The NBA finals ended last week, but I didn't have the time to blog about it until now. Plus, the Lakers won. So I thought what's the hurry! The most interesting part of that game 7 might have been Ron Artest's post-game interview. The dude from Queensbridge went crazy in his post-game presser. The guy is genuine and all real. He may be crazy, but what you see is what you get with him. It was classic when he said "the zen master was in my ears saying don't shoot and I was like whatever and shot the ball". Funny! He also spoke about how he feels like he let down his Indiana teammates back in the day when they were good before he jumped into the crowd in Detroit. He had 20-5-1-5 in game 7 and those 5 steals were critical. He finally came through for the Lakers after a spotty season and an even worse playoffs. Every team in the playoffs left him open as they had to double and triple Kobe. They wanted him to shoot and he often obliged and clanked the ball off the rim. But in game 7, he made a lot of those shots. I am happy for him. He seems like a good guy, though I wouldn't accuse him of being smart or intelligent.
As for the game itself, it went exactly like I expected - hard-fought, defensive struggle with a lot of missed shots with the home team eventually winning the contest. The pressure is so high, very few guys hit open shots in such game 7 contests. Even Kobe couldn't make his shots and Gasol and him combined to shoot 12/40. But the Celtics were not able to take advantage. Things looked too good to be true when they went up by 13 in the second half. Unfortunately for a Laker hater like me, it was. Celtics blew it all as they couldn't hit timely shots late in the third and all of the fourth quarter. Nobody except Garnett shot a decent percentage and Allen and Pierce couldn't hit anything late in the game. The final score of 83-79 meant we got a good game, but also a disappointing result. If Kobe has lost this one, he would never be compared to Jordan. He would have been 4-3 in the finals and thats barely batting .500 in finals. While making it to 7 finals is awesome, America loves winners and MJ's 6-0 would have been untouchable. Even now his Airness is untouchable, but if Kobe is 5-2 in finals. One more ring, he has just as many as MJ and 2 more, he has more than his Airness! Then the media might start MJ-V-Kobe discussion all over again.
I feel like MJ's legacy is a little threatened, though Kobe has to win 2 more before we entertain that argument. Right now, the argument is about his place in the Lakers history. Some people say he is the best Lakers ever and some don't agree. The argument against is Magic, Jerry West and even Kareem. I don't care either way, but I think he is close to being the best Laker ever. Kobe also made it a point to mention he has 1 more ring than Shaq. Shaq is all nice now after rapping about "Kobe can't do it without me" in 2008. Kobe has finally done it without Shaq and done it twice and done it back to back. May be Pau should now rap"Kobe can't do it without me". Kobe has a lot of talent around him, but he still deserves a lot of credit obviously. He plays hard, helps defensively and he badly wants to win. Thats a coach's dream. His game is still at peak or near peak. He is going to decline soon because of all the mileage, but he probably has one or max 2 more years at this level. I hope LeBron overtakes Kobe and takes the baton soon. But looking at the King's behavior, he may not get the job done this year or next. I am very curious to see how long Kobe stretches his effectiveness at this age.
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