So, tomorrow night the Detroit Pistons play the Los Angeles Lakers for the NBA Championship. Most sports pundits give LA, with four future Hall of Famers in their starting lineup, a considerable edge in this series. My brain tells me that LA will win in four, maybe five. Ah, but my heart....
The LA Lakers have Shaq (also known as "Superman," just read his tattoo) and Kobe. They have Karl "The Mailman" Malone and Gary "The Glove" Payton, who came to LA just to get championship rings. Heck, some of the Pistons are going to be asking for autographs. The only way that most of the current Pistons players are going to get into the Hall of Fame is if they buy a ticket. Even their fans (Jack Nicholson for example) are better than ours (Kid Rock was in the house the other night.) How can Detroit hope to compete?
Meet the Wallaces, Lakers. Big Ben and Ra-SHEED. The Great Wall of Wallace. You want interior prescence? We got your presence right here! And who was that masked man, you ask? That was Richard "Rip" Hamilton or as we say in Detroit "Hamil-time." Ask Reggie Miller and Ron Artest if Rip can get in your head while putting the ball through the net.
And, man, what can you say about Tayshaun "The Prince is in the Palace" Prince? Everytime I ask why Larry Brown is still playing him, he does something amazing. Reggie must still have nightmares about The Block.
And Chauncey. (I know, how can an NBA player named "Chauncey" not have a cool nickname?) If he is in the building, he is in range. Ask the Nets.
You go to the Pistons bench and you see Lindsey Hunter (guys named Lindsey need nicknames too) and Mehmet Okur (nicknamed Memo, not cool but still better than Chauncey and Lindsey.) Not to mention Darvin Ham. (Okay, I give up on the nickname jokes.)
Even the Lakers bench is cooler than ours. Kareem Rush sounds like a guy that can make 6 3-pointers for LA. Luke Walton, basketball star by pedigree, may not get to the Hall of Fame, but his dad can always get him in. Okay, so Stanislav Medvedenko isn't the coolest sounding name.
What it comes down to is the working class team that no one thought should get to the Finals is playing the team that EVERYONE thought would get to the Finals. Bad Boys II versus the New Showtime. Hey, what happened the last time that Detroit played LA in the NBA Finals? Hmm, Isiah kissed Magic and then...............maybe miracles can happen!