The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

Sports

Ranking the NBA Finals teams, from best to worst

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ESPN columnist John Hollinger has lost his mind. He has a column in which he ranks the top NBA finals teams. His ranking is just nuts. Here is an excerpt.

1. 1996 Chicago Bulls

Hands down, the greatest team of all time. How can you choose another when these guys won 72 regular-season games and 14 of their first 15 in the postseason? The Bulls were so good they were first in both offensive and defensive efficiency, and outscored their opponents by 12.2 points per game.

With names like Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, and Toni Kukoc, not to mention a coach like Phil Jackson, this team was pretty much unbeatable — in fact, seven of its playoff wins were by 17 points or more. The only nit to pick was the Bulls’ consecutive losses to the Sonics in the Finals, but they were up 3-0 by then and seemingly bored with how good they were.

The Bulls would never have beaten the 1985, 1987, 1988 championship Lakers teams. They wouldn’t have beaten the ’86 Celtics or the ’89 Pistons either.

For that matter none of the Jordan championship teams could have matched those ’80s teams. They didn’t have enough depth.

Look at Hollinger’s comments about the ’87 Lakers

Fittingly, the great Lakers and Celtics teams are in a virtual dead heat for second place. (You’ll note that I just call the Lakers “Los Angeles” in this list — no risk of confusing them with the Clippers here.) This L.A. team nudged ahead of Boston by virtue of winning 65 games in the regular season and then trashing the West — 11 wins in 12 games — to make the Finals. The Lakers beat the Celtics in six, and for the playoffs as a whole outscored their opponents by 205 points — the best of any team on this list. Seven different players averaged double figures, led by Magic with 23.9 points per game.

Sigh, modern teams just don’t compare. Some fans argue that the teams today are more athletic and there may be some truth to that. But they are fundamentally less sound. You couldn’t leave players alone because they could hit outside shots. It wasn’t all dunking. Now I love that athleticism, but c’mon now.

cleveland Enemy #1- NBA Finals & Sports in General

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What Do You Mean You Are Rooting For The Spurs

I received a blistering email from a person who shall remain unknown in which they expressed their displeasure with my disinterest in rooting for the lowly cavs. They seemed shocked that I would side with the team that is going to win the championship.

So my friends here is a short synopsis of how I determine allegiance to sports teams. In baseball I always root for the N.L. The Dodgers are my first choice and have always been. The sole time I can remember rooting for an AL team in the World Series is when the Angels defeated the hated Giants.

On a side note Dodger fans know that they did this playing Dodger baseball using former Dodgers as their coaches such as Mike Scioscia and Mickey Hatcher.

When it comes to the NBA I am a die hard Laker fan and have been my entire life. One of my fondest memories is watching the Lakers beat the hated celtics. Somewhere among these posts I described what that was like as well as the great LA-Boston waterfight in Hezekiah’s Tunnel.

In the NBA if the Lakers are not playing for the championship I always align myself with the West, especially now. The Eastern Conference as currently constructed is filled with inferior teams. If you moved many of those teams to the Western Conference they wouldn’t even make the playoffs.

But to be fair I will admit to having rooted for the Cavs to beat the flash in the pan over rated pistons.

In response to comments/questions about LeBron James I have this to say. James is a fine player and it appears that he may become a superstar, but he is not there yet. He plays in the weaker conference and has yet to show that he can play at the higher level consistently. In my book you don’t get to be a superstar until you can play that way day in and day out.

And just to cover one other thing, the suggestion that James performance against the pistons was superior to Magic’s rookie year performance against the ’76ers is laughable. Magic was the first rookie to win the MVP Finals award.

When Kareem was hurt Magic started in his place and put up some truly amazing numbers:

42 points, 15 boards, seven assists and three steals.

That was in the final game of the NBA championship against a ’76ers team that is so far superior to the current pistons team.

But to be fair I have to admit that part of what I like about LeBron is that he is very similar to Magic.

Anyhow, that is enough on this. Duncan, Ginobli and Parker are going to run away with this and raise another tropy.

Dear Laker Management

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Dear Laker Management,

It has become apparent that the Lakers are in dire need of the services of an almost 38 year-old Jewish guy who can’t jump any more, doesn’t shoot all that well and isn’t particularly fast. The last time I wrote you was in the early ’90s.

Back in those days I still didn’t shoot all that well but I could still jump. Every now and then I managed to get a hand on the rim. Not only that but I had fast hands and good foot speed. A speedy point guard might have taken me off of the dribble but I always had a way to recover.

But that was then. Now I fill out my uniform in a slightly different way. If you photograph me from the chest up you won’t notice that much of a difference.

Let me cut to the chase. The current team is lacking in many areas. I know that many of the players are banged up. I can see that they aren’t quite 100 percent, but that doesn’t excuse the lack of fire.

I can bring all that and more. I am a hustle player. I can provide that energy, that missing spark. For a paltry $500,000 I’ll come off of the bench and give you everything I have got. I’ll leave it all on the floor. I can still set a pick that will make your teeth rattle, I can box out and I can rebound.

I can’t promise that signing me will bring a championship, but I can guarantee that no one will ever accuse my team of mailing it in.

Think about it. It is more than a great PR move. At $500,000 my services are a steal. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Regards,

Jack B.