June 17th, 2008. Exactly two years to do the day. Do you remember where you were? I do. I was sitting in my Columbus, Ohio, apartment, alone. I prefer to watch Lakers games like that, because I’m an emotional wreck during them… especially any game of significance. A lot of people in Ohio weren’t born in LA, began their life there, and were raised as a Lakers fan. Sure, there are some people that follow them because they’re good at the sport of basketball, but there aren’t too many people in Ohio that pump Forum Blue and Gold through their veins like I do. Not claiming I’m the greatest Lakers fan in the world, far from it, but I simply care way too much about something that, at the end of the day, amounts to a children’s game.
June 17th, 2008. There I sat. It was Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals. The Lakers, after having suffered the worst collapse since the Dallas Cowboy’s practice facility during Game 4, had rallied back to stave of elimination on their own court during Game 5, and forced the series back to Boston. The Lakers were trailing 3-2; we were down, but not out. I never doubt the Lakers. Something about having 15 NBA Banners hanging from the rafters (and knowing there could be as many as 31), has me always seeing the best. It’s basically the exact opposite of being a Cleveland Browns fan. (That is until Jake Delhome, Pro-Bowl QB, leads the Browns to their first Super Bowl Victory, but I digress).
It didn’t take long to realize there would be no Game 7. The Boston Celtics, fielding the ugliest team that had ever seen the game of basketball, swarmed Kobe on defense. They punked Pau Gasol. Lamar Odom, suffering from some knee issues, may have been smoking weed on the beach back in LA.
Things got hectic pretty quick, and by midway through the 3rd quarter, things had taken a turn for the worst. There were the 2008 Celtics, a hastily assembled, from rags-to-riches, trash-talking, chest-thumping, show-boating team, just straight mauling their way to their first championship in over 20 years. The Lakers quit. They did. There is no way around it. Everybody in a Lakers uniform quit by the end of the 3rd quarter. It was without a doubt, the lowest point of my Lakers fandom. And I once watched Smush Parker start a play-off game.
I turned the game off. It’s a creed of mine, always staying until the end, but I just couldn’t. I hate the Celtics too much. I mean, I loathe them. It was the equivolent of watching my brother get beat with a bat and burried in a cornfield.
I turned the game off. I didn’t even see Kevin Garnett’s “ANYTHING IS POSSSIBLEEEE” post-game interview, and if I had, I may have walked into oncoming traffic.
I was a wreck for about two weeks after that. I was so confident going into the series–and bam–just like that, I was punched in the gut. It was the worst feeling in the world.
How could the Basketball Gods reward the Boston Celtics like that? Kevin Garnett had been “traded” to Boston by one of the greatest Celtics of all time! They were obnoxious, classless, one of the biggest cheap-shotting, ref-baiting group of clowns ever seen on an NBA court. They deserved to lift the same trophy that Magic Johnson used to lift? How could it come to this?
And their fans. Don’t even get me started on the Boston Celtics fans. There they were, announcers raving about the “old school, die hard” Boston fan base. What a crock. A year prior to that, Kobe Bryant was getting “M-V-P” chants (before people like Zach Randolph and Dwight Howard were getting them) in the Garden. It’s true. Youtube it, and you will see for yourself. Red Auerbach probably rolled over in his grave. Actually, you don’t get graves when your soul has been damned into eternal fire and brimstone, so forget I even said that.
Next: Learning From the Past…
It was just a joke of a title that Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen didn’t deserve to win. They were the core of one of the biggest circus teams in recent memory (until they acquired the likes of Stephon Marbury and Nate Robinson, but more on that later) and their fans proved to be just as big as front-runners as Phoenix Suns fans.
Yes, I’m still bitter about June 17th, 2008.
June 17th, 2010, the Lakers stand one game away from vanquishing the Celtics in an even more ruthless fashion. And I think I’ve figured out why the Basketball Gods rewarded the Boston Celtics with the 2008 title. Because, it’s that much more painful to lose something that you had and you valued. And the trap door is about to kick out from the Boston Celtics franchise.
It started with Kevin Garnett’s knee. Has anyone ever heard an official diagnosis on his knee problems, other than “Father Time Tonya Harding’ed him in Utah?” The “warrior”, who picks on the likes of Yi Jianlian and Zaza Pachulia, has been robbed of all the athleticism that once made him one of the most feared players in the league. Except during crunch times of big games–because you see, Kevin Garnett wants no part of that. He never has. That’s why he shoots fade-aways and defers to his teammates. The Universe has funny ways of extracting karma from people who do a good job at accruing bad karma. I haven’t seen somebody lose so much talent so fast since the MonStars ganked Mugsy Bogues’ skills in SpaceJam.
Then in 2009, with the Celtics struggling, they took a waiver on Stephon Marbury, a guy who once ate vaseline on the internet and one of the biggest clowns that the NBA has ever seen. Red Auerbach, again, if he had a soul, it would be rolling in his grave. The Celtics basically threw out any old school principles they ever claimed to stand on.
They got exactly what was coming to them. A second round elimination to the Orlando Magic. All the while, Garnett “stood” on the sidelines, barking with buldging eyes, attempting to stay relevant.
Next: Dealing With the Present…
Fast forward to 2010. The Boston Celtics, the biggest punk champions ever, had been exposed. And when you’re arrogant on top, people will swarm you when you fall. And make no mistake, the Boston Celtics were routinely punked throughout the season. They signed the likes of Rasheed Wallace and Marquis Daniels, and traded for Nate Robinson. More me-first, as long as I get my stats, guys. Rasheed Wallace didn’t even break a sweat this year. In fact, I still have yet to see him break a sweat in the play-offs. He approached regular season games like I approach a pick-up basketball game. And that’s unacceptable when you make millions of dollars.
And so here we are. Game 7, which is appropriately in Los Angeles. You see, the Lakers appreciated the regular season and understood locking down home-court is a crucial step to locking down the title. They never mailed in games–Kobe Bryant wouldn’t allow it. Sure, they didn’t execute at times, but the effort was always there. Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics loafed, played the injury card, and found various ways to mail in the regular season. And once again, their chickens have come home to roost.
During Game 5, when Nate Robinson was making baskets, and Big Baby was getting rebounds (you know, the things they get paid millions of dollars to do), there they were–embodying new-age Celtics basketball… slobbering and show-boating all the way to the post-game pressers. There was “Shrek and Donkey”, laughing it up, while Kobe Bryant and Co. were picking themselves off the canvas. It was a game, where the Lakers shot 39% from the field, with the Celtics shooting 56%, and almost stole the game from them. (We saw how the Celtics quit when the shooting fortunes were somewhat reversed in Game 6). But, hey, you had some big plays, Shrek and Donkey, so clearly, you should enjoy the limelight. After all, that’s what you guys are playing for, the limelight.
I wasn’t surprised that the Celtics got beat like they did in Game 6. And I’m not surprised that Big Baby had as many points as I did, or that Nate Robinson played less than terrible. These guys are clowns, part of a circus that justly deserves every ounce of the harvest they’re about to reap tonight. Championship caliber basketball isn’t made for people that name themselves after animated cartoon characters based off one solid performance.
The Basketball Gods have set the Celtics up. They gave them the 2008 title, so they could feel what the top of the mountain felt like, knowing their clownish and borish ways would do them in. I have no doubt they egged Quentin Richardson on to meander over to the bench during the first round and awake the 2010 Celtics. Even their own fans had written them off–the TD Banknorth Garden turning into the mausoleum that it had been for the past 20 years. While it would have been fun to watch them get dumped in the second round… this is the fate that Boston has earned. This is the fate that their fans have earned. And tonight, the Boston Celtics will get exactly what they have coming to them. No more and no less.
After 2008, next to their championship banner, they hung an empty banner, as a way of motivating their players during practice. You know, because guys that make millions of dollars to play a game need motivation to strive to be the best.
I don’t know how long it will hang empty. Hell, it could be reading “2010 World Champions” by the end of the month, and the joke will be on me.
Next: Claiming Immortality…
I hope that the Basketball Gods have this Shakesperian tragedy written for the Celtics. The Celtics have been exposed. Did anybody see the look on Paul Pierce’s face during Game 6? He looked shell-shocked. They thought they had given the Lakers the knock-out blow in Game 5, and didn’t expect the Lakers to come out with both barrels bucking. Well, times have changed. Nobody is scared of the Celtics anymore.
The pieces are in place. I was wrong about this series—I didn’t think the Celtics would battle like they are, and that’s an amateur mistake on my fault. And I could be making a mistake by counting eggs before they hatch–but Champions don’t get blown out like that in a game which could result in them getting a ring. They just don’t. The Celtics, once again, were punked, because the loudest dude thumping his chest during an altercation is never the toughest. And the Lakers, as well as the NBA, has figured it out.
Tonight, win or lose, will be the end the Big 3 “era”. Tom Thibodeau has already accepted the Bulls job. Watch the game tonight–Thibs is the one controlling the entire defense, because Doc Rivers never really figured it out. Hell, Doc Rivers may not even be there next year, after all, controlling so many egos and clowns can be taxing. The Celtics will be another year older next year too, so it basically comes down to this: one game for to achieve basketball immortality.
For the last two years, any time the Lakers have been pushed into a corner, they came out swinging and handled their business. Game 6, if the Lakers were impostors that some had began to think they were, the Lakers would have folded like a house of cards. They instead rose up and they buried the Celtics. That was the response of a champion.
With the loss of the goon Kendrick Perkins, the lanes are going to be free for the likes of Pau Gasol and the hobbling Andrew Bynum to do work. And if Gasol is going, and we get some bench points, the Lakers are almost impossible to beat at home.
I feel supremely confident about this game, and Lakers Nation should to. We’ve stuck with our team through the depths of the 2008 Finals, and now he were are, on the precipus of the mountain top once again. I have a feeling that the Basketball Gods brought the Celtics and their fans with us, only to kick them down the mountain again. But, this is why we play the game.
Lakers by 12+. Artest locks down Pierce, Bryant with a virtuoso performance, and Gasol rises to the occasion. We don’t need anything more. We’re better than this team and in their black hearts, they know it too.
Enjoy the game, guys. And as always, GO LAKERS.
Follow me on Twitter, @fictionalDJ