Just some last impressions of the NBA Finals…

First of all, I would like to say that I was completely wrong. The Lakers are an embarrassment, and Kobe should be ashamed of himself. The Celtics are gods, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches should now be consumed by all athletes prior to any competition (including the spelling bee).   Leon Powe should be memorialized in at least 28 cities nation wide.  Doc Rivers’ voice should be recorded for use on all Tom Tom’s, Garmins, and, come to think of it, all GPS systems portable or otherwise.  But most of all… the city of Boston is a city of champions, which should always and forever be remembered!

OK, so now that I’m done watching Super Bowl XLII twelve times (God, Eli is a dreamboat)… down to business.  I had said after game one that I was more willing to blame Kobe’s poor performance on him than accredit it to the Celtic’s D.  Now, I will concede that the Celtic’s defense did a very good job containing The Artist Formally Known as Kobe, but at the same time…I can’t give them all the credit. The fact of the matter is (and this fact was drilled into our heads about 1,000 times during this series by the announcers) that Kobe is “the best player on the planet”, the Superman in basketball sneaks, the creme de la creme.   So, assuming this is the case (which I previously thought it to be) shouldn’t he be able to go off for more than 6 minutes in a game?? Shouldn’t he be able to get to the rim more than like, twice in a game.  Shouldn’t he consistently be able to put up 18 footers, and when he does, knock them down?   This was not the Kobe I know and love, and to be honest, I lost a lot of respect for him.  People love to compare him Michael, and although I hate to even bring that comparison up, it’s too late,  my delete button is broken.  The Artist is no Michael.  I think all that can be put to bed forever.  At no point in this series, not even for one game (not even for one quarter!), did The Artist take his team on his back and say “fuck it, we are not losing”.  Not only that, The Lakers were embarrassed, for lack of a harsher word, in game 6, and disgraced the NBA Finals.   Abysmal.  Regardless of his bickering with teammates and all the scowling, let’s just talk about basketball.   With the exception of game 3, which was an ugly game, The Artist didn’t shoot more than 7 free throws in a game.  7!  KOBE BRYANT!  NBA FINALS!  Only shot 50% from the field one time… game 3.  Not only did he look over-matched, he surprisingly looked uninterested.   Just… disappointing… I expected a much better series.

…Which brings me to my next point…  The Lakers supporting cast.  Dreadful.  Gasol is a big, Spanish vagina.  Odom is good for some really solid 1st half play… sometimes… and some really uninspired/scared second half play… always.  Luke Walton is terrible (no elaboration needed there).  And don’t even get me started on Vladamir Radmanovic, who, if I were Mitch Kupchak, I’d be working on his deportation papers this very moment.  He is beyond useless, he is a detriment.  All the more reason why I can’t, for the life of me, understand why Kobe never took it over.

…Which brings me to my next point… The Lakers Defense.  In a word… Are you fuckin kidding me, are you even trying out there or just waiting to get the ball back on offense because that’s more fun?  They had no discipline.  No one could guard any Celtic straight up.  The help defense was nonexistent, and often manifested itself in a bad/desperate foul.  On broken plays and second chance opportunities for the Celtics, they seemed to all chase after the ball, running around like chickens with no heads, while the Celtics patiently passed the ball around and ended up with an open layup (which the Lakers usually committed a bad foul on anyway, leading to a 3 point play).

Plain and simple, the Lakers did not deserve to win the NBA Championship.

Now to the Celtics.  I was very impressed with Rajon Rondo.  He is gonna be a good one.  Also very impressed with Ray Ray.  He wasn’t quite the Jesus of old, but he came awfully close, he had a very good series.  KG was KG,  more or less (the only Celtic I’m actually happy for).  Pierce was Pierce.  Very impressed with his defense, and he hit big shots when he had to.  And as I said earlier, Leon Powe is a MAN among boys.  It’s nice to see defense still wins championships.

I won’t go so far as to say congratulations to Celtics fans, but I will say this… Way to go, you were the least bad team in this year’s NBA Finals.  And you gave Knicks fans everywhere hope that it can be done…. it can be done.