Perennial Winners' Big Week

What a week! Can Big Brown get a do-over? In a week in which fans of Tiger Woods, Tar Heel basketball, and the Boston Celtics celebrated glorious outcomes on and off the field of play, perhaps the big stallion may have run to a different fate.

Monday, Tiger completed a dramatic 19th Hole sudden death playoff victory over Rocco Mediate to win the US Open in San Diego, California. On the 91st hole of the Open, and the 19th of the day, Woods, who is rehabbing after surgery, watched as Mediate missed a putt for par, resulting in Tiger winning his 3rd US Open, his 9th USGA title, tying Bobby Jones for the most ever, and his 14th Major, leaving him four behind the Golden Bear, Jack Nicklaus.

Also Monday, after two suspense-filled months, Three University of North Carolina basketball players announced they would return to the University to continue pursuing their degrees, and to secure another shot at College Basketball’s Holy Grail, a trip to the Final Four, and a National Championship. Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington, the Heels’ starting backcourt, along with 6th Man, Danny Green, made a joint announcement Monday afternoon at 4:42 p.m.; a mere 18 minutes before the deadline to forgo their college eligibility.

With these three young men returning, Tar Heel fans across the Nation exulted. The Heels, who were rudely dismissed from this spring’s Final Four, are now set to return their top six scorers, their entire starting five, and the reigning consensus National Player of the Year, Tyler Hansbrough. In addition, three high school McDonald’s All-Americans, Ed Davis, Tyler Zeller, and Larry Drew, Jr., will matriculate this fall. In conventional parlance, the Heels will be loaded; not only favorites to return to the Final Four, but to win the Title.

Finally, in Act III of this 3-part (sports) Passion play, the Boston Celtics annihilated the Los Angeles Lakers 131-92 to win game 6 of the NBA Finals, and their record 17th NBA Championship. The hapless Lakers, in a game in which they appeared even more overmatched than the Tar Heels did against Kansas last spring, fell behind quickly, and in an apparent collective team decision, chose to assume the position, and go quietly into that good night.

The Lakers are my favorite sports team…period. The Dodgers are my favorite baseball team, Carolina is my favorite college basketball team, and the Panthers are my football team of choice. But in all of sports, if I have to pick one team, and one team only…it is the Lakers, and there is no close second.

Given that admission, you know I am not a happy camper today. In what will go down as one of the more thorough thrashings in an NBA Finals deciding game, the Lakers were demolished by half-time, and had quit by the 3rd quarter. I congratulate the Celtics and Celtic’s fans everywhere, even those bandwagon types who piled on, ostensibly, in support of game 6 MVP Kevin Garnett, veteran Ray Allen, of course, Finals MVP Paul Pierce, and Head Coach Doc Rivers.

As I stand on the sidelines and solemnly observe their well-deserved celebration, I know the best team won. The Celtics established their superiority in game 1, and demonstrated it throughout the series. Yes, they lost a couple of games, but they never lost control of the Finals. There are those who say Kobe did not have enough help, and others who insist Lakers‘ Coach, Phil Jackson, was out maneuvered, while others cite the significant influence of European players as the reasons for the Lakers’ persistent difficulties.

While any or all these things may have been factors, I prefer to place the blame…or credit if you prefer, squarely where I believe it belongs…in Boston. The Celtics were simply better, and they proved it all year long. They had the best record in the NBA, they swept the Lakers during the regular season, and they used the Finals an opportunity to validate their season long superiority.

I salute Tiger Woods, the North Carolina Tar Heels, and the Boston Celtics, perennial winners, in this final week before the summer of ’08. Each wins with such regularity that many fans often root against them simply because they win so often. In some circles that phenomenon is called hateration, or more commonly hatin'. This is particularly common for people whose favorite teams are routinely defeated by a perennial individual or team winner. Suffice it to say, right now, I am a bona fide Celtics hater. for the record, the vaunted Celts have played the Lakers 12 times in the NBA Finals, winning 10. Yeah, I hate the Celtics.

Holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. A new post is published each Wednesday.


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