The Blot’s been waiting for the start of the 2009 NBA Finals for what feels like forever now. While I’ve hated the long hiatus, it’s probably been a really good thing for my beloved Lakers since they were looking extremely worn out after playing every other day for two weeks. I am happy that the Finals are not the Kobe v. Lebron dream match-up that the NBA, Nike and Vitamin Water were all hoping it would be.
While I loved Nike’s Kobe and Lebron puppet commercials, let’s be honest, for all of Lebron James’ accolades he is no Kobe Bryant. I hate how everyone and their mother compares Lebron to Michael. If anything he should be compared to A.I. Like Iverson, Lebron scores a ton, won an MVP award and got his team to the finals...once. But in the end he just can’t win the big one. But enough about Prince James…
With Cleveland’s loss to Orlando, the Lakers now have home court advantage. While that is a huge advantage for LAL, I’d almost rather be playing the Cavs because the Lakers match-up so much better against them than the Magic. That isn’t to say I’m worried about Dwight Howard and co., but they are harder to defend with their two highly talented swingmen, Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu. Plus, Orlando swept the Lakers in the only two games they played against each other this year.
But I’m not worried because the Lakers have the greatest coach in NBA history, the zen-master Phil Jackson. I could go on and on making arguments for why Los Angeles should dominate this series, but if it were that easy to predict they wouldn’t need to play the games. So I'll just leave it at that and we’ll see what happens in just a few short hours.
The 2009 NBA Finals start tonight, Thursday, June 4, 2009 at 9/8c on ABC.
