Posts tagged Crown Royal XR
5 Iconic #ReignOn Moments in Chicago Bulls History
No matter the sport every fan has their own beloved moments that they will always cherish when they think about their favorite team. For me I feel I grew up in the right era as a Chicago Bulls fan. In the 1990’s I was living in a suburb outside of Chicago. As a kid I loved pretending I was like Mike when I was playing hoops with my friends.
Besides having Air Jordan on the team, I also got to watch Scottie Pippen, John Paxon, Horace Grant, B.J. Armstrong, Bill Cartwright, Stacy King, and many more. Once Jordan knew that he needed others to help him get a title, the Bulls were hard to beat. Chicago was able to three-peat not once, but twice. They won Championships from 1991-1993 and also in 1996-1998.
Recently while watching the Bulls take on the Miami Heat I was reminiscing about my favorite moments of the Chicago 
Bulls. To relish that moment even more I was enjoying Crown Royal Extra Rare Whisky. It is the second edition in the series. It is an exquisite blend crafted to include a small reserve of the final batch of whiskies that were saved from the renowned LaSalle Distillery (located on the island of Montreal), opened in 1924 by the Bronfman family. The distillery was closed in 1993, but LaSalle remained a bottling facility until 2003 and to this day still operates as a warehouse for many fine Crown Royal whiskies.
Just like the Bulls in the 1990’s, Crown Royal XR has become legendary. The aroma of this Crown Royal XR has hints of pear with complimentary floral bouquet notes. The honeyed pear maintains upon first taste and is joined by tones of dried apricot and raisins mid palate. The finish is exquisite with an elegant touch of cocoa and brown sugar.
So with that here are my five iconic #ReignOn moments from the Bulls during the 1990’s.
5. Scottie Pippen Posterizes Patrick Ewing. 
When Jordan left the Bulls to pursue a career in baseball, Scottie Pippen took over as the main man in the Windy City. During Game 6, 1994 Eastern Conference Semifinals Pippen met up with New York Knicks All-Star Patrick Ewing. In that moment Pippen won that battle over Ewing by slamming home right over the big fella.
Pippen recalls that moment by saying, “It was one of those games where we were playing against the Knicks and we were frustrated and tired of them holding and pulling and doing things of that nature. I think that after that dunk, I sort of overreacted, almost trying to push [Ewing] into the stands,”
He might have overreacted after the dunk, but he sure threw it down at that moment.
4. Completing the Three-peat In Dramatic Fashion.
MJ knows how to close out a game. Even more he knows how to finish out an NBA Finals series. In Game 6 of 1998 Finals the Bulls were trailing the Utah Jazz by one point. Could the Jazz hold on and force a Game 7? The answer was no.
MJ stole the ball from Karl Malone which set up one of those memorable MJ moments. Everyone in the building knew that Jordan would take the final shot. MJ brushes by Byron Russell and pulls up for what is known as “The Shot.” The ball goes in and the Bulls are once again NBA Champions.
3. He can Fly!
In their first appearance in the NBA Finals the Bulls were looking to knock off the Los Angeles L
akers from the top of the NBA mountain. In Game 2 of the 1991 Finals MJ rocked one of the craziest moves. As if to almost make things harder than needed Jordan drove the lane and looked to make an easy dunk.
Then what seemed to be like an eternity MJ was hanging out in the air and decided to change his scoring attack from a dunk to a very difficult left handed lay-up. As he was in the air deciding what to do he passed by teammates and opponents like it was nothing. He moved the ball from his right hand to his left hand, the ball went off of the backboard and went in. It was almost as if Jordan wanted to send a message to Magic Johnson by saying we are now taking over the NBA.
2. John Paxon is Clutch.
The Bulls were always lead by Jordan and Pippen. Some fans do forget that the Bulls has a strong supporting cast. One of those guys was guard John Paxon. In Game 6 of the 1993 NBA Finals the Bulls were down by two points against the Phoenix Suns. As the Bulls brought the ball up the court the Suns looked to double team Michael and eliminate Scottie as scoring threats.
When you double team someone that will always leave a guy wide open. With excellent passing by the team, Horace Grant found an open John Paxon behind the three point line. With ice in his veins Paxon took the role of hero and scored the game winning basket. That Bulls completed their first three-peat by defeating the Suns.
1. MJ is Sick…no I mean Flu-like Sick!
One thing a champion must have is heart. No matter what lies in their path they look to find a way to win. Right before Game 5 in the 1997 NBA Finals reports were coming out that Michael Jordan had flu-like symptoms. Doctors told him that he shouldn’t play. He didn’t listen.
All he did was score 38 points to help the Bulls win that game, in which three of those points was the go ahead three pointer to secure a victory. Now known in NBA lore as “The Flu Game,” that moment will always stick out to me as one of my favorite games in all of Bulls history.
So what are your favorite #ReignOn moments from your favorite NBA team? How does it stack up against mine? I would love to hear your thoughts!
Mar 10th
MANjr Crown Royal XR Happy Hour Recap
The MANjr team closed out the month of February in fine fashion with a little help from our friends at Crown Royal. During the holidays, we participated in a blogger gift exchange program called Pass the Crown. Having experienced the thrill of Pass the Crown the previous year, we knew what we were getting into, and we knew what we wanted to get out of it.
25 bloggers participated in Pass the Crown this time around and there were some pretty sweet gifts in the rotation. Everything from iPad Minis to cameras, guitars, Kindle Fires, watches, it was a pretty strong set of gifts this holiday season.
The first time we participated in Pass the Crown, we scored a Crown Royal Happy Hour and it was a really fun event. Good times with good booze and good people. So when it came time for us to open our purple bag this year (or choose to steal a previously opened gift), we knew what decision had to be made.
This was the purple gift bag that we had to ponder this time around:
We decided to pass. And instead, we targeted another Crown Royal Happy Hour as the gift that we want to steal. Having experienced a kick ass sponsored happy hour and having tried XR on multiple occasions, there was really one choice. So we liberated the Crown Royal XR Happy Hour from the poor fellas over at The Roosevelts (who ended up with two pairs of TOM sunglasses). We scored a bottle of XR for ourselves and one for you, our lucky readers.
The happy hour was a hit. With the Oscars on in the background, MANjr friends and colleagues enjoyed sips of the good stuff at Q’s on Wilshire. Not surprisingly, the XR went quick. That’s what happens when you invite too many Australians. If you haven’t tried this batch of Crown Royal XR yet, get on that. It’s really silky smooth stuff, not too spicy, not too stiff. Just full of subtle aromas and palate-pleasing sweetness.
Thanks again to Crown Royal for setting us up with such a great event. During the gift exchange, Crown sent out a purple gift bag of goodies to our troops for every tweet that included the hashtag #PassTheCrown. Over 1400 gift bags were sent out as part of the Crown Royal Heroes Project. So all good fun for a good cause. Can’t wait to swipe another happy hour next time around!
Mar 7th
Super Bowl XLVII Pick
After all the Harbaugh brother hype, we actually get to watch a game on Sunday! The last of the football for a really long time. It’s a bittersweet moment; you get the culmination of a long season and the end pre-planned Sundays. Weekends will be wide open now.
I don’t really have a rooting interest in the Big Game. Not a big fan of the Ravens and not a big fan of 49er fans (where were you guys during the Shaun Hill era?). But rooting for injuries is just bad form, so I figure I’ll root for the team who gets in the whole first. I just want to see 60 minutes of interesting football.
Now as amazing as Joe Flacco has been throughout the playoffs, I think he could have a monster game in the Super Bowl and it still won’t be enough. The 49ers defense is younger, quicker, more physical, and one thing no one’s talking about, is the fact that this superior defensive squad will be playing on the fast track in New Orleans. A colleague of mine called this out and I think it’s pretty important.
The Ravens are grinder squad, built to play grinder games in the wintery conditions of the AFC North. The 49ers are younger, yes, and full sunshine and speedsters. From the QB to the D, and most skills players in between, San Francisco is going to play quicker on the turf.
I think it’ll be a pretty tight game. Low scoring to start. As the jitters settle, a back and forth scoring battle should unfold. We made our final prediction awhile back and sent it off to the fine folks and Crown Royal who’ve been in New Orleans throwing fun parties and stuffing Crown Royal bags ful of goodies to send off to our troops as part of the Crown Royals Heroes Project.
One of those Crown bags featured our prediction. Here’s Playmate Tiffany with the final reveal:
Photo Credits: AP on behalf of Crown Royal
If for some crazy reason we guessed the correct outcome of the game, we’ll get a bottle of Crown Royal XR, which is damn tasty, folks!
Enjoy the game!
Championship Week: 1-1
Season ATS: 136-120-5
Feb 3rd
Crown Royal XR Review
If you’re going to buy your father a bottle of booze for his special day, why not go with something a bit classier than your standard whisky selection? Crown Royal is the top selling Canadian Whisky in the U.S., but if you’re going to pick up a bottle of Crown for your pops, why not go the extra mile and get him something finer, something smoother, something extra rare.
Crown Royal XR is limited-release blend of Crown Royal that’s sold in numbered bottled. It’s made out of the last batch of whiskies produced in the LaSalle distillery, located in Montreal. The distillery, which was built in 1924, had access to very fine water in the surrounding areas, and that smoothness is passed on to the bottle. This XR creation is the second Crown Royal XR release. The first came in 2006, and included whisky that was produced at the Waterloo distillery, another famous Canadian distillery that actually burned down in 1993.
So what does this XR stuff taste like? I think the most noticeable quality is the overwhelming smoothness of the whisky. It has some pretty strong flavors – there’s definitely some power behind the maple-nutty sweetness that starts things off, but the bite that you’d expect out of a bold, 80-proof beverage never really manifests. It’s the absence of a kick at the end that makes this whisky so nice. It just hits you with sweet, oaky flavor and follows through with a muted coating of friendliness. You expect a kick, but instead you’re served a pillow of dry, tranquil aroma.
As you’ve probably already guessed, Crown Royal XR isn’t cheap. It retails for $129.99. But if you’re looking to give the gift of extra-smooth whisky-love to your dad this Father’s Day, the price is worth it. You also get some sexy packaging – a clever bottle in a classy box with a gold silk lining that foreshadows the silky-smooth experience you’re about to enjoy. It’s better than presenting a liquor store bottle in a brown paper bag, that’s for damn sure. So this Father’s Day, get your dad something nice. Hook him up with some Extra Rare and he’ll thank you for it.
Jun 12th
