They're Back

LAKERS – CELTICS RENEW HISTORIC RIVALRY

They’re at it again. For the 2^nd time in 3 years, it’s the Lakers playing the Celtics for the NBA Championship. Evoking memories of Russell and Wilt, Cousy and West, Magic and Bird, the current generation of Celtics and Lakers are ready to write their own chapter in the book of this historic rivalry. It’s Kobe versus Pierce, Allen against Fisher, and KG against Gasol. The Celtics beat the Lakers in 2008 and the Lakers won the championship last year by beating Orlando in 2009. Consider it a rubber match of sorts. And what’s scary is that if Kevin Garnett had not been injured in 2009, this probably would be the third meeting of the two teams in the same number of years. That would have made history on par with the epic Lakers – Celtics encounters of the 60’s and 80’s. The rivalry is renewed as the golden franchises of the league are doing battle again. What fan could not rejoice in this basketball bliss.

As a hard-core Celtic fan, it doesn’t get better than this. I grew up watching the NBA in the 70s, but my interest, like most hard-core fanatics of the game, was elevated to a completely different level with the arrival of Bird and Magic to the NBA in the early 80’s. There were other players for sure, but these two not only defined the decade, but are considered to have rejuvenated a league besieged by

all kinds of problems. (The recent book about Magic and Bird written by Jackie McMullan adds more convincing evidence to this argumet.) To add regional interest, one of the great Celtics of that time, Kevin McHale, played with the Gophers at the same time that I attended the University of Minnesota. The lanky 6’10” “Iron Ranger” was as unstoppable a power forward as has ever played. Together with Robert ‘The Chief’ Parish and Larry Bird, they are considered the greatest frontline in the history of basketball. At the other coast, Magic and the “showtime” Lakers were actually the better team of the decade, winning 5 championships to the Lakers’ 3. The great thing about that matchup is that it was the Magic versus Bird rivalry. Magic is considered the best point-guard ever, Bird is considered the best small forward ever, and no basketball fan will ever argue that point.

So this is it, the stage is once again set. To borrow the infamous 80’s Laker moniker, it is showtime !

Expect at least 6, if not 7 evenly matched games. There may be a couple of mismatches, but both coaches and coaching staffs are too good and are adept at making the kind of subtle adjustments that negate the other team’s advantages. I seriously can’t see any team winning a couple in a row in this matchup.

This series is riddled with a number of astonishing matchups not only between players, but between coaches, assistant coaches, organizations, playing philosophies, and of course basketball tradition.

The matchup between coaches features the Grandmaster against the upstart, the Zen Master against the player’s coach.

Philosophically this is a matchup between the offensive genius of the triangle versus the best defense of the last decade, architected by Tim Thibodeau. LA can score and Boston can prevent you from scoring. LA’s finesse against Boston’s ruggedness.

The player matchups are all fascinating, but the two key matchups according to all of the experts are Artest vs Pierce and Gasol vs. Garnett.

Pierce has also been playing great basketball, but he faces a huge obstacle in Artest, who is easily the finest defensive player of a generation, and who was specifically brought in to defend Pierce in the Finals. But Pierce is a Laker killer, a native of Inglewood who grew up idolizing Riley’s Lakers and now happens to be on the other side. He always plays great against the Lakers, and I predict he will do so in this series, Artest notwithstanding. To me, it is a simple matter of mental will. Artest is great defensively, but I do not for the moment believe he can match Pierce’s mental intensity for an entire series.

The Gasol-Garnett matchup is tricky because KG has obviously lost some hops while Gasol has gotten better offensively (and he was pretty good back in 08), but more importantly, he has gotten stronger and tougher. Vowing never to be roughed up again like the last time, I look for Gasol to be much better, but the key is if he’ll be able to maintain that level of intensity for the entire series. On the flip side, that will not be an issue for KG, who has always been known mostly for his unrivaled intensity and now has to view this as possibly the last time to win a championship to cement his own legacy for a player already considered a shoe-in for the NBA hall of fame. Look for Gasol to win the early rounds with KG coming back strong to win the fight in the middle and late rounds.

But it is the greatest understatement of all to state that the key to this whole series is Kobe Bryant. He is the best player, the most physically gifted, the best prepared mentally, the most difficult matchup. And he has been simply on fire, playing his greatest basketball in the past two series.

He is, without doubt, with no offense to LeBron James, the best basketball player playing today. He’s going for his 5^th championship in a chase with immortality in the form of the gold standard: Jordan’s 6 titles. And he is aware of the history between the two franchises, and you can bet that he doesn’t want to end up joining Baylor, West, and Chamberlain as a great Laker player that could never beat the Celtics for the championship.

To me this is simple: this is Kobe’s championship to lose.