NBA FINALS 2009
I’m in to it. Los Angeles Lakers v Orlando Magic. Bryant. Howard. It’s all good!!! Pretty good night for Kobe and the Lakers in Game One. 40 points with two minutes remaining. I think the Lakers will win the series in 6. However, I have been totally impressed with Orlando. They really put it on Cleveland. They were underdogs against Boston and Cleveland. Howard is a beast in the paint. But tonight has shown something that, even though I’m not a Kobe fan, I must confess; Kobe Bryant is one of the best ever. Tonight he is reminding me of some of the things that Michael Jordan used to do. Magic Johnson just said that Kobe is the “best player in the world,” and I must agree. So, here tonight I thought I would post some of my opinions about the NBA Finals.
Best Player in the World: 2009 Kobe Bryant. 1998 Michael Jordan. 1987 Magic Johnson. 1981 Larry Bird. 1974 Julius Erving.
Hardest working player in Finals History: Larry Bird, Boston Celtics. It’s hard enough to become an NBA Champion or MVP when you are an unbelievable athlete with God-given talent. It’s even harder when you are a slow, uncoordinated, white guy who can’t jump over a snail. Bird wasn’t an athlete but he was the hardest working over-achiever in basketball history. He was also arguably the smartest player ever.
Most Versatile Player in Finals History - Magic Johnson, Los Angeles Lakers. In 1980, when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar went down with an injury, Magic played center and scored 42 points and grabbed 15 boards against Philadelphia. That was perhaps the greatest single game Finals performance ever. Johnson is the NBA’s all-time leader in assists per game with an average of 11.2, holds the Finals record for assists in a game (21), and has the most playoff assists (2,346).
Best Overall Player in Finals History - This one is easy. Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls scored nearly 6,000 playoff points, averaged 33.4 points per game in the playoffs, played in six NBA Finals in his 15-year career winning each series and his 41.0 points per game in 1993 are still an NBA record. No other player could take over a game like “MJ.” A friend recently said to me, “Jordan embodied the best of Bird and Magic … Hard worker like Bird and supreme natural talent like Johnson.” Suffice to say, he was kinda good.
Best Shot in Finals history - Julius Erving, Philadelphia 76ers 1980 v Los Angeles Lakers. Erving got the ball on the right side of the court and beat Mark Landsberger to the baseline. Cradling the ball, Doc rose towards the rim. Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar moved over to block Erving’s path. The doctor kept gliding in midair all the way to the other side of the rim to the left corner of the backboard and flipped in a reverse layup. Magic Johnson said, “I couldn’t believe my eyes, it’s still the greatest move I’ve ever seen in a basketball game … the all-time greatest.”
My NBA Finals Team –
G – Magic Johnson
G – Kobe Bryant
G – Michael Jordan
F – Larry Bird
C – Shaquille O’Neal
6th Man – Julius Erving
Bench (honorable Mention) – Tim Duncan, Dwayne Wade, Willis Reed, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Joe Dumars and Hakeem Olajuwon.
