Monday Morning Musing, June 15

Can't bring myself to even acknowledge this past weekend's Mile High debacle for the M's, so...

Let me first just say this: I hate Kobe Bryant (and the Lakers, as all Seattle sports fans should), but there was no team preventing his maniacal quest for a fourth NBA championship and his first without the Big Aristotle.

It's a shame. One, because Kobe won another championship. Two, because of what might have been if the Celtics were healthy.

There were only three teams with enough firepower to prevent Kobe from reaching the mountain top: The Magic, Nuggets, Celtics and Lebrons.

The Magic and Nuggets obviously weren't ready and their coaches flat-out failed them. Our old buddy George Karl, who I still stupidly defend as being a good coach (quick question: am I alone as Sonics fan who does this?), by refusing to make adjustments and not having an in-bounds play. Seriously, he didn't have an in-bounds play and it cost him at least two games. Stan Van Gundy, by refusing to play Courtney Lee and Rafer Alston during key stretches.

But aside form the coaching catastophe, really, these teams didn't have the high-pressure experience necessary to deal with Kobe's crew. Both will be back next year.

The Lebrons turned out to be just Lebron, despite all the Mo Williams hyperbole throughout the regular season, which they absolutely dominated. This, by the way, reinforces what we already know about the NBA: the regular season doesn't mean shiite. They were also let down by a coach, Mike Brown, who despite an aesthetic attempt to look smart (his Gucci glasses), failed to make any strategic adjustments throughout the Magic series. He gets the Donald Rumsfeld award for "staying the course" for absolutely no reason.

And, finally, the Celtics, oh my poor Celtics. After treating us to the two best series of the entire playoffs (against the Bulls and Magic), they simply ran out of gas after game 5 of the Magic series. And the yawning void, especially on defense, left by the injury to Kevin Garnett, completely did them in.

So, we're left with a sad "what-if" scenario with the end to this exceedingly disappointing finals. What if Garnett had come back, healthy, midway through the Magic series? What if he had provided an answer and challenge to Dwight Howard? What if the C's took out the Magic and then the Cavs and we were treated to a rematch of the 2008 finals: Lakers-Celtics, the modern version, Round 2?

Last year, the Lakers appeared just happy to be in the finals again, after a three year run of mediocrity and Kobe/Zen Master-inspired drama. Plus, they ran into an on-a-mission Celtics team with three in-their-prime superstars, including our boy Ray-Ray. The Celtics beat them like Brandon Marshall's girlfriend.

Now, to quote Bush (the band of mid-90s brief fame, not the former Idiot-and-Chief): Everyhthing Zen in the city of Angels. And like all of Phil Jackson's championship teams, the Lakers are loaded: Kobe, one of the best guards ever; two 7-footers, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, with great all-around skills and Inspector Gadget arms; another 7-footer who isn't terrible, Andrew Bynum; playoff breakout player of the season, Trevor Ariza (aka the new Boris Diaw); gritty playoff vet, the neck-less Derek Fisher; and a bunch of other serviceable NBAers like Jordan Farmar, Luke Walton and Shannon Brown.

The new peaking Lakers vs. the grizzled defending champs would have been great drama for NBA fans and an enormous boost to the league. Think about it for a second.

The Celtics lost Kobe-stopper James Posey, but that's it. They gained an improved Rajondo (my nickname, which I trademarked during the Bulls series while watching games under the influence), and two improved Bigs, in Big Baby Glen Davis and Kendrick Perkins, to go into battle with Garnett against Gasol/Bynum/Odom. There would also be Pierce vs. Kobe. And Ray vs. nobody. (By the way, it would have been incredibly interesting to have seen if Kobe would have continued with his newly adopted chin-jutting, lip-clenching, I'm-going-to-kill-a-small-animal-with-my-bare-hands scowl, which he obviously stole from Garnett.)

Those matchups, combined with the history of four decades of memorable matchups would have pushed the NBA back on top of the American sports scene. Plus, the Sports Guy's head would have exploded.

Instead, we just got Kobe celebrating for himself, on the road, against a crappy, inferior opponent. Did I mention I hate Kobe?

The NBA: where boring, predictable championships happen for self-absorbed, unlikable superstars. I just vomited in my mouth a little. I'd rather watch hockey.