Celtics/Lakers Tailor Made For Game 7

This is an excerpt that I wrote from my blog yesterday:

This just feels right, doesn't it?

On Thursday night the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers will meet in Game 7 to determine the NBA champion.

Read that last sentence again. It has a nice ring to it.

The two most-storied franchises in the sport, two teams with a rivalry that goes back 51 years, will meet on the NBA's brightest stage and in its singular most important game.

I hate to sound cliched, but this really is the game "where legends will be made." In 20 years most people will completely forget about the other six games in this series. But they won't forget about Game 7.

I was eight years old and I remember when the Celtics beat the Lakers in Game 7 of the '84 Finals. I was 12 years old and I remember when the Lakers beat the Pistons in Game 7 of the '88 Finals. I was 18 years old, and I remember when the Houston Rockets survived the offensive onslaught of John Starks (sarcasm) and beat the Knicks in Game 7 of the '94 Finals. And I remember San Antonio beating the Pistons five years ago in Game 7 of the Finals (mostly because the 2005 Finals were so awful that I nearly gouged my own eyes out).

No other two teams in American professional sports are more intertwined than the Lakers and Celtics. No other American sport has so depended on a single rivalry as much. 

So with that in mind, let's say their rivalry is like a house and every time they squared off in the Finals, an additional room would be built. And let's say that the foundation for this house began back in 1959, when the Minneapolis Lakers were swept in the Finals by the Boston Celtics.

And let's say that the first room of the house was painted Celtic green with a big picture of Red Auerbach on the wall.

Three years later, the Minneapolis Lakers are the Los Angeles Lakers and they've returned to the NBA Finals. This time, led by Elgin Baylor and Jerry West, the Lakers would find themselves in a rematch against their new arch-nemesis, the Boston Celtics.

Most NBA historians refer to this Finals as the greatest of all-time. It certainly had the greatest ending of all-time. As time expired in Game 7 with the score tied, a wide-open Frank Selvy missed a 12-foot shot from the baseline that would have won the championship for L.A. The Celtics, led by Bill Russell's Herculean effort (30 points and 40 rebounds), would hold on to win in overtime, 110-107.

Now, imagine a second room added to that house and once again, it's Celtic green and let's say Bob Cousy's framed jersey lies in the center of the wall. 

If you liked what you read so far, feel free to visit my blog post to finish my column on tonight's Game 7. And feel free to leave a comment

http://balmer.typepad.com/keithsmooth/2010/06/celticslakers-tailormade-for-a-game-7.html.