Lakers championship: celebs weigh in on Finals victory over Celtics

Tonight’s NBA Championship victory by the Los Angeles Lakers saw responses from several celebrities who had a rooting interest one way or the other. Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan revealed that he was at the game, which he said was great for drama, but that he “didn’t like the end of the movie.” Pop star Colbie Caillat simply tweeted “Ahhhhh yeaaaaa Lakers!” while American Idol winner David Cook, known to be a Celtics fan, cleverly exclaimed “well… (expletive laden rant)” [his redaction not ours] and went on to say that Lakers-Celtics 2010 “was exciting to watch. congrats to both teams on a great series and season. get ‘em next year, Green!”

Lakers win 2010 NBA Championship title in low scoring affair

The Los Angeles lakers have won the 2009-2010 NBA Championship after defeating the Boston Celtics in game seven of the Finals. The surprisingly low scoring affair saw neither Kobe Bryant’s Lakers nor Paul Pierce’s Celtics team reach ninety points, with Lakers playing some of their best defense of the season after the Celtics had held the lead to varying degrees for much of the game. A block from behind by the Pau Gasol with under two minutes left seemingly ended any hope for the Celtics after Rasheed Wallace was unable to save the deflection. Gasol’s two pointer seconds later appeared to seal the deal before Wallace struck back with a late three pointer, but Ron Artest immediately answered back for the Lakers with a three pointer of his own. Ray Allen then countered with a three pointer of his own for the Celtics, suddenly turning on the offensive spout for both teams after what had been a mostly offensive-averse affair. Kobe Bryant finally appeared to put the Celtics out of their misery with a pair of successful free throws after Wallace fouled out, with the crowd chanting MVP. Rajon Rondo then drained yet another three pointer for Boston bringing it back within two, with sixteen seconds remaining in the season. Sasha Vujajic then became an unlikely hero when he sank a pair of free throws with eleven seconds left to finally put the game out of reach and hand the 2010 NBA Championship to the Los Angeles Lakers for the second time in as many seasons and their fifth in the past eleven. Here’s another take on the latest chapter in the Lakers-Celtics rivalry.

Lakers – Celtics 2010: the joy of having no rooting interest

As the Lakers and the Celtics battle it out for the 2010 NBA Championship, many basketball fans are already bound by fanhood as to whom they’re rooting for in the best of seven series. If you’re a part of Laker Nation, this series only ends happily for you if your team pulls it out; if a player on the Celtics serves up one of the most heroic outings in NBA history, you’ll have no choice but to view it as a bad thing, even if you do marvel at it. I went through this scenario myself four years ago when my long suffering Miami Heat managed to make it to their one and only NBA Finals, a series which they came very close to losing before narrowly eking it out. I attended every one of the home games in that series, sweated out every Shaq free throw, cheered every Dwayne Wade bucket, and winced every time someone from Mavericks missed a shot (and admittedly, cheered when Dirk Nowitzki attacked that exercise bike in the hallway out of frustration). But it was like walking a tightrope for six games, because it would only end well if my Heat won, and if they didn’t, an entire postseason of rooting for them would have felt like a waste.

Not so with the current Celtics-Lakers series. I know enough about these two teams that I can name all their star players, meaning that I can enjoy watching the series without feeling like I’m watching a bunch of strangers (which is why I just can’t watch the NCAA Final Four anymore, by the way). And although I’ll probably get around to watching game two, I’m not sweating the fact that I inadvertently missed game one while working late; no seven game series was ever won in game one anyway. Would I rather my Heat were in the Finals this year? Of course. But we’ll worry about that next year, after LeBron James and Chris Bosh and Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul Jabbar all sign with the Heat as free agents this offseason and the team becomes unstoppable. For now, I’m comfortable with the fact that the 2010 NBA Finals are a comfortable viewing experience for me. I may indeed develop a rooting interest for one player or another (or even one team over another) by the time it’s over, but that would be less out of pre-destined loyalty and instead out of pure merit – the latter being something of a rare quantity when it comes to rooting interests on the part of sports fans.

Dwayne Wade hanging with Boston Celtics player’s son

We’ve already made it clear that we don’t think Dwayne Wade is going anywhere this offseason, as there a multitude of reasons why he’s likely to resign with the Miami Heat. But those Celtics fans who have been hoping that Wade might join them in Boston to bolster an already contending team into a seemingly untouchable juggernaut may have seen some small measure for hope – or at least wishful thinking – as a photo surfaced on Twitter today of Dwayne Wade with the son of Celtics point guard Nate Robinson (the photo was posted by Robinson himself, then retweeted by Wade),

What does it all mean? Nothing, probably. But for Miami fans who just saw Robinson’s Celtics bury the Heat in the first round of the 2010 NBA playoffs and are now left to ponder the nightmarish scenario of just how bad off the Heat franchise would be if Wade really did leave town, it’s not the prettiest of pictures – literally. Still, here’s why he’s not going anywhere.

Miami Heat are still a player away from contention

Miami Heat fan that I am, it pains me to say this: they just don’t have it right now. I was there twenty years ago when they were a laughably bad expansion team; I was there four years ago when they were the surprisingly good NBA champions; I’ve seen everything in between. I’ve been there for Alonzo Mourning’s retirement and unretirement, Pat Riley’s retirement and unretirement and re-retirement… okay, so the franchise has had a checkered history. But ever since Dwayne Wade came to town in the early part of the last decade, you went into every season as a Heat fan expecting at least a respectable year. Sure, they were only truly contenders for that brief period of time after Shaquille O’Neal arrived in town but before he ran out of gas (some would say he drained his own tank), But even in the post-Shaq era, as long as Wade was still with the team, the organization always seemed to be just one more strong player away from being a contender.

Except that “one more player” keeps arriving and then turning out not to be the real thing. Jermaine O’Neal can play ball for sure, and I hope they keep him around, but he’s not the chosen one. Nor apparently is Michael Beasley, who was taken in the can’t-miss second spot in the draft, but so far isn’t the answer. Nor is Dorell Wright. These players could still ascend to Anakin Skywalker status at some point (okay, bad analogy), but the team just isn’t a contender in its current condition. And this is no more clearly evidenced by the fact that they’re on they’re on their way to getting snunked in the first round of the playoff by the Boston Celtics. There’s no real shame in losing to the Celtics, except that it shows that they are contenders while the Heat seem destined to continue to show up for the playoffs only for it to be a startlingly short ride.

With some of the league’s biggest young-ish stars potentially on the move this offseason, the Heat is going to have to do something bold to turn itself into a contender, and it may involve taking a risk that could cost the team its current comfy ability to wander into the playoffs each season if the move backfires. But wasn’t it Pat Riley himself who said that good is the enemy of great? I’m not saying it has to be Chris Bosh in a Heat uniform alongside Dwayne Wade in order for the Heat to be contenders next year; there are other options. But after all, Riley is the guy who traded for Alonzo Mourning and traded for Shaq; the guy’s not exactly gunshy when it comes to taking a big chance by bringing in a big player that could turn the team into a big contender.