History won't haunt Cavs, but Kobe will make Cavs history
Freeman: King versus curses
Kobe vs. LeBron. LeBron vs. Kobe. It's a dream NBA Finals matchup that could eclipse the nostalgic Lakers-Celtics series of a year ago. The table couldn't be set more perfectly.
Roughly six weeks from now, the NBA will be able to put aside concerns over the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement and focus on a duel between the two players most deserving of carrying the torch handed to them by Michael Jordan. It's not just me and dozens of other so-called experts who believe this will happen. Las Vegas does, too. You don't bet against the house, and right now the house is calling for Lakers-Cavs in the Finals, with the teams sharing 8-5 odds of cradling the gold-plated trophy.
The city of Cleveland, one of the places I have proudly called home, hasn't celebrated a major pro sports championship in 45 years. The close calls and heartache have been well documented and go well beyond the kind of burden any city should be expected to bear.
The Browns in those AFC Championship Game failures. The Indians in the '97 World Series. The Cavs getting their collective souls surgically removed time and again by Jordan's Bulls. For these reasons and more, my pal Mike Freeman thinks the seemingly preordained end to Cleveland's championship drought might not end well for the tortured populace on the shores of Lake Erie. The Cavs' championship hopes will have no choice but to "blow the hell up," I think is how he put it in an e-mail previewing Friday's column.
I agree, but not for the reasons Freeman cites. He thinks the culprit will be karma. I think it'll be Kobe.
I'm picking the Lakers to win the NBA title, beating Cleveland in a thrilling, memorable seven-game series that will prove to NBA haters across the land that the sport of professional basketball has reached a new pinnacle. But my pick has nothing to do with the ghosts of Earnest Byner, John Elway or Craig Ehlo. It has to do with supernatural forces of a more powerful nature -- those residing within a certain purple-and-gold jersey bearing the No. 24 and the name Bryant.
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I remember standing in an interview room at TD Banknorth Garden last June after the Celtics had vanquished the Lakers in a six-game series steeped in nostalgia. I remember the odd comportment of Bryant on the dais, a mixture of seething anger and detachment you rarely see from one of the greats in any sport. You could literally feel the hatred of the moment emanating from his body.
“We should hold our heads up high," Bryant said that night, moments after the Celtics had crushed the Lakers 131-92 to win their 17th championship. "We did pretty well."
The words said one thing, but Bryant's body language and the trembling in his voice said another. Later, he said, "The key is understanding that this isn't guaranteed to anybody. People have gotten here before and never gotten back. It's important for us to understand that."
The Lakers will get back. Kobe will give a much different speech when it's over.
If it happens the way I think it's going to happen, then the ghosts of Cleveland past will be hovering around the crime scene as though replayed from a dusty old movie reel. Cheeky new references will added to the Cleveland sports lexicon, to go with The Drive, The Fumble and The Shot.
That's just poetic license. None of that stuff will have anything to do with why the Lakers will beat the Cavs.
We don't need to say any more about Bryant's drive to win his fourth championship and his hatred of losing. We already know, or should. The Lakers have all the other signs of a champion in the making. A savvy, veteran point guard (Derek Fisher). A gifted big man (Pau Gasol) who exudes the diversity of talents so pronounced in the league's increasing shift to an international style. A 6-foot-10 swingman (Lamar Odom) who comes off the bench and can't be guarded by any opponent's second unit. A seldom-mentioned bench player (Shannon Brown) who is peaking at the right time and might just be the ingredient the Lakers need to lift their maligned reserves, who have given up way too many leads.
Did we mention a Hall of Fame coach who is masterful at waging psychological warfare in a seven-game series? The last time the Lakers were in Cleveland, Jackson absolutely flummoxed LeBron and Mike Brown with a pregame dig suggesting that the Cavs' historic home record is attributable to James getting a lot of calls in his building. Already, Phil was setting the stage for the Finals.
LeBron brushed it off by saying, "Me getting calls? OK. Next question." But he seemed genuinely irked. Brown looked like he didn't know whether he should rip Phil a new one or show him the respect he has earned as a championship coach. This stuck in my mind as a topic we would be revisiting before the end of June. And we will. (The Lakers won the game, by the way.)
The final ingredient for the Lakers, and the one they were missing against Boston last year, is Andrew Bynum. The 21-year-old 7-footer quietly returned from a knee injury with 20- and 30-minute stints in the final week of the regular season and looked ready to dominate. If the Lakers can get past the team that emerges from a tough Portland-Houston series, and then deal with the Spurs or Nuggets in the conference finals, Bynum should be in tip-top shape by the first week of June. If you had the first pick in a draft with orders to start your team with a player younger than of 25, you would take Dwight Howard. If you had the second pick, you might take Bynum.
The Lakers couldn't handle the Celtics' inside presence without Bynum last year. With Kevin Garnett out of the picture, the only team I view as a legitimate title contender that can adequately deal with Bynum would be the Magic. The Cavs will have trouble -- too much trouble -- especially with all those ghosts hovering around and the subtle insults and mind games emanating from Dr. Phil.
Oh, and Kobe. Don't forget Kobe. Trust me, he hasn't forgotten.
