Hold your fire, I'm just curious...

Do I want the Celtics to bring home number 18?... Absolutely, this is the only sports team that I have followed with a huge irrational passion for the majority of my life. Just about everyone on this board, Celtic fan or Laker fan wants to see that match up (BOS vs. LAL), of course. The Celtics beating the Lakers is the sweetest moment in all of sports for me. Having said that, my question is:
Would it be better for the league if PHX and ORL were the two teams in the finals this year instead of the two heavy hitters, BOS and LAL?

No

LA

Who would watch it?

and beyond that who would care?

Stern would have a stroke.

beat

No one in Orlando even cares about the Magic....you can walk up any night and buy tickets. Same with Phoenix.

The rest of the USA wouldnt give it a second thought. Neither team has any history, neither team has any legacy, no compelling match ups.

LAC-

you're kidding right ?


Now that LBJ's been bounced, the conspiracy theorists can climb back under their rocks for another year.

I live 70 miles from Orlando and you would have to insist they turn on the games in a bar to watch them even when they were in the finals. Same thing I'm told in Arizona.

Huge money lost for the NBA and everone connected if the Suns meet the Magic. They need at least LA or Boston or even better, both!

Hoop

beat wrote:LA



Stern would have a stroke.

beat

beat,

Best reason for us to pass on this year I could have thought of.

bob

.

babyskyhook wrote:LAC-

you're kidding right ?


Now that LBJ's been bounced, the conspiracy theorists can climb back under their rocks for another year.

babyskyhook,

I've never been a full blown conspiracy theorist on any subject really (that's because I think there's an international cabal of conspiracy theorists working together to try and distort reality globally and I think we shouldn't accept everything they tell us at face value) but that doesn't necessarily mean that the bouncing of Sweet Baby James puts an end to them. Refs can blow a few calls. They can swallow their whistles a few times or take down a player with couple of quick ones. But if you're up 25 because Rondo's running wild and KG is hitting inside and out and Ray is slamming on fastbreaks and raining 3s and the other guys can't throw the ball in the harbor with a catapult (and that was what happened in 2 of the 4 games) there isn't a damn thing the refs or David Stern or anybody else can do about it. The trick to cheating is to make it so subtle nobody sees it (now, how do I know that? Must be past-life memories). That's true in poker, wrestling (where it is obvious and everybody knows it) and in basketball too. If we won this series by games won by 5 points or less in most of the games, then the conspiracy theorists are dead, because those games are close enough that a few whistles could have affected the final outcomes but didn't, but 32 points? Not a chance.

As far as climbing back under their rocks for another year, you do know that too much sunlight can be bad for you, right?

bob

.

Well, let's see how many fouls Perk gets in the first quarter! Then you will have some idea of a conspiracy theory. I am a die hard fan of the Boston Celtics but I would find it hard to believe that "a fix" could take place. Please....

bobheckler wrote:

babyskyhook wrote:LAC-

you're kidding right ?


Now that LBJ's been bounced, the conspiracy theorists can climb back under their rocks for another year.

babyskyhook,

I've never been a full blown conspiracy theorist on any subject really (that's because I think there's an international cabal of conspiracy theorists working together to try and distort reality globally and I think we shouldn't accept everything they tell us at face value) but that doesn't necessarily mean that the bouncing of Sweet Baby James puts an end to them. Refs can blow a few calls. They can swallow their whistles a few times or take down a player with couple of quick ones. But if you're up 25 because Rondo's running wild and KG is hitting inside and out and Ray is slamming on fastbreaks and raining 3s and the other guys can't throw the ball in the harbor with a catapult (and that was what happened in 2 of the 4 games) there isn't a damn thing the refs or David Stern or anybody else can do about it. The trick to cheating is to make it so subtle nobody sees it (now, how do I know that? Must be past-life memories). That's true in poker, wrestling (where it is obvious and everybody knows it) and in basketball too. If we won this series by games won by 5 points or less in most of the games, then the conspiracy theorists are dead, because those games are close enough that a few whistles could have affected the final outcomes but didn't, but 32 points? Not a chance.

As far as climbing back under their rocks for another year, you do know that too much sunlight can be bad for you, right?

bob

.

bob-

if KG and Perk had been whistled for two quick fouls each in the first quarter of every game, as they were in Game 3, the series might have looked a lot different. With those guys off the floor, LBJ's eyes would have been lighting up as they did in game 3, and without KG abusing Jamison in the post, a major cog in the Cs attack would have been taken away.

So all of a sudden, the games could look completely different if things had been called as badly as they were in game 3, and who knows how the series goes ? The jock-sniffers in the media would simply proclaim a Cavs win as further proof of his greatness, and gush over his ability to attack the basket and get the entire Cs team in foul trouble.

Thankfully, the games weren't called like that, as there is no grand NBA conspiracy- evidenced by the simple fact that the Spurs (tiny market, no national following) won the Tim Duncan lotto and four titles over a 10 year span.

I thought games 4, 5 and 6 were very well reffed for the most part, and by that I mean that things were even. Of course there were blown calls both ways, but they evened out in my eyes. most importantly, the refs gave the Cs D as much respect as Lebron, with the result being that the best team won.

It was great seeing Queen James whine and cry when so many calls that he is used to getting in mid-Feb vs the Nets weren't going his way.


In the same way that James' reputation helps him get calls, the Cs rep as a great defensive team helped offset that and result in a lot of correct non-calls.


I think we'll see a similar dynamic if it's LAkers-Cs in the Finals. Both teams are known for their D now (at least among sophisticated fans, NBA management types and the refs), so I think the refs will let them play to a certain extent, as we saw in the last 5 minutes of the Cs-Lakers game in LA earlier this year.

In a way, things couldn't set up any better for Stern.

A Lakers-Cs Finals will draw huge ratings- the two biggest fanbases in the sport, they can sell it as the rematch, and will probably draw in more casual, older fans than Cavs-Lakers would have.

BUt since the Cs had been written off by the media, and the Cavs-Lakers Finals was supposed to be what the NBA would want to fix, Stern will get huge ratings while the conspiracy theorists are left sitting with their you-know-whats in the wind, so it's perfect for the NBA. Huge ratings while refuting yet again that the fix is in.

Well so far, it's going as expected, everyone is as partisan as I am. I'm not sure that it's truly good for the league to have the C's and L's going at it all the time and I wanted to put the idea out there... Boston and LA is what I most want to see as well as everyone on this board, probably.
You won't get an argument out of me as far as this being the best rivalry in sports...I think it's better than Yankees vs. Red Sox, but that's just me. Course we aren't there yet...still 2 series to go...Does anyone on this planet think the Suns can beat LA?