It seems like old times. The Lakers and Celtics have returned to the NBA finals for the first time since Larry Legend and Magic were dominating the NBA and the league couldn’t be happier.
A Lakers-Celtics final most likely means better ratings than in recent years, and it should mean some good basketball, likely a seven-game finals with the Lakers coming out on top because they have the game’s best player and best late-game player (Kobe Bryant).
As a Knicks fan, I find myself in a quandary. Aside from the Bulls and the Heat, there are no two teams Knicks fans despise more (maybe the old Bullets), no teams that had thwarted more Knick fan dreams than the Lakers and the Celtics — the two have played each other 10 times in the finals, with the Lakers winning only the last two (’84-’85 and ’86-’87) and have combined for a total of 49 appearances in the finals (that’s 39 times that at least one of the two teams have been in the finals in 60 years of NBA history, with 29 total championships). It puts the Yankees to shame.
That said, I’m going to root for the Celtics this time out. Kobe has his rings. But Kevin Garnett, one of the greatest players in history — and, from what I read, one of the nicest — does not. He is making his first finals appearance and I look for him to come up big. He does it all — score, rebound, block shots, pass, defend — and he is surrounded by a pair of lethal scorers and some young and hungry guys.
I still think the Lakers are going to win, but I think Garnett deserves this one.
Hank Kalet 