual performances I've ever seen in a big situation.

The funny thing is that Big Shot Rob, as he's very accurately nicknamed, is by no means a superstar in the league. Solid player? Very solid. Superstar? No. In fact, the past few years he has seen limited time during the regular season. At the beginning of the 2006-07 season, I recall reading that he was inactive due to "Old Age." But, when the Playoffs come around there is no one more valuable than Mr. Horry.

So, the Spurs and Hornets are tied at 3-3, battling for a spot in the Western Conference Finals. Is it Horry time? Who knows but it would surprise no one if he nails yet another one of his clutch shots.

Robert Horry's Playoff Moments as listed on Wiki 

NBA: Where amazing happens.

NBA Playoffs: Where Robert Horry happens.

After the serious snowfall the Colorado Rockies has experienced this winter, a couple of the ski resorts decided to extend their seasons past the usual April 1 - April 15 closing dates. Oddly, snowfall amount has very little to do with closing dates these days. It's all about bookings and advanced sales and centered on when those out-of-towners stop coming in. With the variability in snowfall, the high dollar out-of-towners usually don't book too much past Easter weekend or early April.

Anyway, a couple of resorts decided to re-open for a couple of late spring weekends. Wolf Creek, Crested Butte and Aspen Highlands. Essentially they open for the local crowd, which is a very nice gesture. Also, they drop the price of lift tickets substantially, also a nice gesture. We heard that they were going to be offering $12 lift tickets to anyone that has a season pass to any ski resort. Larry (Strazz) and I asked around but no one else seemed to want to go. We didn't let that stop us and wow, I'm glad we went. Given the fact it was late April, conditions were amazing.

The skiing commonly known as "Aspen" is composed of four different mountains. Aspen-Snowmass is a totally separate mountain located north of Aspen about 10 miles. Aspen-Buttermilk and Aspen-Highlands are two smaller mountains located close to each other. I believe it is possible to ski between the two but I could be wrong. Buttermilk is where they have the Winter X-Games. Aspen-Ajax is the mountain that is actually situated right above the town of Aspen. Aspen-Highlands is the area that was open for an extended season. They reported a 90"-130" base for the day we were there. Incredible for pertinear (antiquated contraction of pretty-near) May. More incredibly, it was true. We didn't see a rock or dirt or stumps or anything poking thru the entire day.

Being on the mountain with Strazz is always fun. The dude can ski. He's originally from Illinois but has been out in Colorado since 1995'ish. Highlands has some great terrain. Steep and bumped out. Conditions were a little springy, which means that it takes a little while in the morning for the snow to soften up but amazingly it never got slushy, not even at the bottom. One other thing I was blown away by was the level of skiing I saw that day. It was obvious it was nearly all locals. Everybody could ski.

The trip with Strazz down to Aspen was great and totally worth it. Turns out we didn't even have to pay for lift tickets because 2 different people gave us comp tickets as it was the last day of the season. We stopped in Glenwood Springs on the way back, which is a great little place in its own right. On the way back we put in a little Mitch Hedberg and we were home in no time.

Good call on making the trip to Highlands Strazz!!!