The Western Conference finals opened in Los Angeles to chants of "We want Boston" even before the Lakers notched their first win against the Phoenix Suns. Five days later, when the Eastern Conference finals shifted to Boston, the trademark battle cry, "Beat LA," rippled through the TD Garden crowd while the Orlando Magic still had the court. Throughout the season these two cities have been like Meredith Grey and Dr. McDreamy for each other, even as their teams had someone else in town. Well, the tension was cut over the Memorial Day weekend as each got their invitation to the Finals.
Welcome to senior prom, NBA style.
These first two weeks of June have been circled on the calendar since Christmas break, and the angst of getting to the Finals with the one they've been ogling has built to a crescendo in both L.A. and Boston all spring. It's meant a little pain as they've had to date through each other's ugly friends throughout the endless postseason, but with the dirty work done, they now have only each other. Even Kobe Bryant admits, “It's a sexy matchup.”
Phoenix and Orlando: a polite tip of the cap. It was a great fortnight. So what if your dates looked to dump you from the opening tipoff of their conference finals? You got the chance to be seen on the same court with the NBA's hotties, and that will only bolster your reputation next year. Utah, OKC, Cleveland, Miami: feel no shame. Like the football captain and varsity cheerleader, the Lakers and C's are out of your league. Beautiful teams attract, and both are much better looking than you.
A good friend of mine has a theory that we're all attracted to those who resemble us, but what of this case of Los Angeles and Boston? They both look the part of prominent celebrities — this will be a record 25th Finals appearance for the Lakers since moving to Los Angeles, and the 21st for Boston — but differences quickly emerge. With their pretty front man, supporting players that keep a good beat, and the beautiful people who pack Staples Center every night, the Lakers are the NBA's version of the Rolling Stones, while the Celtics are more of the Metallica mold: raw vocals accompanied by a churning rhythm line, grinding out every performance and leaving their audience drenched in perspiration.
Yet, here they are, attracted despite their differences, together for the 12th time as franchises, the 11th as competing cities. Over the NBA's storied life, no two have met for the championship more. A quick aside: there is no love triangle here involving the city of Minneapolis. Los Angeleans, you are playing for your 11th championship. Stop this foolishness about 15 banners. Yours is supposed to be a proud NBA city, too proud to usurp another's titles. Taking what was not earned is very unchampion-like. You have no more claim of ownership on Minneapolis' five titles than does Pamela Anderson on her two breasts.
Nor is this NBA Finals just for the left- and right-coasters. Everyone in between has wanted it all year as well. Make that two years, ever since the 2008 Finals cast us all into a nostalgic yearning for bygone days. Between Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce, vernal confrontations between L.A. and Boston have coursed through our veins and given us our greatest memories as fans, notwithstanding those of our own home teams. Like that first St. Pauli Girl, we'll never forget our first Lakers/Celtics Finals. Mine was 1984.
The Lakers were the cherry atop that year's NBA season, but the C's had the best record and were trying to reclaim lost glory. I was only vaguely aware of the showdown brewing. As the Lakers were departing the West Coast for Game 1 in Boston, some CBS analyst remarked how the two best teams in the NBA were getting onto that one plane, so deep was the L.A. bench. Series over, I remember thinking. Yet, curiosity pulled me in.
That championship wasn't as memorable for how it turned out as for how it played out. It was Woodstock, the end of a different era. Fans wore their emotions on their sleeves as they do now, but they expressed it more notoriously back then. So much so, in fact, that they were part of the show. Jack Nicholson with his choke sign to the Boston crowd in Game 2, and the Garden getting the last laugh after Gerald Henderson stole James Worthy's inbound pass long after Nicholson left. M.L. Carr taking a beer in the face after Game 6 at the Forum, prompting him to play in a pair of ridiculous goggles in mockery of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Larry Bird stepping away from the free throw line as fans poured onto the court. And Celtics players doubling as security along the baseline, warding off fans for another 26 seconds that separated them from their 15th title.
That kind of emotion, of intense hatred for the enemy and total euphoria when he is annihilated, no longer exists outside the European continent. Buckeyes/Wolverines doesn't bring it, nor does Red Sox/Yankees, nor even Conan/Leno. Conflicts are resolved on a more politically-correct landscape now than in 1984, but that's not to say L.A. and Boston can't heat things up again this June.
Lakers fans, for one, have a chip on their shoulder. The 2008 Finals were essentially a six-game sweep for Boston as the Celtics toyed with their team and forced them into playing the Andrew Bynum injury card as a last-ditch effort to save face. Then came the Sasha Vujacic towel tirade and bus-stoning incidents that reduced the Lakers to a punch line and sent them heads hung low out of Boston. This year, they'll have a healthier Bynum, along with a broken-in Pau Gasol and evangelized Ron Artest, but their postseason romp through a Western Conference perennially struggling to find an identity not garbed in purple was nevertheless discounted as a fait accompli even before the playoffs began.
The Celtics fan's story, on the other hand, has been grittier. After suffering through a pedestrian 50-32 regular season, their team was left for dead. Skepticism of the much-ballyhooed switch that their veterans would flip come postseason ran high. Yet, even as that switch did flip, their team's age and ability to go up against the NBA's elite in Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Dwight Howard was always questioned. It's been a case of playing with house money until now, but that's all changed. Bostonians are all-in against the Lakers.
For L.A. and Boston, the action starts Thursday night at the Staples Center. For cities and fans around the rest of the NBA, it's time to clasp hands and form a large circle around them. This is their dance. They've wanted it for a long time, and admit it: you have, too.
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