Ames Progressive

It’s Beantown vs. Tinseltown. Havlicek vs. West. Russell vs. Chamberlain. Magic vs. Bird. And now, the Big Three vs. Kobe. Pump that hype machine with vintage clips from the ‘80s. Rev the engines with commentary from the greats. Keep it coming at a heart-attack pace before that first surreal tip-off incites a manic frenzy in Boston the likes this wide-eyed boy from Queens has never seen before.

But just as a chronicled rivalry creates the ideal match-up for the culmination to this NBA season, one cannot forget the recent history associated wit the series that hopefully turns the next couple of weeks into Xanadu for us bball junkies.

Two seasons ago seemed to mark a turnaround for the league as the stellar draft class of ‘03 (LeBron, Melo, Wade and Bosh) matured into primetime players. Wade’s earlier-than-expected entry into superstardom prompted this blogger to predict an accelerated leap for LeBron in his game and title pursuits. The King reached the finals last season, however, playing in a feeble conference, the Cavs embarrassed themselves and LeBron regressed during a four-game sweep against the Spurs due to a not-ready-for-primetime jump shot.

To exacerbate the situation, news leaked that an official bet on playoff games, and in the next line of terrible teammates to join Bonds and TO, Kobe used the mismatched finals to air his discontent with the Lakers and announce his intentions to leave L.A. Forget needing damage control, David Stern desperately required assistance from a deity or possibly The Wolf.

Nothing seems to revive optimism quite like an old fashioned blockbuster trade. Not long ago I lamented the fact that two future hall-of-famers were languishing on lottery-bound teams while playing in the latter prime of their careers. The Allen Iverson move to Denver last season failed to provide more than a first-round exit for the Answer. However, a move worthy of backroom happenings in D.C. landed the Big Ticket in a much more title-conducive atmosphere than Iverson.

After acquiring one of the best shooters of our time in Ray Allen on draft night, the Celts’ GM, Danny Ainge, contacted former Celtic great and current GM of Minnesota, Kevin McHale to eventually work out a team-clearing trade for Garnett. And we know what happened after that as Boston’s new Big Three, KG, Allen and Paul Pierce need only four more wins to reach the pinnacle of their careers.

From an off-season steal to dead-line larceny, former Laker great turned Memphis GM, Jerry West, who no longer has official ties with the Grizzlies, is believed to be the main conspirator behind a trade that reshaped the season in possibly the best conference since the NBA-ABA merger some 30 years ago.
Kobe’s initial calls for a trade seemed to indicate a possible move to Chicago. Fortunately for those Hollywood A List celebrities packing the Staples Center, the emergence of Laker’s center Andrew Bynum, who at 20 years old cannot legally consume alcohol in the States, kept the Lakers competitive during the first couple of months of the season. Bynum temporarily satiated Kobe but with the big man going down in January, Laker GM Mitch Kupchak worked quickly to acquire the big Spaniard.

Pau Gasol might have gone 0-12 during the postseason with the Grizzlies but a Rookie of the Year Award and plenty of accomplishments in international play merit him an All-Star. Team him with the Black Mamba, the Zen Master and drop Lamar Odom to a more comfortable position as the third scoring option and the Lakers managed to sneak past last year’s defending champs and take the West.

This gift to us NBA fans might have come wrapped in a bow but it didn’t arrive first class. Both teams earned a trip to the finals by taking down legitimate contenders. And while lack of economic compensation deters me from laying out the highlights of this season, I say with little ambiguity that this season ups my gratitude for following this league for nearly 20 years to an immeasurable altitude.

The Tale of the Tape

So much has been written and said heading into this series so I’m going to break it down simply and succinctly.

Point Guard: Rondo vs. Fisher. Possibly the one match-up with the highest reward for the Lakers. Rondo’s ability to facilitate remains the biggest surprise for the C’s all season but he has lost his poise at times during the postseason, as any second-year quarterback would. Kobe needed some reminder other than Phil Jackson from the Laker title teams of earlier this decade to enter the fray. Fisher’s pedigree and defensive aptitude could prove vital for L.A.

Edge: Lakers

Shooting Guard: Allen vs. Kobe. James Posey came up with arguably the biggest play of the Eastern Conference finals when he stripped Tayshaun Prince in the backcourt during the fourth quarter of Game Six. Posey undoubtedly can match-up with Kobe but that would force Doc Rivers to bench Allen during crucial moments. A conundrum that makes a best-of-seven-series so intriguing as adjustments after every game mean everything. I see Posey almost splitting time with Allen. Don’t know if Boston can win with the Big Three minimized to a duo.

Edge: Lakers

Small Forward: Pierce vs. Radmanovich. I do not place Pierce’s 41 points in Game Seven against the Cavs as one of the top post-season- performances that I have witnessed, however, the Truth entered the Detroit series with a calm demeanor that has eliminated his emotional volatility. Every pundit with a voice predicts Kobe winning finals MVP for L.A. and Pierce for Boston rather than KG. Whether Radmanovich or Sasha Vujacic guard the bulky forward, Kobe will need to help with a double without cheating too much on Allen or Posey to minimize the mismatch.

Edge: Boston

Power Forward: KG vs. Odom. I used to feel that Lamar Odom did not maximize his freaky athletic body but the Christ the King product plays a Scottie Pippen free safety role in the Triangle Offense by coming from the wing and attacking the basket on a more frequent basis since the Gasol trade. Question now concerns Odom’s perimeter defense as KG has been deadly from 18 feet throughout his whole career. A tough match-up to envision but Odom can handle Garnett somewhat.

Edge: Celtics

Center: Perkins vs. Gasol. Perkins continues to impress and it is a certainty that with an offensively deficient center like Eddy Curry playing the five, the Celts would be done by now. Gasol baffles me with his passivity in the post but could be the best passing big man I have ever seen. I call this a push with a clause that Doc cannot depend tremendously on guys like Big Baby and Leon Powe to deliver at crucial moments, and instead plays Perkins as much as Phil plays Gasol.

Edge: Push.

I purposely left the edge from the starting match-ups as a push to prove the Lakers will win the series based on the next two components.

Coaches: Rivers vs. Jackson. Doc could study film for the next five years and give up sleeping, eating and family time completely and still lose this match-up. Most peers in New York despise Jackson despite his time as a player with the championship Knicks simply based on surrounding talent as he had the luxury of coaching possibly the greatest player of all time, the best big man of the past 15 years and now another assassin with an innate clutch feel. I tire easily from defending the Buddhist’s sterling record that turned the Bulls and Lakers into dynasties after the coaching predecessors failed to do so. To save on verbosity, I point only to the second quarter of Game Five against the Spurs as proof that Jackson understands the apprentice/mentor relationship like only an observer of Eastern spirituality could. Despite trailing 3-1 in the series and playing on the road, San Antonio busted open a 20-point first-quarter lead. A couple of more Duncan baskets and the series could have swung back to Texas. Most coaches would have been tempted to alter their usual routine and place a tourniquet on the situation but Phil kept confident and brought in his second unit to start the second, as is his usual custom, and benched Kobe. Allowing me to segue oh so seamlessly.

Bench: Vujacic, Walton, Farmar, Turiaf vs. Posey, Brown and who knows who else.
Jordan Farmar’s energy along with crisp passing by Luke Walton, precise shooting by Vujacic and a cerebral big man in Ronnie Turiaf brought the Lakers back into that aforementioned game and presented a ripe situation for Kobe to unleash the fury and bury the Spurs.

Final Verdict: The bench and coaching, along with outplaying their competitive opponents noticeably thus far in the playoffs, gives the Lakers an edge that will be enough for them to win in five.

But this is where mind vs. instinct furiously engage in a vicious tangle. As the mind suggests L.A. the instincts roar Boston. The Celts’ roundabout journey to the finals with six consecutive road losses to start the postseason against inferior teams combined with the unpredictability of Allen can convince any cynic that the Celtic mystique remains a huge reason for 16 franchise titles.

Then there’s what’s at stake. For Phil, he can break a tie with Boston legend Red Auerbach for most coaching titles as Jackson collected six with Chicago before winning three with L.A. Kobe could join Jordan in completing the ultimate season by winning MVP of the regular season and the finals and then taking home gold in the Olympics, as Jordan accomplished the trifecta in ‘92. But the thing with the Lakers is that of the nine players seeing action for the team during the postseason, only Fisher is over 30 years of age (33). With Bynum expected to return next season, the prospect of starting him next to Gasol and Odom in the frontcourt almost guarantees they will be the prohibitive favorite to capture it all.

Boston’s home-court advantage plays huge with the 2-3-2 format, and with the home team dominating play thus far, the Celts slim the margin separating these two teams. But then there’s the narrowing window closing on the title aspirations of the Big Three, who all entered the league in the mid ‘90s. Allen and Garnett, 32, and Pierce, 30, have authored a tremendous season. A season with little disappointment. A season that started in Europe with Rivers banning all cell phones, thus forcing the team to bond. This a team linked together and thriving on the urgency of the moment. I struggle to see what next year holds and I’m sure that specter that presently motivates, could easily haunt in a couple of weeks. I think we all understand that life’s course usually benefits when logic takes over and human emotion dims into a flickering afterthought. But this is a writer who places a premium on the indefinable. Jordan was Jordan because of moments like these and many expect Kobe to be Kobe in this series and tie his former gregarious teammate by winning his fourth title. But this is KG’s time. Pierce’s time. Allen’s time. They appreciate where they are and with Boston embracing the underdog role, they will prevail.

Boston in Seven. Holy shit!

Further commentary for my progressive brethren eager to breakdown the vane barriers preventing unity: Since their last epic finals showdown in ‘87, Hollywood released the definitive anti-racism movie in American History X. A classic scene involves the Aryan, Ed Norton, arguing with the African-American, Guy Torry, about which was a better team in the ‘80s - the Celtics or the Lakers, as the two fold underwear in a prison. Norton backs the white-bread C’s as Torry favors the black-led Lakers. The argument eventually turns to laughs as the two bust on the how ugly those players were with Norton calling James Worthy’s head a melon.

Now Sam Cassell might resemble an alien and Vujacic wears a headband courtesy of the Lakers cheerleaders but disfigured appearances aside, there is no longer a white-black rivalry with these teams. In fact, the globalization disproves a stigma that only African American youths from urban areas flourish in basketball. Credit to writers who point out these progressive facts but unfortunately the last race-related story I read in sports dealt with the lack of African Americans in baseball.

I know the peachy stories do not find their way into the daily tabloids but the emergence of mixed martial arts as a sport that attracts people from all social cloths there is hope for purists like me who know the positive deserves as much attention as the negative.

Lastly, I read recently that while many attribute the moribund Red Sox curse to the Babe, a more rational reason involves racism as Boston was the last team in the MLB to integrate. Boston has now embraced two Dominicans in Big Papi and Manny and now lionize three dark-skinned athletes that, if my prediction rings true, will enter Celtic lure.

To end this opus with some catchy and inspiring lyrics by the White Stripes I say:

Well, Americans:
What, nothin’ better to do?
Why don’t you kick yourself out?
You’re an immigrant too.