INQUIRER Sports

(Homer D. Sayson, a veteran Filipino journalist and writer based in the United States’ West Coast, begins his contributions to the Inquirer starting with the NBA Finals. Sayson will help whet the appetite of Filipino fans on anything NBA with his elegant, factual prose and rich experience in chronicling the world’s greatest cage league. — Ed)

CHICAGO—At 6 feet 7 inches and a lean 225 pounds, he is the NBA’s MVP, arguably the best basketball player on the planet.

He is a blur of perpetual motion on both ends of the floor, averaging 31.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.8 assists in 15 NBA playoffs games thus far this year. Shooting a mind-bending 50.9 percent from the field, Kobe is unstoppable like a woman’s tears.

But as heartbreakingly talented as Kobe Bryant is, he also has more baggage than a cross-country flight. And the heaviest of all those burdens is the expectation to win a championship as the captain, not the sidekick.

Since his divorce from Shaquille O’Neal in the summer of 2005, Kobe has been playing with a chip on his shoulder, carrying an edge, determined to prove that he, too, can scale the NBA’s Promised Land without a 7-foot-1 behemoth doing most of the heavy lifting.

Beginning this Thursday night (Friday morning in Manila), Kobe and the LA Lakers will once again vie for their sport’s ultimate prize. This time, though, Kobe will no longer be just part of the herd. He will be the shepherd, or in NBA-speak, The Man.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2008 NBA Finals.

With Zen Master Phil Jackson pulling one magic string after another, the Lakers are nearly invincible. Entering the Finals, they’ve lit the scoreboard with 105.9 points per game, allowing their foes to score just 99.5 and shoot a dismal 43.3 percent field goal clip.

The scary part is how Jackson’s Five have made it look all too easy. They swept the Denver Nuggets like a junior varsity squad in Round 1. They tuned out the Utah Jazz in Round 2, and they made the defending champion San Antonio Spurs look old and decrepit in a one-sided five-game West Conference Finals.

But don’t call the jewelers just yet, these NBA Finals will be a competition, not a mere coronation. And that’s because there’s a Beast in the East that is determined to quench a 22-year thirst for an NBA title: the Boston Celtics.

Boston and LA are the NBA’s most storied franchises. Boston has won the title 16 times, two more than LA. This is the 11th Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals. And they still hate each other like Iran and Iraq.

Gone are 1980s legends Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. But Celtic Nation has a new Big 3 to worship: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

Of the wholesome threesome, Garnett is the most potent, a former MVP who leads his team with 21.1 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per.

A 7-foot freak of nature, Garnett leaps like a pogo stick, runs faster than a gazelle, and glides like a dream. With 1.15 shotblocks and 1.25 steals a contest, KG—better than known as The Big Ticket—anchors a stern Celtics defense that has surrendered just 87.3 points per in 20 postseason games.

The knock on Pierce is that he hasn’t met a jump shot he didn’t like. But the Celtics don’t seem to mind as long as their 6-foot-7 star nets 19 points a game and makes 44 percent of his shots. Besides making clutch jumpers PP also collars 5.1 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game.

Early in these playoffs, Allen seemed to have lost his mojo. Struggling mightily against the Hawks and the Cavs, he couldn’t find the ocean from the shore. But in the crucible of the East Finals, Allen carried the Celtics to a pivotal Game 5 win, scoring 29 and swishing 5-of-6 from 3-point range.

Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins round up the Celtics starting 5, while James Posey, Sam Cassell, Leon Powe, PJ Brown and Eddie House provide firepower off the bench. They are coached by Doc Rivers, a respected tactician with 14 years of NBA experience as a player.

The Celtics, they’re a tough bunch indeed.

At the end of the day, however, there’s no stopping Kobe and friends. The Lakers are simply better. Much, much.

No, no, the Lakers aren’t a one-man show. It also parades Pau Gasol, a Spaniard with universal skills, able to score 17.7, grab 8.9 rebounds and pass 4.2 assists per game.

And there’s Lamar Odom, an invaluable 6-foot-11 piece of LA’s pointed triangle. In the Lakers’ romp to these Finals, Odom has averaged 14.7 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists.

In other words, the Lakers offense is supremely versatile. And their defense is dangerously intense, filled with a rage that can boil an ocean.

With nine championships rings as a coach, Jackson has once again put together the right pieces necessary to win it all: Derek Fisher, Sasha Vujacic, Vladimir Radmonovic, Luke Walton, Jordan Farmar, Ron Turiaf, etc.

With the risk of sounding immodest, I’ve covered the NBA Finals on-site as a credentialed journalist for seven consecutive years since 2001. Like the others I’ve seen, this, too, will be a gem. Lakers in six.