Maybe beating Orlando was the easy part. The hard part might be bringing the band back together next year. Because the Lakers are young, people talk as if all they have to do is find a way to keep Ariza and Lamar Odom around, and they’ve got a shot at more titles in the coming 3 or 4 years. If only it were that easy. On July 1, 2009, Pau Gasol, Derek Fisher, Luke Walton, etc., and a good number of Laker fans will be at the edge of...

QUESTION: what does the McDonald’s fast food chain and NBA Officiating having in common? ANSWER: They are both run by a clown named Ronald. Retiring U.S. Army General, Ronald L. Johnson, was hired to be the NBA’s “senior vice president of referee operations,” a newly created position, In the aftermath of the Tim Donaghy scandal. Four things about this raised my eyebrows. (1) During tough economic times, when the NBA...

People are being too hard on Stan Van Gundy and the Magic for the loss. With 20 / 20 hindsight, it’s easy to criticize the Magic, but EVERYONE knows Dwight Howard is a poor free throw shooter. In the Olympics, he was out and out embarrassing, so why are we harping on him for missing free throws at crunch time? Shouldn’t we be talking about the smart risks the Lakers took putting him in that position? And as for Jameer Nelson not...

With the Lakers up 3-1 in the 2009 NBA Finals, and 1 win away from history, it feels as if the Los Angeles Lakers have dominated the Orlando Magic and that a championship is inevitable, so let’s pause for a moment to notice just how close success and failure can be to each other, and what makes a champion. And while it would be cool if someone else read and enjoyed this, frankly I’m writing this mostly to remind myself how I...

— THE GOOD NEWS FOR ORLANDO — The good news for the Orlando Magic is they can play like that again. Perhaps they won’t break a Finals record for shooting percentage (62.5%) again, but they can definitely replicate the play that won them game 3. More good news? Their confidence should be higher having done it already. Even more good news? The Magic now has more than just theories on how to beat Los Angeles, they have game...

— NBA FINALS WORST TO NBA FINALS BEST?! — The Magic went from shooting 29.9% in game 1, to setting an NBA Finals record for shooting percentage in a half (75%), and an NBA Finals record for best shooting percentage for a game (62.5%). Normally, when a team shoots THIS well, it is because they got a lot of inside shots and transition points, but not so this game with the Orlando Magic. — LAKERS WIN POINTS IN THE PAINT AGAIN...

Ten Observations about game 2 of the 2009 NBA Finals: (1) The Orlando Magic blew TWO layups / opportunities to win in the last 12 seconds of regulation While everyone is talking about Courtney Lee missing the layup with 0.6 left in regulation, we ought to be talking about the fact that Courtney Lee missed a lay up just 12 seconds earlier as well. Had Lee made the 1st layup, with Kobe’s subsequent shot getting blocked, the Magic would...

panacea [pan-a-see-a] Noun a remedy for all diseases or problems [Greek pan- all + akes remedy] There is a lot of talk about Courtney Lee missing that final shot in regulation of game 2 of the 2009 NBA Finals, but look at that shot in context: (1) Courtney Lee had just missed a wide open layup less than 12 seconds earlier, which is how the Lakers ended up with the ball and 9.1 seconds left in regulation to begin with. Courtney Lee took...

It’s Disney World verses Disney Land… — MONSTERS, INC. — Orlando is 35-7 when they lead their opponents in rebounding. Orlando is 42-4 when they score more than 100 points. What is more, during their regular season match ups the Magic averaged 107.5 points per game and shot 46.5 percent against the Lakers. Clearly, this isn’t the regular season. — RETURN TO NEVERLAND — Phil Jackson had his Lakers...

“I am saying it today and today only,” reads the tweet from Shaquille O’Neal. “I want kobe bryant to get number four, spread da word.” Sorry this is late; I unexpectedly fell very ill and am only now sitting up again. However, it’s not like there has been a severe shortage of things to read on the 2009 NBA Finals, is there? One of the best articles I’ve read is this piece on RealGM.com. Among other...

This is the first article of a two part series; the NEXT article will be titled “Why Phil Jackson may win his 10th championship this year.” Until recently, Orlando’s basketball resume read like this (in no particular order): o Fired former Coach of the Year Doc Rivers, then watched Doc win an NBA Championship 4 years later as coach of the Boston Celtics o Burned through 6 coaches in the last 5 years, including the hiring...