Friday, June 13, 2008

Finals Stuff and Compare/Contrast

The Fifty Million Pound Challenge commercials; thank you Lord, I can now detest Kobe Bryant with a clear conscience.

Everybody's saying it. I'll add my voice to the chorus. That's how you get it done. No panicking, even though they had plenty of reasons. No surrender, no quarter, no fucking around. The Celtics just played like, "This game is ours, and I don't care what shit I have to put up with or how hard I have to work in the meantime." Make the plan, execute the plan, and don't fucking give up.

I'm hoping this series goes the full seven, because the games are pretty damn cool. Consulting the Cloudy Crystal Ball . . . eenie meanie chili beanie, the spirits are about to speak . . .

I think the odds are about fifty-fifty the Lakers'll rally for their last home stand, and the Finals'll finish back in Boston. Celtics in six. They can taste the defeat of the Lakers -- it's delicious!

Not that I ever miss an opportunity to reflect on the needs-a-suntan awesomeness that is Nowitzki, but David Moore at the Morning News brings up an obvious point regarding MVPs '07 and '08. If Dirk had put up the kind of numbers Kobe did in Finals G4, people would be baying for blood. By contrast, Kobe is not the object of passionate disgust in LA right now. Nobody's calling him soft, weak, or (in more correct language) saying he throws like a girl.

Why? Simple. Kobe Bryant has the reputation of a bone-deep badass. Dirk does not. Kobe's playing makes for better video, his on-camera presence is better, his fame off-court is greater (albeit for the wrong reasons), and I'll have to check on this but I don't think Kobe's rookie season was one of epic yuck and Dirk's rookie season was. The Mavericks have never won a championship and the Lakers have.

The short hairs of the situation are Dirk's not going to get the respect he deserves until his team wins it all. Until then, people are not going to believe he's any such of a much. They don't want to. Sports fandom likes bad boys and rewards them. Stupid, but fact of life.
-BJ

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