Last week’s NBA Finals should go down as one of the biggest disappointments in league history. Lakers-Celtics was supposed to rekindle the drama and mystique of the Finals; a match-up steeped in tradition, the best team from each conference squaring off in a best-of-seven, no-holes-bared, knockout, high-caliber glitz-fest. The glitz was plentiful, but the high-caliber basketball never really materialized.
Instead, fans were treated to maddeningly inconsistent play. Both teams shuffled between periods of tentative and then dominant basketball. Pau Gasol looked like Tim Duncan one night and then Luc Longley the next. I’m not sure Lamar Odom really ever checked into the series to begin with. Kevin Garnet was at once an offensive force and the next a liability.
This frustrating hodgepodge of championship caliber basketball mixed in with junior varsity incompetence was all going to end, according to ESPN’s Michael Wilbon, with a drag-out, put-it-on-record, overtime beauty in Boston for game 6. Both teams would finally put it together for a full 48 minutes and NBA fans would be treated to what they had deserved since game 1. Unfortunately, someone forgot to pass the memo on to the Lakers, who win the award for largest egg laid in Finals history. The Kobe-Bryant-“lead” Lakers never showed up. Period. In the biggest game of many players’ careers, it was a baffling and almost depressing display. Bryant, who from now on shall never, ever again be mentioned in the same breath as Michael Jordan (can you imagine Jordan choking so royally during his team’s season-deciding game?) brought all the fire and machismo of a garden snail to the proceedings. The Lakers showed no interest in taking the game and, consequently, wilted in the face of the Celtics’ game 6 passion and desire.
In summation, the 2008 Finals fell far, far short of our lofty expectations. As an NBA fan I felt let down and terribly disappointed. But as a life-long Celtics fan, one who has suffered through the careers of Dino Rajda, Pervis Ellison, and Antoine Walker, well, excuse me while I light up this cigar.