One inescapable aspect of any major athletic league is promotion. Whether of the self- variety or via shoe companies, there's always a rush to attach a brand to a superstar's face... as many times as possible. It's not enjoyable; it's just business.
To that end, "witness" the relentless promotion of "LeBron vs. Kobe." Between the steadily improving "puppet" ads by Nike and the Vitamin Water ads, it was clear that David Stern and the NBA knew what its most marketable Finals would be. Kobe vs. LeBron was coming.
But then a funny thing happened: the Orlando Magic exposed a serious flaw in LeBron and the Cavs' game, but not in the way you'd think. LeBron wasn't exposed as a fraud; this was a giantly productive series for him. The problem is that the Cavs figured out pretty early that they would be getting rather favorable treatment from the referees and played that way; the same held true on Orlando's side, but we'll get back to that in a second.
For LeBron and Cleveland (but mainly LeBron), playing with the knowledge that a foul can be had was maybe the worst thing that could have happened. It turned every meaningful possession (and plenty of non-meaningful ones) into LeBron-on-5. That worked in the 4th quarter of Game 5, but even when it works, it spells bad news.
Look at the end of Game 4, which was a ludicrously officiated game. At the end of regulation with the Cavaliers down 2, LeBron drove toward the basket--no no, he drove toward the defender, Mickael Pietrus, made contact, then fell down. Foul on Pietrus. At no point was LeBron thinking about hitting a shot; he was trying to get to the line, and he got it. it was a productive strategy, but it only reinforced the notion that LeBron could play for a foul. When he tried the "jump into a guy on a late three pointer" maneuver that hasn't worked since Reggie Miller retired, even the referees had the common sense not to blow the whistle; meanwhile, the horrendous form on the shot caused it to clang harmlessly off the rim. It was a waste of a crucial opportunity.
Nobody on Orlando would have tried that, though, because they also knew they were fighting an uphill battle with the calls, and I think that had a galvanizing effect on them, a "waaaait a second, we're actually literally better than them and the league knows it" realization.
Oh, and before we go any further, an aside. While David Stern would have loved the financial windfall of LeBron vs. Kobe in the finals, I don't think he or Stu Jackson was rigging any officiating (even if both teams were playing as if they had). Hanlon's Razor, which is one of my favorite maxims of all times, states: "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence." The refs weren't being told to tilt things in Cleveland's favor; they did it because they're not very good and they have no idea how to officiate someone like LeBron (and he knows it).
So Orlando not only persevered through a hailstorm of bad calls, the most egregious of examples coming in Game 2 or that horrendous, later-overturned technical on Dwight Howard in Game 4, but they probably drew strength and confidence from it. And speaking of incompetence, chalk some up my way for not mentioning Howard until now; his Game 6 was masterful, the fatal stake in the heart of Cleveland's hopes. 40 points on 21 shots, 14 rebounds (6 offensive), 4 assists and only 2 turnovers? Forget it; that's unfair. Granted, there's few competent on-the-ball post defenders on the Cavs (sorry, Ben Wallace), but we're only now about to find out if Andrew Bynum or Pau Gasol qualify themselves.
That said, the Lakers, unlike the Cavaliers, played like the title is to be won by a team and not a face. Kobe has been their MVP of each series, of course; I sometimes wonder how he ever misses a shot. But Kobe's big leap has been acknowledging (if only to himself) that he needs help, and he has gotten plenty of it from Gasol, Bynum, Lamar Odom, and Trevor Ariza. Granted, logic dictates that those four and Bryant can't be on the floor at the same time, which forces a stinker like Derek Fisher or Jordan Farmar into the lineup. Point guard abominations aside, the Lakers, not just Kobe, played inspired basketball to close out the Denver series.
And now, the Lakers face the Magic. In the face of the breathless Kobe-LeBron hype, it's refreshing to see a Finals comprised of two teams who still realize basketball is a five-on-five sport
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