By Governor X
I'm no Lakers fan, frankly I'm a Lakers hater, but this was pretty painful to watch. After a choke for the ages in game 4, they somehow managed to win game 5 to send things back to Boston. They must have missed the plane though because no one on the Lakers bothered to show up. There hasn't been a bloodbath like this since Waco.
How do you lose by 39 in the Finals? You're supposed to be good. Lakers Nation isn't worried though. They tell me Andrew Bynum will save them next year. They also tell me Bynum can turn water into wine and cure lepers. Oh well, the Lakers car flags will go back in the closet until next June right by the boogie board and two-sizes too small speedo.
Reality is setting in now...
Boston just won another championship. Fuck. Did you see that interview with Kevin Garnett? Someone needs to calm him the fuck down. Ritalin or something. Good lord, just shoot me now...they're playing Springsteen. Stuart Scott is giving out the MVP. Thats it, I'M FINISHED.
Utah Jazz in '09!!!!!!!!!!!
By Governor X
If so, please visit the Lakers' locker room post haste. LA went from being up by as many as 24 to losing by 6 at home, allowing Boston to take a 3-1 series lead.
By Governor X
JAZZ DOMINATION has come to an end, and I must say, it didn't end as I had imagined it. In my mind there was going to be a lopsided stomping of the Boston Celtics in game 6 of the finals. The fans at Polygamy Solutions Arena would go wild and rowdy crowds outside would riot and burn SLC police cars. It would have been glorious.
Well, it ended in game six in Salt Lake, but not as described above. The Lakers, clearly cheating as usual, jumped out to a big lead and never surrendered it. Oh, they tried alright. Leading 15-19 for most of the game, they fell apart in the 4th quarter so bad that Utah had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer, but it wasn't to be.
What went wrong? Frankly in game 6, pretty much everything, but lets set that aside for a moment. The real problem in the series was the complete disappearance of Carlos Boozer. Carlos really only showed up in Game 4, never being seen or heard from before or after. Had Boozer put up his average numbers from the season, the Jazz very likely would have won the series.
The hoisting of a championship banner in Salt Lake is therefore put off for another year. It will happen my friends, oh yes. The talented core of the Jazz is young and the last two seasons of playoff ball can only help build them up for next year.
The highlight of the season for me was the total emergence of Deron "Mormon Chocolate" Williams as a force to be reckoned with in the NBA. Williams runs the offense as skillfully and brilliantly as Stockton did back in the day and while his pick'n'roll teammate Boozer vanished in the playoffs, Deron did his best to carry the load.
Aside from Williams, two of his teammates made an impression in my eyes. Mehmet "The Turk" Okur has moved up my list of favorite Jazz players. Big men who can rain threes aren't something that comes around every day. The strong performance of Andrei "AK47" Kirilenko in the playoffs allowed me to forgive his pre-season sins. His two threes late in game 6 to put Utah in a position to tie were beyond clutch.
By Governor X
Italian citizen and mustache aficionado Mike D'Antoni has opted to leave the Phoenix Suns in favor of the New York Knicks. Why in gods name would anyone do such a thing? New York sucks and I mean that in terms of the city AND the team. Patrick Ewing and the days of respectability in New York are so far in the past they're now studied in archeology classes.
It was probably the money ($24 million) and the realization that nothing was going to happen with the Suns. Mike's run'n'gun style and the half assed attitude of stars like Nash and Stoudemire couldn't get it done in the playoffs. The Suns won at least 54 games in each of his full seasons as head coach but couldn't win a Championship.
The Suns now begin an off-season coaching search for the first time since 1988.
