Empire v. Empire

This gets old pretty quickly. A Celtics-Lakers matchup in the finals — feels like we’ve been here before.

The teams have matched up 11 times, with the Celtics winning nine. Boston has won 17 titles, the Lakers 15 — for a total of 32 of 63 titles overall. The Celtics dominated in the ’50s and ’60s, winning 12 of their championships; the Lakers have been more dominant more recently first behind Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar and more recently behind Shaq and Kobe.

So, here we have another go.

This should be a good series. Kobe Bryant is the league’s dominant big-game player and he has an able supporting cast led by Pau Gasol in the paint. The Celtics are deep, boast one of the best young guards in the game (Rondo) and feature a trio of superstar veterans with varied talents.

I’m going to pick the Celtics because they can play suffocating defense, but this thing is going seven.

And I’m going to root for both teams to lose. As a Knicks fan, I have no other choice. If this were “Star Wars,” both of these teams would be the Evil Empire.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.
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Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

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