For the second straight year, mid June has proved that Kobe can do it without Shaq; whoopdie doo. Going into Game 7 of the NBA Finals last night we knew two things; either the Lakers would capture their fifteenth NBA title, or the Celtics would capture their nineteenth. So to draw a conclusion, after forty eight minutes of basketball there would be old news. Don't get me wrong, there were stories that were intriguing, even to the NBA fan faithful enough to be watching in June after months of dry, lazy basketball . The emergence of Rajon Rondo, the age and glory of the Celtics core players, Kobe's fifth, Jackson's eleventh, but in the end it seemed like the main story was all too familiar. Since 1984, only one team (the Miami Heat) has won an NBA Championship and only won once. Otherwise the Celtics have won three, LA eight, Chicago six, San Antonio four, Pistons three, and the Rockets two, when they repeated in the mid 90's. It has become a protocol, not a rarity, to repeat, and every year the faces in the playoff crowd are not something we can predict but a mere constant that wraps up the NBA year. So when Kobe Bryant ran down the loose ball tossed by Lamar Odom and threw his arms in the air, it could of been Paul Pierce or Rajon Rondo and I would have felt the same way. I wasn't grieving for the Celtics when the Lakers paraded around the Staples Center wood, but rather the league as a whole. A league that yearns for parody, that Thursday night, regardless of the score, took yet another step in the wrong direction.
The second part of my NBA wrap up strays away from my woes for the league and speaks to a story that is possibly inspirational, but most certainly ignored. And that is the triumph of Ron Artest. As a longtime fan of Artest, which may be a sports minority, I couldn't help but smile at him coming full circle in the NBA; from the brawl of Auburn Hills to an NBA Champion. Following his year long suspension from the league, Artest journeyed from Sacramento to Houston, and this off season found himself taking a pay cut and a reduced roll when he was traded to LA with the chance to win on the horizon. Artest played an intricate roll in LA's success as not only a lock down defender or a guy who can "shake things up," when he wrestled
Paul Pierce to the wood on the first play of the series, but also a clutch player on the offensive end; hitting a buzzer beater in Game 5 against Phoenix in the Conference Finals, and ultimately the three that would ice Game 7 and end any thoughts of a Boston comeback. In his post game interview Artest thanks his hood, and then his psychiatrist, then ranted about his rap single called "Champion, now he was one; the NBA, where amazing happens.
JD
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