Seriously?
As happy as Boston-area weed dealers and hairdressers are that they now get to hang around with a vaunted pillar of the basketball society, I think it's time to address the fact that it is more than an injustice for this guy to get to say that he is a World Champion.
That, and, I really don't have a whole lot to say about the latter half of the playoffs.
The Kobes played great against the Spurs, and were given a game due to Joey Crawford's long-standing hatred of the team. I'm really not sure how Joey Crawford is still allowed to be a ref for Spurs game, but it's ridiculous that he is. I echoed Brent "Bones" Barry's sarcasm after the NBA admitted he was fouled by Derek Fisher at the end of the game in question when he said, "Oh really? Awesome! Because Doc Brown's waiting outside, we're gonna hop in the Delorean, fire up the Flux Capacitor, go back in time, and shoot some free throws!" Apologizing is well and good, especially when a mistake is made, but let's try to prevent such things from happening. Namely, don't let Joey Crawford in the time zone where the Spurs are playing.
The Celtics took it to the Pistons. I was pretty disappointed at the level of play from the Motowns. I just simply expected more. I mean, the Hawks take the C's to seven, with Joe Johnson and Josh Smith making everybody look stupid, then the Cavs take them to seven, with LeBron doing some amazing work, especially in that deciding game, and then the Pistons get blown out? What's going on?
Finally, it seems that the Celtics got their acts together in the finals. Ray Allen made a jump shot, P-double played great, Garnett was brilliant at times, but always made up for his non-brilliance by committing himself to intangibles.
Also, Kobe was outmatched. He may be the best player alive, but he can't beat the best defensive team, with the best defensive player, by himself. As great as that (un)supporting cast played against the Spurs, they were horrendous in the Finals. What's more, is that Kobe's true leadership colors showed through. If you rewatch these games for any reason (you would have to have them on tape, because they all sucked, and won't be on ESPNClassic or NBA Hardwood Classics anytime soon), a main thing to notice is the difference in camaraderie between the two teams. Every timeout, the Celtics are in the huddle, doing something homoerotic (ass-slapping, hugging, whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears). Every time the Lakers got together, which they rarely did, there were nothing but scowls and shouting. Even Jordan Farmar was barking at his teammates at one point in time. The team needed Kobe, not to score points and be great, but to rally them. It would have been a great confidence boost to lousy-shooting-Lamar and Pau-erless to have the best player in the world tell them to keep their heads up and to keep trying. But he didn't. He was too worried about PR stunts like kissing his daughters in the tunnel on the way to the locker room during halftime. Furthermore, 100% of Celtics players that ended up on the floor were helped to their feet by teammates. Nearly none of the Lakers were afforded the same courtesy.
Regardless, this was quite the anti-climatic season. The regular season was unbelievable, but then the best playoff game was first round, Game 1, Spurs-Suns. There were a couple of good Magic-Pistons games, and Game 7 of Celtics-Cavaliers was an entertaining shoot-out, but they pretty much paled in comparison to that first game. And then it ended with those two teams, which gave us really nothing to watch. Thanks for nothing.
The draft is coming up today, and if need be, I might post a little freestyle by a guy named Shaq.
The NBA: Where tasting asses happens.
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