NBA Finals Game 6

You have to understand, I despise the Lakers. I can't stand any of their players. They've ruined my life several times. They're evil. So evil in fact that I think Phil Jackson made some deal with the devil that guaranteed him the most number of NBA rings than any other coach in exchange for looking like a billy goat (note: this is similar to my theory about Ronaldinho making a similar deal except substitute soccer stardom and looking like a horse). Picture me, May 2004, about to graduate from high school (and coincidentally in the best shape of my life), at a friend's house to watch a pivotal playoff game between the Spurs and the Lakers. The Lakers were the only thing in the way between the Spurs and a back-to-back championship. Nothing would've capped off a thus-far stellar year better than San Antonio wiping out Los Angeles. And we'd just about done it. I mean, we had the LEAD with only 0.4 seconds left in the game. 0.4 seconds. That's nothing. You can barely blink in that amount of time. And then this happened: As far as losses go, it doesn't get much worse than that. The feeling after seeing that was like a sucker punch straight to the gut right after finding out that your favorite pet had gotten loose and got run over by a truck and the driver of the truck was the kid from 2nd grade who incessantly picked on you for no reason and when you fought back you always got in trouble for it and the teacher who reprimanded you just so happened to look EXACTLY like Derek Fisher. Which is why it's so drastic that I'm writing what I'm about to write: I want the Lakers to win tonight, and I want them to win BIG. UGH. That hurt to write, but it's the truth. It's blasphemy, and a part of me just died inside just like that hypothetical pet from two paragraphs ago, but it's the truth. So WHY do I want the Lakers to win? Several reasons: 1) First, this stands to be the greatest NBA Finals of the past 15 years (aka: my rough memory of NBA Finals matchups), but it only gets that classification in my book if it goes to 7 games. The best series always come down to the wire, and this one should be no different. So Lakers need to win tonight to fulfill the great expectations this series has prompted for itself. To not do so would be like getting a single damage point against you in Mortal Kombat when you're on the verge of a flawless victory (speaking of which, check this trailer out!). 2) Dare I say it, but **gulp**, I respect Kobe and Fisher. That's right, the two players I loathed the most in the entire league. I respect them. Fisher took a long time for me to admit. For years I haven't gotten that 0.4 shot image out of my mind. Whenever someone even mentioned that shot I'd have to leave the room. But watching him play in these playoffs makes me respect him because he's the oldest point guard out there, and he knows it. Yet he's a veteran who picks up the slack and takes responsibility in big games when he knows he's needed. It takes character to be willing to put that weight on your shoulders and actually deliver, and I give points for character (it was something I didn't think any of the Lakers had). Factor in the special story they ran on him during the last halftime special about his daughter and his charity work, and well, I have to respect him. For Kobe, it's about his determination and versatility and competitiveness that make him such a great player. He entered the league in 1996, which means he's been playing for 14 years. 14! And yet he still scares the heck out of me whenever I'm rooting against him in a pivotal game, no matter how many points they're down by. That's saying something for someone who's played for that long. It's saying that regardless of how messed up he is off the court, on the court he gets my respect. Of course, his flaw is the same as MJ's: when he tries to do it all himself, the team often loses (like in Game 5). I say he gets the win tonight with his ruthless play, but also with his ability to make his teammates better. Look at what he did to Ron Artest. In one of Bill Simmons' columns he mentioned how after Artest's game-winning shot, he immediately went to Kobe to celebrate and not anyone else. Artest is this crazy guy with a troubled past, but he's playing hard because he's constantly looking for Kobe's approval. Same thing goes for the rest of the team. Which brings me to the next point... 3) The Lakers bench is gonna show up tonight. They have to. They'll have the home crowd behind them, and they know from the last game that Kobe can't do it alone. If their bench points are under 25pts tonight, I'll be surprised. 4) They have to win BIG. Why? for a couple of reasons. First, because all the press has been about how "the Celtics could close it out tonight" and how "Boston could win again in game 6." Lakers need to win but they also need to send a message. This can't be a close game in the last 6 minutes of the game. It needs to be a blow out that sends Boston reeling (like how everyone doubted the Celtics in the Orlando series). Boston needs to lose big because they need to feel like they're being tested. They need a tough loss to hit the point home that this is going to be a tough series. They're going to have to fight for it. And that will set the stage for the most epic Game 7 of an NBA Finals that I will have ever seen. I want it to happen, and deep down, you do too. So I don't care if you can't stand the Lakers for whatever reasons that may be worse than mine (though I dare you to try), if you truly care about NBA basketball and the greatness that comes from a game 7, you'll want the Lakers to win big tonight too. -DR p.s. I just realized I just put two Lakers game-winning playoff shots in a single blog post. I think I'm gonna be sick...