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Email Diaries: Cleveland or Boston. Who would you rather face in the NBA Finals?

Written by on 05/07/2010 in Editorials - 4 Comments

And my response:

.

From: Me [mailto:me@xxx.com]
Sent: Friday, May 07, 2010 9:47 AM
To:
Him
Subject: RE:
How

That was fantastic. Great analogy and a fantastic read.

You know what the sad thing is?

They're coming...

The poor people on Planet Cavaliers have no idea that in outer space, not yet visible to the naked eye, is a meteor unlike anything they have ever encountered. Only a month ago this barely visible spec in the sky was once seen as an afterthought, something thought of as incapable of reaching their planet. Something they quickly dismissed.

What they have yet to realize is this meteor controls the fate of their entire existence.

What they can’t yet see is with each passing day this meteor rapidly gains speed and grows infinitely stronger.

As it pushes closer and closer to their once prosperous planet, it starts to come into view. At first only those with a trained eye will realize it’s there, but as it picks up steam it will be impossible to ignore.

While the people on Planet Cavaliers try to recover from a volcanic eruption (Boston) and prepare for a potential hurricane (Orlando), they have no idea that none of it matters. If they manage to get through those disasters alive, all of the work put into picking up the pieces will seem trivial.

At the end of the day, their planet is already doomed. It’s too late. Armageddon is close.

The meteor is now on a collision course with their planet and Bruce Willis or Ben Affleck are not there to save the day. This ain’t the movies, dogg.

Nothing can stop the meteor now. It’s been traveling for too long. It has too much momentum. It’s simply too strong now.

That meteor is the Los Angeles Lakers.

And Planet Cavaliers can’t imagine the devastation it’s capable of.

Me

Was my response a bit much? A little over the top? Way more dramatic than it needed to be?

Yes, yes and yes. But this is the playoffs, you should expect nothing less.

Looking back on our email chain, I don’t think we could epitomize the two fan bases any more succinctly if we tried. Their unbridled fear of extinction. Our blatant conceit and overconfidence.

Maybe they are a worthy foil after all.

Which brings us back to the question at hand: Who should we root for?

The Cleveland fan-base is on the verge of extinction, which makes them dangerous. The crowd will cheer louder than they ever have to let LeBron know he belongs in Cleveland. If things look grim, they could potentially lift him and his (seemingly) mangled elbow up off the mat like a boxer as the count reaches 8. They have the team with the best record in the league. They have the player with the MVP trophy. They will undoubtedly be the more difficult foe.

They have the team I want to face in the NBA Finals.

Bring it on, Cleveland.

Bring it on.

[phpbay]Kobe Lebron, 3[/phpbay]

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  • 18titles

    17 titles, about to be 18 after beating the Lakers again this year…show some respect for the greatest franchise in NBA history

  • 18titles

    17 titles, about to be 18 after beating the Lakers again this year…show some respect for the greatest franchise in NBA history

  • Jeff Lambert

    Dear 18titles,

    Nothing gets my blood boiling quite like Celtics fans. Try as I might not to retort, I just can’t help myself.

    First, let me thank you for characterizing my stereotype better than I ever could. You managed to come off as both completely contemptuous and utterly obnoxious in just 23 simple words.

    Congratulations are certainly in order, however, in this case you are completely off base and clearly have trouble counting. Let me see if I can help you straighten things out.

    Of Boston’s seventeen (17) NBA Championships, eleven (11) of them came in the 1950-60s (40-50 years ago) when the league had 14 or fewer teams. Two (2) came between 1974 and 1976 with arguably the most diluted talent pool in NBA history, when players Like Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Rick Barry, George Gervin, Artis Gilmore, Connie Hawkins, Spencer Haywood, Dan Issel and David Thompson were all taking paychecks from the ABA.

    After a great run in the early 1980s, the Celtics managed to stay title-less for the second half of the Bird Era and floundered in mediocrity and irrelevance for nearly two full decades.

    The Lakers, on the other hand, have a history of consistent greatness. They have the most NBA Finals appearances (30), most wins in regular season history (3027), best winning percentage in regular season history (61.9%), most wins in playoff history (413), best winning percentage in playoff history (60.3%), the record for most consecutive games won by a professional sports team (33), 22 Hall of Famers, and the second most NBA Titles in league history (15 and counting).

    I hope my article didn’t insinuate that I don’t have respect for the Celtics. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the Boston Celtics, a proud franchise with a great history of winning.

    It’s the fans who are bothersome, not the franchise. While they are busy making unfounded declarative statements, they fail to look at the big picture.

    I’m sure my rant will undoubtedly bring about a 17 titles argument, a cute 17 > 15 diagram or something of the sort. The sad part is, that’s all you have. And with a vast majority of those titles coming WELL before you or I were ever born, it’s time to grab onto something new.

    I say this because you and I can both feel it slipping from your grasp, as it’s the Lakers, not the Celtics, who are in position to control NBA hardware for the next 5 years.

    Good luck against Orlando. We’ll be waiting.

  • Jeff Lambert

    Dear 18titles,

    Nothing gets my blood boiling quite like Celtics fans. Try as I might not to retort, I just can’t help myself.

    First, let me thank you for characterizing my stereotype better than I ever could. You managed to come off as both completely contemptuous and utterly obnoxious in just 23 simple words.

    Congratulations are certainly in order, however, in this case you are completely off base and clearly have trouble counting. Let me see if I can help you straighten things out.

    Of Boston’s seventeen (17) NBA Championships, eleven (11) of them came in the 1950-60s (40-50 years ago) when the league had 14 or fewer teams. Two (2) came between 1974 and 1976 with arguably the most diluted talent pool in NBA history, when players Like Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Rick Barry, George Gervin, Artis Gilmore, Connie Hawkins, Spencer Haywood, Dan Issel and David Thompson were all taking paychecks from the ABA.

    After a great run in the early 1980s, the Celtics managed to stay title-less for the second half of the Bird Era and floundered in mediocrity and irrelevance for nearly two full decades.

    The Lakers, on the other hand, have a history of consistent greatness. They have the most NBA Finals appearances (30), most wins in regular season history (3027), best winning percentage in regular season history (61.9%), most wins in playoff history (413), best winning percentage in playoff history (60.3%), the record for most consecutive games won by a professional sports team (33), 22 Hall of Famers, and the second most NBA Titles in league history (15 and counting).

    I hope my article didn’t insinuate that I don’t have respect for the Celtics. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the Boston Celtics, a proud franchise with a great history of winning.

    It’s the fans who are bothersome, not the franchise. While they are busy making unfounded declarative statements, they fail to look at the big picture.

    I’m sure my rant will undoubtedly bring about a 17 titles argument, a cute 17 > 15 diagram or something of the sort. The sad part is, that’s all you have. And with a vast majority of those titles coming WELL before you or I were ever born, it’s time to grab onto something new.

    I say this because you and I can both feel it slipping from your grasp, as it’s the Lakers, not the Celtics, who are in position to control NBA hardware for the next 5 years.

    Good luck against Orlando. We’ll be waiting.