"The Suckiest Bunch of Sucks that Ever Sucked"

For good measure, here's the full quote:

Homer: Yeah, Moe, that team sure did suck last night. They just plain sucked! I've seen teams suck before, but they were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked!
Marge: HOMER!
Homer: I gotta go Moe my damn weiner kids are listening.

No, not the Yankees (for once)--I'm talking about the Lakers, of course. Not to take anything away from the Celtics, who played great team basketball throughout the playoffs and clearly raised their game last night, but I have never seen a team less invested in the outcome of a Finals elimination game. The Lakers looked like the Generals last night. I mentioned how disappointed I have been with the NBA playoffs, and this game was an exaggerated example of why--whether or not they actually did roll over, too many teams seemed to resign themselves to losing from the outset of games. Fight for the 1st quarter, maybe, and then let destiny take its course. In other words, the almost every playoff game resembled a Knicks game. It was as if every road/underdog team thought to itself, "No one expects us to win, so as long as we start off with a run/energy/some fight, we can get make it look like we thought we had a chance." Now, if you support the teams that ended up blowing out road/underdog teams, this is fantastic (I doubt any Celtic fans were overly concerned with the quality of play last night, and I don't blame them in the least--I hope the Knicks win every game 125-0). If you are anyone else, this is abominable.

Now, I am not one of those people who think that players owe it to any fans (their own or otherwise) to put up a fight. If a player feels they do, great, I'll probably like them a bit more, but otherwise, players really only ever owe it to themselves to try. The effect on fans is clear (the basketball, in this case, was awful to watch), but is not necessarily why the Lakers, in this case, should have put some effort into an elimination game. In other words, I know that my entertainment is not why any body plays basketball, but it is always annoying disappointing when an event I hoped would entertain me fails (miserably) to do so.

So, aside from the fact that I really wanted there to be a 7th game (since all I have to look forward to after the NBA Finals are through is a mediocre Yankees team and Euro 2008), I was simply hoping to see some competitive basketball last night. Instead, I got the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.

For a brief bit of comparison, I was disappointed in France-Italy, but it's hard to blame France for losing 2-0 after losing a man in the 25th minute. The Lakers, on the other hand, came out with a purpose and then disappeared completely. We'll never know how much differently this series (and season) would have gone if Andrew Bynum were around to give the Lakers some semblance of an inside presence this series, but given the way they so completely folded last night, it's hard to argue that he would have made much of a difference.

Hopefully Sweden-Russia will give me more this afternoon.
(Note: I have no idea why quote at the top remained giant. I tried my damndest to get it down to size--cue prostate drug commercial joke--but it stayed that way any way).