Rematch

My friend Andrew helped get me interested in professional basketball 21 years ago, when I became a Los Angeles Lakers fan in time to watch the classic 1987 NBA Finals match-up between the “Showtime” Lakers with Coach Riley, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, James Worthy, A.C. Green, and Michael Cooper (plus Kurt Rambis) and the Boston Celtics with Coach Jones and Larry Bird, Keven McHale, Robert Parrish, Danny Ainge, and Dennis Johnson. The fact that I can remember all 10 starters – including future 1992 Olympics Dream Teamers and former NCAA March Madness finals opponents Johnson (then from Michigan State) and Bird (then from Indiana State) – shows you how indelibly those teams and that Finals are imprinted in my brain. Up until then, I’d been pretty much a college football fan (not unusual for a North Floridian). I watched some of these games while house-sitting at Pete and Ysonde’s old house, keeping in touch with Andrew by phone, during this odd hiatus, in between working for the “Flambeau” and going to grad school, when I worked for United Press International’s Capital bureau and deadlines and union rules forced me to go home by 5:30 p.m. (giving me more time for basketball). LA’s coach and team were flashy(and most of its players were African-American – and then there was Magic’s big smile) while Boston had three white starters and several low-key players whose determination made up for their lack of charisma.

An awful lot has happened to Magic and Larry and Andrew and I and professional sports and the whole world since 1987 (including Magic’s illness). But 21 years later, the epic Lakers vs. Celtics series is back, with roles somewhat reversed. Ainge, now Boston’s general manager, (who took over a team that had started to soar under now University of Louisville Coach Rick Pitino) has put together a team with big veteran stars (including former Timberwolf Kevin Garnett and former Buck and Sonic Ray Allen, and longtime Celtic Paul Pierce, along with former Seminole, Rocket, and Timberwolf Sam Cassell, and former Kentucky Wildcat Rajon Rondo) (plus former Knicks power guard “Doc” Rivers, team coach) that beat former champion Detroit and got former Timberwolves Flip Saunders fired to make it to the Finals. The Lakers are arguably still recovering from the Shaquille O’Neal trade, but have a good player, Lamar Odom, they got in the trade with the Miami Heat and recently acquired Spaniard Pau Gasol from Memphis. But – without Shaq – Laker veteran and league MVP Kobe Bryant is the unchallenged big team star – perhaps along with Phil Jackson, former Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan coach extraordinaire – and most other players have yet to become household names.

(I was also in Minneapolis for some of the classic 2004 Kobe and the Lakers vs. Kevin Garnett and the Timberwolves Western Conference Finals match-up.)

Go Lakers! Go Celtics! Let’s hope for a great Finals, starting Thursday night.