The Los Angeles Lakers will probably win the championship. Kobe Bryant’s performance in Game Three was probably an aberrance. Orlando probably can’t stop Pau Gasol in any effective manner over the next four games.
These are not happy statements; but they are probably true.
However, a little bit of hubris out west has precipitated a shred of hope within the cockles of my heart.
You’ve probably heard that, after winning the first two games at home, 94.5 percent of teams go on to win the series. This is a stat that we, as Dallasites, should know well. Because we are part of that ignominious 5.5 percent.
Think back to those suppressed memories of 2006. Dallas, it seemed, was on the verge of their first NBA Championship, up 2-0 on a reeling Heat team. It was about that time that Laura Miller, our esteemed mayor, drew up plans for a victory parade through Downtown Dallas.
The wall of hubris that then collapsed around the city of Dallas as a whole is the stuff of Greek tragedy.
Apparently, though, Los Angeles wasn’t paying much attention.
Los Angeles Police Chief Blake Chow said last week in an e-mail to downtown residents, that a victory parade could happen as soon as next Monday, in the event that the Lakers swept. (Sound familiar?)
Obviously, they didn’t, as Orlando outlasted L.A, in Game Three.
As such, the potential parade dates are as follows: If Los Angeles wins in five, the parade will take place on Wednesday; if it takes six, it will be held on June 19, and, in the case of a seven game series, it will be pushed to June 22.
If there was any poetic justice in the world, or at least in the NBA, Los Angeles would crumble under their own sense of accomplishment.
2009, as an NBA season, has represented an unprecedented parade of hubris; the fact that it was anointed Kobe vs. Lebron before the playoffs even began made Cleveland’s loss to Orlando sweeter than it ever could have been otherwise.
The commercials, documentaries, gushing announcers all make a case for the despicable predictability of the NBA as we know it. The idea of Kobe versus Lebron was so right, so fitting, it seemed, that it became wrong, thoroughly razing any sense of unpredictability in the mind of fans not from L.A. or Cleveland.
The Cavalier’s loss righted this wrong, somewhat.
But for justice to be truly served, the season will end with Dwight Howard hoisting the championship trophy as the Mayor of Los Angeles scratches his head and asks himself, “What the hell am I supposed to do with all this ticker tape?”
I’m not holding my breath here, but one can dream -- even within the context of the NBA.
