NBA Conference Finals 2007

[Bloodline666]

I, like the rest of the Spurs faithful in my hometown, am excited to see the Spurs back in the Finals for a 4th time, possibly grabbing a 4th NBA title. Though I would've liked this game to be won by the Spurs under less favorable circumstances, since Deron Williams was playing with a bad ankle, not to mention the fact that Derek Fisher did not enter the game until the 2nd half due to his daughter having a follow-up to her eye cancer treatment all the way in New York (interestingly enough, that follow-up was scheduled weeks in advance, so there was no way of knowing ahead of time whether the Jazz would be facing elimination that day). I think the week-long rest for the Spurs will help them in the long-run, especially given the average age of the team.

And the saga in L.A. continues to take attention away from the playoffs. First, it's reported that Kobe either wants Jerry West back in the Lakers front office or he wants out. Then, he retracts that statement by saying it would be nice to have Jerry West back in the Lakers front office. Then, in an interview with ESPN's Stephen A. Smith (perhaps the most animated analyst in all of sports), he says point-blank that he in fact wants to be traded from the Lakers, and that there's nothing the Lakers organization can do to keep him a Laker. And now, he's retracted that statement as well. So I think this coming off-season is going to be very interesting. As for that saga, I'm gonna have to stay neutral on that, and I feel both sides were wrong. For starters, I feel Kobe has betrayed the trust of the Lakers by demanding this trade, because when Kobe was going through that rape trial in Colorado, the Lakers players (save for Shaq, obviously), coaching staff, and organization at large stood by Kobe through thick and thin, and for Kobe to make the remarks he made was a stab in the back to the organization. On the same token, though, when Kobe opted out of his contract back in 04 to test the free agency market before ultimately deciding to re-sign with the Lakers, he did so because he felt he was made a promise by the Lakers organization that they would rebuild the team into a championship contender around him. Well, three years later, the Lakers have one lottery pick and two consecutive first-round exits to show for that "rebuilding", so it tells me the Lakers betrayed Kobe's trust by doing a horrible job at rebuilding the team.

Oh, and if you were watching the post-game presentation of the Western Conference Championship trophy, when it was Bruce Bowen's turn to speak, it sure SOUNDED like he was being booed by his own team's home crowd. The fact is, the fans were NOT saying "boo", they were saying "Bruce." Bills fans did the same thing with Bruce Smith, and Rams fans did this with Isaac Bruce. So basically, if you're a pro athlete and your name just happens to have the word "Bruce" in it, your home crowd is gonna stretch out the name "Bruce" and make it sound like you're being booed when you're really not.