NBA finals exciting but...........

The NBA finals this year features the Los Angeles Lakers and The Boston Celtics and there have been thousands of stories of their long and shared histories of meeting in the finals and all of the great stars from Russell to Chamberlain from Bird to Magic and now it’s Kobe versus KG. Still though as exciting as it is for me my favorite time was in the 80s of the Bird-Magic era. Being a teenager then and all of the complexities of the hate factor and the race factor gave it such a top billing of the ultimate sports event in all of those late Mays and early Junes. You had the magic of Showtime versus the conservative B-town and you had Magic the ever smiling charmer against Larry the small town guy from rural Indiana and it was the recipe of being on the edge constantly. It was the decade that the Lakers finally broke the curse of the Celtics dominating them in 1985 and it was the ultimate of either you hated one or the other there was no room for liking both. No offense to these years Lakers-Celtics match up but I like guys on both teams and as a teen I hated Ainge, Parrish, Johnson and Bird. I respected them as great players but I couldn’t stand them. Today I am still a diehard Lakers fan but I feel so bad that if Boston won I wouldn’t be too sad, I’ve always like Kevin Garnett and to see him win it for the first time wouldn’t pain me even though I want Kobe to get that one without Shaq and to add it to his MVP season. I know it feels just wrong but these players are almost too nice, too cordial not the rough tough really ballsy actions that they displayed in the 80s. I know it’s early yet and only one game down but I hope for the rest of the series it truly lives up to the hype, maybe the problem is that all of the preceding championships were so great and so much more fun that no matter what happens here in 2008 it’s almost an afterthought