Le Basketbawl

You truly did not fall for all that retirement talk earlier in the week that came from Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson; did you? When New York Vinnie heard that and the lack of sincerity in “Coach Zen’s” voice when he said it that told me that he would be back on the bench at the Staples Center next season. Thursday the “Los Angeles Times” reported that Jackson would be the bench boss next season for the team he won back to back NBA Titles with the last two years.

Los Angeles released a statement from their bench boss on Thursday. Jackson said “After a couple weeks of deliberation, it is time to get back to the challenge of putting together a team that can defend its title in the 2010-11 season. It’ll be the last stand for me, and I hope a grand one.”

The Lakers head coach will be trying to get his third three-peat in his coaching career. No specific terms of the deal have been announce either on the length of the contract or the amount that Jackson will be getting paid. There had been rumors circulating that Los Angeles Team Owner Jerry Buss wanted his Hall Of Fame coach to take a pay-cut were he to come back to the team.

Now that the NBA Finals have come to an end the focus now switches totally over to next season. We barely have time to catch our breath before next  Thursday night when the 2010 NBA Draft will be held. July 1, is the day that all the madness begins as Free Agents can start listening to offers from teams that want them to become part of their rosters.

The NBA Summer League starts soon after that and this summer we will also have Team USA participating in International play. So we will have plenty of hoops to keep us occupied over the next couple of months. And before you know it October 1, will be here again which means the start of NBA training camps as the whole process starts over again.

However before we can truly say good-bye to the season that officially ended Thursday night as the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics in the seventh game of the NBA Finals; there are still some loose ends that need tying up. The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Clippers are currently without a head coach. And there could be changes on the bench with the Lakers and Celtics as well.

Los Angeles head coach Phil Jackson or as New York Vinnie likes to call him “Coach Zen“ will soon be without  a contract and there have been rumors that the club would like him to take a pay cut if he wants to continue as the bench boss of the team that he has just won back to back NBA Titles with. So needless to say it is not a lead pipe cinch that he will be back with the franchise next season.

Boston head coach Doc Rivers is signed through the upcoming season but he has a different dilemma. Rivers has three of his children who will hit major milestones starting in the fall. The Celtics head coach has a son and daughter who are graduating college next spring and a younger son who will be graduating high school at the same time. And all three of them are involved in team sports at their respective schools. The Boston bench boss loves his gig but he would regret not being able to travel with his children and watch them perform in the season ahead.

 Now New York Vinnie will say up front that the chances of the scenario I am going to propose will most likely not occur. In fact the chances of it happening are pretty slim; but New York Vinnie has seen too many strange things happen in my time on this Planet to rule it out. If the stars line-up correctly we could have a once in a lifetime situation on our hands that would make things to say the least very interesting next season.

In New York Vinnie’s opinion if the Los Angeles Lakers ask “Coach Zen” to take a pay cut to keep his present position after winning the Finals two straight years they are insulting the man. New York Vinnie has his differences with Phil Jackson but there is no denying he is a great head coach. Let us remember that Jackson and the Lakers have parted company once before as the Shaq and Kobe era came to an end. So “Coach Zen” has been down this road before.

Now if Rivers decides that it is more important for he and his family to spend the year with them and Jackson is low-balled by the Lakers is it possible that “Coach Zen” could be the bench boss for the Boston Celtics next season? If Jax really wants to kick Lakers owner Jerry Buss where it hurts the most it just could happen.

Although Jackson has won more NBA Finals as a head coach than anyone else in the history of the NBA; he is tied in another  category. Both “Coach Zen” and Miami Heat President Pat Riley have won NBA Finals with two different teams. If Jackson takes over for Rivers in Boston he could conceivably break that tie by winning the NBA Finals with the Celtics. If “Coach Zen” is looking for one more mountain to climb before he decides to call it a career Boston could be that challenge he is looking for. They used to say when Bear Bryant was the football coach of the Crimson Tide “He can take his’n and beat your’n, and he can take your’n and beat his’n.” If “Coach Zen” goes to Boston for next season he could actually do that!

Now most likely Jackson will re-sign with the Lakers and New York Vinnie thinks that Rivers will work out something with the Celtics so that he can keep running the team on the floor. But as New York Vinnie pointed out earlier you can never rule anything out; especially in the world of Pro Sports.

Game seven of the 2010 NBA Finals was the perfect ending for one of the best Championship Series in any sport in Your Old Pal New York Vinnie’s time on this Planet. This was the way to end a season with the two best teams in the NBA duking it out until the final seconds before the Los Angeles Lakers walked away with the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Early on it looked like the Boston Celtics would finish their dramatic turn around from a team that looked like they were ready for an early exit in the Playoffs and instead went to the seventh game of the NBA Finals.

But in the end it was “The Black Mamba” himself Lakers All-Star guard Kobe Bryant who once again strapped his team on his back in the critical moments of the game and carried his team to the 83-79 comeback win over Boston. Bryant was named the 2010 NBA Finals MVP and deservedly so; especially in this game when he had a pretty lousy night from the field but still somehow ended up as the leading scorer of the game and got a double-double as well.

Bryant did not win this game by himself as Ron Artest scored 20 points and Pau Gasol also came up huge putting 19 points on the scoreboard and grabbing 18 rebounds off the backboard. For the second year in a row the Lakers proved that they had the toughness when they needed it. That was a key factor in their winning this game as well as the series. Although New York Vinnie never gave them the credit they deserved during the season they were “the best team in the NBA” this year. They deserved to win this series.

That is not to take anything away from the Boston Celtics who certainly did look like an old and lethargic team once the NBA second season began. Whether things came together for them at the right time or they took their game to another level once the Playoffs started Boston was for real! And they took the NBA Champions all the way down to the wire and lost by a mere four points. That does not look  like a team that needs to go through a rebuild in New York Vinnie’s opinion.

You know that it has been a great season when you are ticked off when it is over and you can not wait until the start of the next season. That is the feeling that New York Vinnie has as the 2010 NBA season has come  to an end. It was a tough regular season but these Playoffs and especially the NBA Finals showed once again why the NBA is “The Greatest Game On Earth!”

The Boston Celtics will face the Los Angeles Lakers Tuesday night at the Staples for game six of the 2010 NBA Finals which will be telecast on ABC at 9:00 pm EDT. Of course the game will be broadcast live all over the Planet; a fact that we take for granted. But there was a period of time when the NBA Championship series was broadcast on a taped delayed basis at 11:30 pm and New York Vinnie is not talking about the early days of TV when the technology had yet to be invented.

This was back in early eighties when the series was broadcast on CBS and the Network did not think it was necessary to put the games on live because the ratings were terrible. So the Network put the games on usually about two and a half to four hours after the game had actually started. New York Vinnie remembers that Magic Johnson getting his first NBA Championship was on tape delay as was the same the next season when Larry Bird would win his first NBA Title.

Those two players and their respective teams; the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics were the reason why CBS went back to showing the Finals live. TV ratings started going up as Johnson and Bird basically took the NBA out of the sewer and put them on an evening playing field with the NFL and Major League Baseball. Those two cats pretty much saved the NBA and the Michael Jordan came in and started getting attention and the Association grew healthy and prosperous.

Beginning in 1980 NBA Finals either Los Angeles, Boston or sometimes both were in every edition of the series until the 1989 Finals. And folks across the country picked one or the other team to root for. Celtics fans can not stand a Lakers fan and the same holds true in reverse. Bird and Johnson brought back fans to the NBA who had lost interest years before and more importantly brought new fans to the sport.

Thirty years later the rivalry is no less intense as the Celtics and Lakers have shown in this series. Boston leads 3-2 after game five and that means the Lakers have to win out to grab their second straight Larry O’Brien Trophy. Through the first five games this series has been incredible; even for those of us who do not have a rooting interest in the series. What we have been witnessing is two heavyweight boxers going toe to toe every game. Its like Ali and Frazier except a whole lost less bloody.

This has been a tough year for the NBA in a lot of ways: The Arenas gun incident, Allen Iverson signing a contract with the Memphis Grizzlies and leaving after less than a month just top the list. There was a boatload of Crappolla that floated through the NBA in this soon to be completed season. But after this series most NBA fans will forget about the garbage and instead will remember a great series pitting two Champions against each other. And after every game you could truly believe that the players left everything they had out on the floor.

If you have been following the NBA Playoffs over the last few weeks you may have woken up Wednesday morning with a heavy-duty case of Deja-Vu! After three games of the NBA Finals the Boston Celtics trail the Los Angeles Lakers by a 2-1 margin after losing game three of the series in Boston Tuesday by a final of 91-84. The Celtics had taken away the Lakers home court advantage by upsetting the defending NBA Champions at the Staples Center Sunday when Boston ended up with the victory by a final of 103-94. But with their loss at home on Tuesday they have promptly handed back that advantage to Los Angeles.

The reason this may seem familiar is the Celtics wnt through the exact same scenario in the second round of the Post Season when they played the Cleveland Cavaliers. Boston would surprise the Planet in game two of that series by upsetting the heavily favored Cavaliers team in Cleveland winning game two 104-86. They would return the favor in game three of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals as Cleveland knocked the stuffing out of them in Boston as they routed the Celtics 124-95.

Tuesday night’s game was like a Frickin roller-coaster as Boston started off hot and then Los Angeles took over. The Lakers had a 17 point lead in the second quarter but the game became a battle once again in the fourth when Kevin Garnett knocked down an oustide “J” to cut the Los Angeles lead to 70-69. The Celtics could not get any closer and faded down the stretch giving the Lakers the victory. But at the same time they sent a message to Los Angeles that no lead in this series is going to be safe.

The way New York Vinnie saw things on Tuesday Boston veteran Garnett certainly did not look as if he had lost a step as Lakers forward Pau Gasol said after game one. And it was another “Golden Oldie” Los Angeles point guard Derek Fisher who came up huge for the Lakers in the fourth to clinch the win. Both these teams have a wide array of players who are capable of taking over a game at any time. In New York Vinnie’s opinion that is what is making the 2010 NBA Finals a great series so far; these games will keep you on the edge of your chair until that final buzzer has sounded. That in New York Vinnie’s world is Entertainment!

New York Vinnie does not have a rooting interest in the Finals as “MY BOYS” the New York Knicks have been spending the last few weeks puttering around their houses. But as a fan of “The Greatest Game On Earth” New York Vinnie is being very entertained. This series has the potential to go down as one of the greatest NBA Finals in the history of the game. This series is far from being over; and New York Vinnie believes the best is yet to come!

The Boston Celtics are not supposed to still be playing in the NBA Playoffs according to conventional wisdom. They were supposed to be easily eliminated in the second round of the Post Season by the Cleveland Cavaliers. And once they got past them they were supposed to fall victim to the Orlando Magic who had gone undefeated in their first two rounds of the Playoffs. But Boston shocked the Planet getting past the two higher seeded teams in the NBA Eastern Conference and are now in the midst of battling the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.

In game one of the Championship series Los Angeles pummeled the Celtics winning the game by a final of 102-89 and in the aftermath of that contest all the talk was about how old and lethargic a team from Boston was compared to the Lakers. Many people were saying it was just a matter of when the Lakers would win the Finals after that first game as once again the Celtics were said to be down for the count.

The tone of that conversation changed on Sunday night after game two of the series as Boston would pick themselves off the mat and defeated Los Angeles 103-94. The Celtics guards led their club to the victory as Ray Allen set an NBA Finals record by knocking down 8 buckets behind the three point line while Rajon Rondo got himself a triple-double. The series now goes back to Boston tied at 1-1 with the Lakers no longer having the Home-Court advantage and the next three games to be played in Boston.

How do the Celtics keep on defying the odds and keep climbing out of the grave after a couple of shovels worth of dirt have already been thrown in? New York Vinnie sees a “Team” first of all in the fullest sense of the word; a group where everybody is concentrating on the whole not their individual parts. New York Vinnie also believes that these guys are filled with what makes up the heart of a Champion: Grit and determination as well as being to stubborn to say no. And although they may not be as athletically gifted as they once were they have gained wisdom through experience.

There is now the possibility of this series never heading back to Los Angeles if the Celtics win the next three games. New York Vinnie does not believe it will be that easy for the team from Boston but you can not rile out anything with this team; except for the fact that every night they will go out there and leave it all out on the floor.

If Thursday night was the first time this year that you watched the Boston Celtics in the Post Season then most likely you were scratching your head wondering how they made it all the way to the NBA Finals. Except for the game three loss in their series against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round this was by far the worst defeat the Celtics have suffered in the Playoffs. The Los Angeles Lakers were on a mission Thursday night and nothing the team from the East Coast could do would stop the defending NBA Champions from seeing that mission through to the end.

Lakers All-Star guard Kobe Bryant rose to the occasion per usual leading all players on the floor with 30 points; however that was not the reason that Boston lost game one by a final of 102-89 that was not as close as the final score indicated. The reason that the Celtics had the spit knocked out of them was they allowed the Lakers to dominate in what should have been a position of strength for Boston; the inside game.

Thursday night Los Angeles grabbed 42 rebounds while the Celtics had just 31. The Lakers also dominated in the points in the paint category outscoring Boston in that department by a 48-30 margin. That was how the Lakers won this game by dominating inside, an area that the Celtics on paper have the clear advantage.

Boston has four players in their starting lineup who have shown they are capable of grabbing double digits in rebounds; yet not one of them did Thursday night. As New York Vinnie has written many times; rebounding is all about effort and desire. Game one the Lakers showed more effort and wanted it more so they easily dominated in that department.

As far as points in the paint Boston coach Doc Rivers talked to his team during a timeout in the first half and told them they were settling for low percentage outside shots rather than making the extra pass and increasing their scoring chances. The Celtics may have heard what Rivers was saying but they did not listen as they would continue to play that way all night long.

Boston has shown all through out the Playoffs that they are a team that can make adjustments successfully and they will need to do that in game two Sunday night. The Celtics will need to win at least one game at the Staples Center to win the NBA Finals and New York Vinnie has the feeling that they would like to get it before the series shifts back to Boston. However the only way they will be able to do that is by dominating the inside game; something they fell far short of in game one.