Monday, June 1, 2009

Finaslly!


In 1992, Reebok focused their Barcelona Olympics marketing campaign on two U.S. decathletes, Dan O'Brien and Dave Johnson. Reebok spent months and millions building up the hype for an epic decathlon battle.

One problem. Dan failed to make the Olympic team.

Jump ahead to 2009 and both Nike and Vitamin Water made the same mistake. Each company paired LeBron James against Kobe Bryant in ad campaigns, assuming both would lead their respective teams to the NBA Finals.

One problem. LeBron didn't make it.

We spent two months anticipating something that won't happen. At least last year, the Lakers-Celtics hype came to fruition. This just exposes the NBA Playoffs as the drawn out, anti-climactic bore fest they usually are.

Regarding LeBron, for all the sports media sycophants who think he's the greatest thing since Lady Gaga, keep this in mind - MJ would never let his team go out like LeBron let the Cavs go out in the Eastern Conference Finals. They were completely overmatched.

Save for Stan Van Gundy forgetting to coach for the final second in Game 2, Cleveland should have been swept.

At this point in his career, LeBron is good for filling up a box score.

Truth be told, a Kobe/LeBron Finals would have been great to watch, and great for the game.

Now NBA fans will be subjected to an Orlando team, that aside from Dwight Howard, is about as intriguing as Jon & Kate Plus 8. Their roster features an assortment of slightly above average NBA players - almost all acquired via free agency or trade.

The Lakers enter The Finals as a team that still has yet to truly hit its stride. For whatever reason, they don't have that unbeatable aura around them that they carried until last year's Finals.

And it really doesn't matter if they "click" during The Finals either. Because the Magic stand no chance.

This one is over in 5.

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