I can clearly remember the days of yore. The time when the Celtics and the Lakers were the two teams that believed the NBA was their personal organization.
It seemed they could have just called up each other at the close of the regular series and say: "Boston this is LA calling to set up a seven game appointment and the winner will have the bragging rights until we do the same thing next year."
Yes, it might sound redundant. In all actuality, it was very redundant.
You could have placed a bet that at the close of the regular series it would be Boston and the Lakers playing for all the marbles.
However, time has a way of doing some amazing things. Many must have wondered "oh how the mighty has fallen!"
The great Celtics have not been seen on top of the totem pole for over two decades.
After finishing at the bottom of the league last year, like the proverbial "Phoenix" –the bird not the team down there in Arizona— the Celtics have risen from the dust and perched atop the pole once again.
According to their record, the Celtics have become best team in the NBA this season, making history in the process.
The fallen has risen and will fly magnificently again.
Can the prominence be regained? Will the Celtics lose power while in full flight? Will they become a victim of the most deadly team in the league? A team that can make a comeback—even when down twenty points—and win?
Will they be fatally struck by the venom of the "Black Mamba"?
If you guessed that I am a Lakers fan—you are dead right!
However, I am more eager to see these two perennial giants square off next Thursday, than I am prepared to be the ethnocentric Lakers fan!
I can feel the excitement; I can see the intensity in the eyes of Kevin Garnet. I sense the urgency in Kobe Bryant. I am in awe of the Zen Master's composure. I can identify with the swelling tide of pride of accomplishment shown on the face of Doc Rivers, the onetime great.
I want to watch a repeat of history with my son— not even in my imagination when these two teams were powerful and deadly foes—so that we may talk trash, while watching history.
History not merely repeated, but reinvented.
After twenty one long and dreary years of famine, we will now have the rain that will bring showers of excitement for Celtics and Lakers fans alike and yes, renew the age old rivalry.
Let the games begin! And remember, there can only be one! Lakers in six.
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