NBA Finals

I apologize for not posting anything new in a while. I'd like to say I had a reason, but I don't. I have been pretty busy lately but really, it's because anybody who knows me well knows that I'm lazy and maybe the world's biggest procrastinator. But I'm back this week to give you some new stuff.

First here's some awesome videos I stumbled upon recently:

The HBO performance in 1982 that put Sam Kinison on the map. Off the charts funny.



Adam Carolla rants about Religious Fanatics and Activists on Loveline. Again...hilarious.





The NBA Finals and Why You Should Watch
by Conor Levis

Looking back at my NBA playoff predictions in April, not too shabby! I went perfect in the first round of both conferences and predicted the entire Western Conference correctly. Orlando was the only team that screwed it up for me. I even got the amount of games right on a lot of them. But enough about my incredible predicting abilities. We all know it isn't that hard to predict the NBA playoffs when David Stern rigs it. Let's look at the NBA Finals (Note: I started writing this before the Finals started but never got around to finishing the entire post. I realize we are now 3 games in.)

Since it's too late to preview anything now, I'll just be honest and tell you that I predicted the Orlando Magic to win the Finals in 6 games. This was before I watched the first 2 games and realized that there was no chance in hell the NBA would allow the Lakers to lose and deny Kobe the opportunity to transform his legacy from a selfish, loser to a winner. Now I'm saying the Lakers are going to win in 7. It's what the NBA wants, so it's going to happen. As Celtics fans though, here's 5 reasons why we all need to root against the Lakers.
Reasons to Root Against the Lakers:

Reason Number 5 Phil Jackson is going for his 10th title as a head coach, which would pass Celtics' great Red Auerbach for most all-time. This would run the risk of Phil taking the "greatest coach ever" title from Red. Why can't think happen?

a) Phil Jackson is wildly overrated and owes all his success to Tex Winter...an assistant with Phil through the years who created the Traingle Offense. Red Auerbach literally created everything he coached back in the day. Phil just uses great players and other people's ideas. I've talked to lifelong Bulls fans and even they admit that those teams' success is owed to Winter, not Jackson. Red was a far superior basketball mind.

b) Phil Jackson won his Bulls' titles with the greatest player of all-time in Michael Jordan, and then later his Lakers' titles with arguably the most dominant big man in league history in his prime. Now he's coaching the most talented team of 2009. No coach has been put in better situations.

c) Phil isn't even coaching out there anymore. He sits down the entire game. Have you heard any of his press conferences or his in-game and post-game interviews? He doesn't even seem interested anymore. The only reason he came back to coaching is because he's dating the owner's daughter.

d) Phil has coached much longer than Red and it's taken him longer to win those titles. Red was more successful in a shorter period of time which is most impressive...but people will overlook this historically.

And of course because Red is forever the face of the Celtics. He was our guy and we don't want some hack to break his record.


Reason Number 4 Tony Battie plays for the Orlando Magic. For you Celtic bandwagonners, Battie played 6 seasons for the Celtics from 1998-2004 and the starting Center on the 2002 ECF team. I always liked Battie as a player but even if you didn't, he was the one who rushed Paul Pierce to the hospital after he was stabbed back in 2000. Saving Paul Pierce's life is a great reason to want Battie to win the title.

Reason Number 3 Orlando is the team that knocked the Celtics out of the postseason. Wouldn't you feel better if they won it all so we could say things like, "Hey, at least we lost to the champions." and "We took the champs to 7 games without KG...that means we would have won it all if we were healthy." The What If Game, one of the best games to play in sports. Also, Orlando has that whole "nobody believed in us" thing going on. Remind you of anything? Maybe the 2001 Patriots and the 2004 Red Sox? We can relate to this Orlando team better as Boston fans. Let's see if they can do it.

Reason Number 2 Kobe Bryant. The most arrogant and selfish superstar in the NBA. I'm sick of hearing about how much Kobe "wants it" and how Kobe "has a look in his eye" and how he's "like a coach out there". Will the media please stop trying to convince me that Kobe has taken the leap and has become a team player and let us enjoy the Finals? Why do they defend this guy so much anyway? This is the same guy who ran Shaq out of town, ran Phil Jackson out of town (prompting Phil to write a book trashing Kobe and how hard it was to coach him...even calling him "uncoachable" at one point.), couldn't get his team out of the first round of the playoffs with a 3-1 lead (choke), and then threw his teammates under the bus and demanded a trade, turning his back on the entire Lakers' organization and the city of Los Angeles. The fans even booed him for the first week of that season. Now 2 seasons later everyone is trying to defend him. Can we stop? Kobe isn't a good teammate and he will never be a good teammate. He's one of the most talented offensive players in the game and that's it. He's overrated defensively and he might shoot the ball anywhere from 20-35 times a night. It makes me sick when people say he's better than Lebron and when the cameras are always there to catch him when he greets his wife with a hug and kiss out back in attempt to restore his image. Just stop! He isn't a good person, if he was, he wouldn't have cheated on his wife and raped that girl. Why are you all trying to defend him!?

Enough about Kobe, please.

The thing that irks me the most though is this random label that Kobe acquired last season as the league's best "closer" or finisher at the end of games. First of all, when and how did he get it? Did they decide to give it to him because he had one great close out game against San Antonio in the Western Conference Finals? I just remember it being talked about on all the sports shows for like a week after the Western Conference Finals last season and thinking, "Where did this all come from?" I can't remember a clutch moment from Kobe in the last 5 seasons other than the 2004 buzzer beaters against Phoenix in Game 4 of the 1st round. I did some research at 82games.com and found the following stats to disprove Kobe as the league's best "closer":

• Kobe has the worst shooting percentage of any player in crunch time since 2003.
• Kobe has missed the most game winning shots of any player in the league since 2003.
• Kobe has the most turnovers in clutch moments than any player in the league since 2o03
• Carmelo Anthony is statistically the most clutch player in the league.

So can we please stop giving Kobe this undeserved title as the game's best finisher? It's easy to make shots when the crowd is going crazy and you're team is up by 4 or 5. Let's see Kobe make some shots when his team absolutely needs it. Stop trying to boost Kobe's reputation for whatever reason.

As you can see, I am not a Kobe Bryant fan. I bet you're wondering what the number 1 reason is now...


Reason Number 1 IT'S THE FREAKING LAKERS! We hate this team's guts, always have, always will. It would be like rooting for the Yankees. If that isn't reason enough, you are not a Celtics' fan.


So there you have it, the 5 reasons why you should watch and cheer for the Orlando Magic to win the 2009 NBA Finals. I'm not willing to count them out just yet either. If anyone can come back from a series deficit, it's this team. If they catch fire at any point in the series, look out. That is if David Stern will let them play it out the right way.