Happy Sundiata Gaines Day! (Belatedly)

Ridiculous Upside has officially declared January 14th Sundiata Gaines Day.

Yes, just like we gave Randy Livingston his, Paul Mokeski and Joel Abelson theirs, Luke Schenscher his, I'm ready to bestow the highest honor in the RUniverse on Sundiata Gaines.

Gaines, essentially, summed up everything that I love about the D-League last night.  He didn't get anything handed to him growing up, he realized the D-League gave him a unique opportunity, and then, when he got that opportunity, he took advantage of it.

Opportunity is essentially all one needs, and to see Gaines get it, then dominate it, was amazing.  Seriously, it inspired me.

Apparently I'm not alone in this because there were some amazing stories posted last night (yes, even better than mine).

Here is a sampling:

• Holly Mackenzie explains how I was feeling last night when she says "Buzzer-beater +D-League call up + this video +3-3 fgs in nine minutes + reaction of the Jazz bench = One smiling girl. Like, for real, this silly smile just won't leave my face and I'm okay with that."  Only difference, I'm not a girl.
• The first person to the party was Matt Moore for AOL Fanhouse.  Perfect summation of the story.  Of course Moore, being the media mogul that he is, was also the second person to the story.
• That was followed up by Zach Harper, on Moore's Hardwood Paroxysm, who called me a champion (of the D-League).  This was one of the best Lion/Lemon Face's I've ever read.
• SLC Dunk's Basketball John put up his recap, though my favorite part was a bullet point at the bottom that said "Eric Maynor who?"
• hawksdawgs looks at how Sundiata's shot could change the Hawks.
• James Herbert shows just how amazing the moment was, via Twitter.
• Sam McCullough talks about the pleasure of watching dreams come true.
• Fear The Sword, unfortunately, was on the wrong side of the story.