And to you, Mr. Adebi, I regret to inform you that I will not wish the Celtics good luck.

However, you've proven to stick with them when it appeared they'd be a joke for decades to come. You've stoically stood by them all alone, with great ridicule and spite from all who despise that team. You've not wavered in your support, you've been there for them year after year, and you've been proven to be a loyal fan of that team.

So while I will not wish them good luck, I offer congratulations to you as well. Enjoy this.

Though not really a fan of either team (ok, I really don't like either of them), I couldn't help but get a little jolt of joyous nostalgia when the Celtics were chanting "Beat LA" in their locker room last night, enough that it's clear who I'll be rooting for in the finals.

As a quick history note, the "Beat LA chant" started in the old garden at the end of game 7 of the 1982 Eastern Conference Finals (the video is on youtube here). It was clear that the Sixers were going to beat the Celtics and face the Lakers in the finals, and the entire garden started chanting "Beat LA", which gave my 6-yr old self chills. The Lakers ended up destroying the Sixers in the Finals, but the chant lived on in Philadelphia. In 1983, the Sixers met the Lakers again in the Finals, and the Beat LA chant was everywhere (this time the Sixers actually did it). Then, in the Fall, the Phillies faced the Dodgers in the NLCS, again the chant was everywhere, and again the Philadelphia team pulled through. Of course, the Philly teams have been in the wilderness for much of the past 25 years, and haven't beat LA or much of anyone since then (though the chant did make a resurgence prior to the 2001 NBA finals, but that didn't last very long).

Anyway, the point of the story is that the "Beat LA" chant was a formative part of the young Philly fan experience, and I loved to see it come out again last night. Loved it enough to root for the hated Celtics against the hated Lakers (I'm fully aware of the irony that there are pretty much zero fans on earth that actually believe the Sixers have much of a rivalry with the Celtics or Lakers or anyone else anymore).

I'm sure that the Lakers will win, and I'm sure that will make me unhappy, but one of the benefits of joining OTF is that now I can take at least a little joy in the fact that a Lakers win will bring joy to the Inca family.

It's funny, after years of alternatively hating this possibility/being afraid of this possibility/dreading this possibility, I am actually excited in a way I haven't been for years. Maybe ever.

I mean I was ecstatic when the Nets made the Finals, but the outcomes definitely made me wish it didn't even happen in the first place.

This is like a movie that you hear about with a director you hate, actors you hate, and with a lame and alternatively ridiculous/pretentious premise...that turns out pretty damn good in the end.

It just comes down to the fact that it's time.

JV,

I'm completely with you on that. This is much different, for some reason, than the 2000 World Series, were my dislike for the Mets and Yankees couldn't be overcome by the interest/novelty of the matchup.

It helps, I guess, that the rivalry between these two franchises is as great as exists between any teams in the sport, and the rivalry extends back to my formative NBA-fan years.

My only qualm is that I don't expect the series to be all that competitive (Lakers in 5), which will detract from the fun, and I really, truly dislike Kobe and am not enjoying/will not enjoy the MJ comparisons that have/will dominant the post-Finals media coverage.

I didn't know that's where "Beat L.A." started, Gyuri. I'd just like to say that on behalf of all Angelenos, we love the chant. We love the hate.

I don't think it would work so much for the Dodgers now. It works best for a team that's actually good, like the Lakers. Plus, the Dodgers don't have (not anymore, at least) the glamour image to them, the celebrity fans, etc., that makes the "Beat L.A." chant about more than just the team.

As much as I hate Kobe (***JV's pro rasslin comparison alert***,) he's going through the babyface part of his career. He's been humbled, he's been humiliated, he went head-to-head with the ultimate babyface in Shaq and got his ass beat. He made an ass of himself last year, he was staring at the face of permanent irrelavince (basketball's Ken Griffey Jr, if you will.)

Now, he's shut up and doesn't have the obnoxious arrogance he's had in the past, and has found the perfect babyface tag-team partner in Pau Gasol. (If laid-back Bill Walton-hippie sideburns Pau likes him, then hell, he can't be all that bad.)

He's learned that he can't do it alone. (***JV's NASCAR analogy alert***) He wanted the keys to the car and crashed it. Now he realizes he needs a driver, a pit crew, engineers, etc. He's learned to be a team player, a team leader, and who can really hate on that (at least as vehemently as before, mind.)

Gasol is such a perfect foil to Kobe - as much as the Grizzlies got screwed, this pairing is so fun to watch and so awesome to see work together that it's a concession I can live with.

As far as the media, just watch the Chinese broadcast on sopcast. Basketball really is better without the announcers, even Marv "YESSHHH" Albert.

My favorite part of this series is that there's no big man. I believe this is the first series since the Bull's championships (vs center-less Utah, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle,) that there's no major center playing. Detroit is the only team besides Shaq or Duncan to win it this decade, and I love those 3-forward/3-guard types of teams.

I think it's going 7. 6 at least.

(As far as the 2000 World Series, it's too bad the Mets didn't make it the year before. The Game 5 - 15 inning masterpiece with one of the greatest endings of all-time with Robin Ventura's grand slam single in the rain - was one of my favorites of all time. That team would've been riding on so much emotion, and would've probably given them a better match than the Braves did.

If the 2000 series was better, maybe it would've been remembered more fondly. Instead, it's a local curiosity like the Giants-A's stinkbomb from '89.)

QUOTE:
I didn't know that's where "Beat L.A." started, Gyuri. I'd just like to say that on behalf of all Angelenos, we love the chant. We love the hate.

I definitely understand that, I wish that some Philadelphia teams were good enough to be worthy of a similar level of hate.

JV, I'm not sure Kobe is capable of being humbled. He's just less immature/selfish-seeming when he's winning (which is understandable). I'll believe he's a team player when the Lakers again hit a stumbling block, though that's unlikely this season, and, with Bynum's return, for the foreseeable future. Of course, you may be right, but my Kobe hate is so great that I am probably blind to any sort of improvement.

Gasol is the perfect foil for Kobe, one final gift from Jerry West (in my tin-foil-hate-wearing mind, he persuaded Chris Wallace to make a deal so idiotic that it wouldn't have passed in a fantasy league).

For me it's like deja vu all over again. 1987 was the year I moved to Boston, so this match-up is kind of sentimental for me.

Go Celtics!!

(did you expect me to say anything else?)

Leaving the great Lakers comeback aside, starting any game, let alone a conference finals game, at 6pm local time is a FUCKING OUTRAGE.

NBA Finals - Game 1 on ABC. Starting 9pm Eastern.

9-6 (nine minus six) to account for Pacific time which is three hours behind Eastern Standard Time means a starting time of.....FUCKING OUTRAGE for the West.

When the game is being played back east, that's fine. I was most upset about the games played in LA starting early for TV viewers on the East Coast.

I don't know how you people can stay up and watch games that late, to be honest.

We can't. Especially when they start World Series games at 9/10pm. Your only chance is from ages 18-23, or before you get your first job.

Hence, the NFL ruling over all. It's the only sport anyone can watch at a decent hour.

But Monday Night Football starts at 9pm back there, right?

Nowadays I'm usually asleep by 9pm. Most of these playoffs have seen me recording the Laker games on the DVR, watching up to halftime or so, and then finishing the games the next morning.

Yeah, but that's only one morning a week to struggle. Plus, the games are usually blowouts by halftime.

It's time.

Lakers in 5.