Celtics win 17th championship

Published Jun 17th, 2008

By Mario Sarmento
SPORTS COMMENTARY

Order was restored in the NBA Tuesday night, as the Boston Celtics – the greatest franchise in league history – raised their 17th championship banner after walloping the Los Angeles Lakers 131-92 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals in Boston.

It was the first NBA title in 22 years for the Celtics, as they restored their winning tradition.

It was a series that lacked a dramatic ending in the closing seconds, but still, this Finals had more drama than recent league championships.

First, there was Celtics forward Paul Pierce going down with a knee injury in Game 1, only to make a Willis Reed-like return a few minutes later to lead Boston to victory.

Pierce turned out to be the best player in the Finals, something no one would have predicted entering the series. And he, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett forever erased their legacy as great players who could never win the big games.

Of course, the other memorable moment – and the defining one of the series – will forever be known as “The Comeback” in Game 4.

Everything the Celtics were about this season was encapsulated in their rally from 24 points down to beat the Lakers: teamwork, tough defense and resiliency.

The Lakers were the favorites entering the Finals, but they turned out to be fool’s gold – doomed by a nonexistent defense and overrated bench.

L.A. may have emerged from one of the most competitive conferences in league history, but outside of a tough series against Utah, the Lakers swept a Denver team in disarray and ousted a weakened defending champion San Antonio Spurs team that had an injured Manu Ginobili and was coming off a grueling seven-game series in the previous round.

For all the talk of how weak the Eastern Conference was, Boston had the more difficult path to the Finals, and the Celts proved to be the more battle-tested team in the Finals.

And then there are Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant. The Zen Master has been widely hailed as a coaching genius for winning nine NBA Championships, but because of a limited roster, he was outcoached by “Doc” Rivers in these Finals.

But while Jackson’s legacy should not be significantly tarnished by the loss, Bryant is another story.

The League MVP was stifled by the Celtics, shooting just 40 percent and averaging six points fewer per game than he had been entering the Finals.

And he proved once and for all that there should be no comparison between he and Michael Jordan.

Jordan would not have allowed the Celtics to complete their Game 4 comeback on his home floor, nor to limit him the way the Celtics did Bryant.

And for all the media hype about how Bryant had “changed” and “figured it out” this season, there were reports all series-long about how Bryant disrespected both his coaches and teammates on the bench throughout the Finals.