Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Showtime vs. Bad Boys: TNG
The NBA Finals are set. Lakers vs. Detroit. It's already being billed as a second coming of a rivalry that died about fifteen years ago. That rivalry, of course, being Magic Johnson's "Showtime" Lakers meeting in consecutive finals with Isiah Thomas' "Bad Boy" Pistons. LA won in '88, Detroit in '89. No one from those teams is still playing. In fact, of the two squads set to face off in game one on Sunday, only Karl Malone was in the league when LA and Detroit were vying for the championship.
A generation later, the two franchises hook up again with the ultimate prize on the line and both play similar styles of ball to their uniforms' predecessors. But this isn't going to be nearly as historical a matchup, save for the slim possibility that the Pistons could win (in which case, David would beat Goliath). For one, the Pistons have no dominant leader. Yes, they have Rasheed and Ben Wallace (offensive liability) and Richard Hamilton, but none of those players fit the role of "NBA-poster-boy-and-hall-of-famer-to-be" like Isiah did. There's no figure-head on that team. What's more is that those three pale in comparison to the trio of Malone, Shaq, and Kobe whom they will be guarding. The Lakers, on the other hand, have the two biggest faces in the game today. However, to say that Shaq and Kobe combined have as much charisma in their collective bodies as Magic did in his fingernail is blasphemous. And to say that the Lakers of 2003-2004, the Jekyll and Hyde Lakers, were as consistently good and feared by the rest of the league as much as the Showtime Lakers of the late 80s is equally silly. Granted, an LA victory would give them a mini-dynasty (4 championships in 5 years), but this year's model pales in comparison to, say, the 2001 entry that steamrolled everbody.
The similarities between this generation and the last don't run very far beyond the names on their jerseys. If Detroit is to be taken seriously at all, they'll need to do better than 69 points per game. Magic vs. Isiah was never ever imagined to be one-sided heading into the series. It's never been more apparent than now that the media is desperately trying all they can to spark interest in what could be a very ugly, very short series.
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A generation later, the two franchises hook up again with the ultimate prize on the line and both play similar styles of ball to their uniforms' predecessors. But this isn't going to be nearly as historical a matchup, save for the slim possibility that the Pistons could win (in which case, David would beat Goliath). For one, the Pistons have no dominant leader. Yes, they have Rasheed and Ben Wallace (offensive liability) and Richard Hamilton, but none of those players fit the role of "NBA-poster-boy-and-hall-of-famer-to-be" like Isiah did. There's no figure-head on that team. What's more is that those three pale in comparison to the trio of Malone, Shaq, and Kobe whom they will be guarding. The Lakers, on the other hand, have the two biggest faces in the game today. However, to say that Shaq and Kobe combined have as much charisma in their collective bodies as Magic did in his fingernail is blasphemous. And to say that the Lakers of 2003-2004, the Jekyll and Hyde Lakers, were as consistently good and feared by the rest of the league as much as the Showtime Lakers of the late 80s is equally silly. Granted, an LA victory would give them a mini-dynasty (4 championships in 5 years), but this year's model pales in comparison to, say, the 2001 entry that steamrolled everbody.
The similarities between this generation and the last don't run very far beyond the names on their jerseys. If Detroit is to be taken seriously at all, they'll need to do better than 69 points per game. Magic vs. Isiah was never ever imagined to be one-sided heading into the series. It's never been more apparent than now that the media is desperately trying all they can to spark interest in what could be a very ugly, very short series.
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