GOING BACK TO CALI, I DON'T THINK SOLL Cool J made that line famous. Now it applies to the Orlando Magic and Dwight Howard. There will be no more extension of these finals. Is it a hard pill to swallow for the Orlando Magic? Yes. And here's why. How easy could this have been a 3-1 finals lead for the Orlando Magic going into yesterday's game? Besides the first game of the series and yesterday the Magic were in every game. They should've won Game 2 on the alley- oop layup miss by Courtney Lee. They should've won Game 4 but instead, Howard missed two freethrows, Turkoglu missed two more and then Fisher nails the 3 point shot to force overtime. So close, but yet so far. The Magic will be back and every team in their quest for a championship usually experiences heartache. They have a few things to address, but there's a possibility the confetti could be blue and white in the years to come. Orlando won't be going back to Cali this year, but the championship trophy will be.
RESPECT
Not sure if it is possible to say something bad about Phil Jackson. He now has passed the great Red Auerbach with 10 championship rings as a coach. I never met Coach Auerbach, but I did play for Phil Jackson. I think Derek Fisher said it best yesterday when he said "He allows you to be yourself." I don't ever remember him telling me not to shoot. I don't ever remember him telling me hot to play my game. I was only there for a short time with the Lakers, and I didn't play a lot, but I never remember worrying about how I was going to play for him. He allowed you to learn on your own. Probably the best coach I ever had and he played me the least of any coach I ever had. And with that said he never made me feel any less important than Kobe Bryant or Shaquille O'Neal. The dude is the best, even if we had to do Yoga and he beat a war drum during practice sometimes.
FOUR ME?
Kobe Bryant has now won his fourth championship ring. I know there are many Kobe haters out there. I understand that many people just hate the great. But I have to admit that I was happy for him. I have always respected the guys work ethic. I saw it first hand. The guy almost beat me in a game of horse with his left hand, but that story is for another day. I am happy for him for all he has gone through. The problems with Shaq, that I must say weren't always his fault, the Colorado situation, the trade talks, the "can't win without Shaq" talks. Some say Kobe was a bad person, I never saw that. I saw a person that was so driven to win he didn't dare hang out late. I saw a person who was so driven to win he didn't even drink alcohol. I saw a person so driven to win that when he broke his wrist in 1999 he worked on his left hand so much he shot a lefty jumper in a real game. I saw a guy that was the hardest worker in practice that I had ever seen and if you didn't work hard, he didn't respect you. I never went to his house, never rode in his car, never had dinner with Kobe. None of that mattered, what mattered is at work he was the greatest co-worker I ever had.
STRENGTH
Too many times outsiders don't really understand how great it is to win a championship. How when the struggle of a year finally culminates and you are standing on that platform taking it all in it is true paradise. People don't understand how these athletes really struggle. Too many of them are labeled as pompous spoiled brats. Not always true. This Laker team has seen much tragedy off the court and pushed through. Derek Fisher almost lost his daughter a few years ago to a rare form of eye cancer and yet he fought through to become a champion. Lamar Odom lost his infant son that suffocated in his sleep and yet he fought through to become a champion. Trevor Ariza lost his little brother who fell from a balcony when he was young and yet he still has become a champion. Kobe Bryant almost lost his career amid rape allegations back in 2003 and yet he fought through to become a champion. This is all on one team. We always see the finished product, but so much more struggle goes on behind the scenes, if we only all but knew.
ORLANDO MAILMEN
Ok, I had to do this. It's not right, but it had to be said The Magic have a new name because they gave up last night. They mailed this one in early. Now at home you may not understand this. Why would a team not give the effort in a close out game? Let me explain. You are already down 3-1. You know as a team that there is no way you can beat Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers three games in a row, with two of them being on the road. It would also be a cross country trip for the Magic if they headed to LA and then right back after they got their backsides handed to them. So they're thinking why even make the trip? Why go through the hotels, the planes, the practice, the leaving the family. Doesn't make much sense. So what do they do? Hell, let's just mail it in. It's easier, it's quicker and it's less painful. Jemele Hill a great writer for ESPN had this on her twitter page, "Did Dwight Howard use Fed Ex or UPS to mail in tonight's performance? And why didn't he cover himself in bubble wrap?" That was classic!
THE GREAT DEBATES
Answer: Undecided
People are funny. Lots of people were saying that Lebron was better than Kobe. Even the great Jerry West said that Lebron had passed Kobe. I wake up this morning and now everyone is saying Kobe is hands down the greatest in the game today. Not sure I can jump on this bandwagon. Lebron is an awesome player, awesome athlete. In a one on one game in my opinion Lebron would win, but basketball is a team game so that means nothing. Kobe has a new championship ring, but if you put Lebron on the Lakers would he have not won a championship this year? I think most definitely. Not sure if I can chose as of yet. But I love Stan Van Gundy's answer on this one, "You want to compare the two of them, what I always say is 'You pick first, I'll take second pick and I'll be happy as hell.' Those guys are great great players."
Answer: Not yet
That's not a slight to Kobe, but just a compliment to Jordan. Jordan was that great and it's hard for me to say Kobe is better. But I hate when people say we can't even have that argument. It is a discussion and it is a valid discussion. What keeps MJ on top right now is that he won 6 rings. And probably should have won more if he didn't retire to go play baseball for awhile. It's conceivable that Jordan could've been in the Bill Russell talk of rings if Jerry Krause wouldn't have broken up the bulls. Jordan also still has the edge because I have to say that his teams were a little less talented than Kobe's championship teams. Mike had Pippen, Rodman, Cartwright, Paxon. Think about Kobe's teams, Shaq, Robert Horry, Fisher, Rick Fox, Glen Rice, Gasol, Odom, Ariza, Bynum. But still, we have to have this conversation. The man scored 81 pts in a game!
Answer: Phil Jackson
The reason why I say this is because Phil Jackson did it with two different teams. He was able to lead the Bulls to six championships and now the Lakers to four. He may not be done. Red Auerbach did it all with the Celtics. Phil also had to make two of the greatest scorers in the history of the game conform to his style. He did that. He also took two of the greatest players ever to play the game in Kobe and Shaq and made them co-exist when they weren't the fondest of each other. His body of work is more diverse. Phil is not only the best coach in basketball. He may be the best coach ever in any sport outside of John Wooden from UCLA.
SHAQ TO THE CAVS? ANSWER: NO
I love Shaq. He was my favorite player growing up. Shaq has been known to deliver championships to franchises. He did it in Los Angeles, he did it in Miami. He could probably do it in Cleveland if he goes there in this trade. But the question is who would you be giving up? It would be a short term thing. The Cavs probably then would be favorite to win the Eastern Conference and maybe even the NBA title. But Shaq is 37 years old. Now much left in the tank even though he was very impressive this year and seemed to have found the fountain of youth. But I'm not sure about this one. It's like taking a shortcut through the grass in your brand new white sneakers. You'll get there faster, but you'll probably mess up your shoes as a result. Besides Shaq is the Terell Owens of the NBA.
WHAT'S NEXT FOR CELEVISION?
Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, CELEVISION will continue. We have a few more basketball topics like summer league and the NBA draft coming up. But hey, we're not going to be one dimensional here. We also will get rolling during football season, doing a little NFL and college football as well. We will also be covering college basketball next year. Stay tuned and thank you for being a part of CELEVISION. We are getting a tremendous following!!!
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