DaveZdyrko.com

The news that KG will likely miss the playoffs practically ensures a seemingly inevitable title showdown between Lebron James and Kobe Bryant. While this saddens me as a Celtics fan that still had moderate to slim hopes of a repeat, it should be a great thing for the NBA and an exciting series to watch. The highly-touted Lakers versus Celtics match-up last year proved to be a bit of a letdown ratings-wise, but Lebron v Kobe should be able to get ratings on par with the Jordan era Bulls. If not, then the NBA’s funk might be even worse than thought.

I’m just unbelievably over-joyed right now. The Boston Celtics just came out and steamrolled the LA Lakers 131-92 tonight to win the team’s 17th NBA Championship and first since 1986. This not only ended their 22 year championship drought, but my own as a fan of professional sports, as the Orioles haven’t won since ’83, the Flyers since ’75 and the Dolphins since the ’73 season (the Flyers and Dolphins have never won a title with me as a fan).

The best part about it was this didn’t seem possible even a year ago. We had just finished one of the worst seasons in team history where we tanked the last half of the season in the hopes of getting the 1st pick in the draft lottery to land Oden or Durant. Then the lottery balls don’t fall our way and we end up getting stuck with the 5th pick of the draft all but ending our hopes of building a championship team for years to come. But then Danny boy traded that pick for Ray Allen, which was universally DOGGED on draft day by all the experts, and then used the leverage of having Ray Ray convince Kevin Garnett to accept a trade to wear Celtic green. And, well, the rest is history. We’re the 2008 NBA Champions!

PS – I think this means that The Curse of Dave Z might be finally over!

Even though Kobe was being his MVP self and Sasha played out of his mind, Game 3 was ours for the taking and we missed out on a great chance to take complete control over this series thanks to some horrible shooting and sloppy play from guys like Paul Pierce. He made some of the laziest passes that ended up being turnovers and was just throwing up bricks left and right while not taking it hard to the hoop. And what’s up with them not fouling when they still had a chance to win or not having a good play call to set up for a three after the time out? Doc Rivers is just retarded some times.

A lot of the credit goes to the Lakers’ D, but guys like Pierce and Garnett just needed to be more aggressive instead of settling for bricks from long range. The reason I thought this was ours for the taking was that despite Kobe’s and Sasha’s efforts, the rest of the team didn’t really do that well. You’re not going to get many games where Odom, Gasol and Fisher all play that poorly on the offensive end in LA. Not to mention the fact that Lakers tried to give it away by making only 61% of their foul shots. I still think we might be able to take at least one of the next two games, but if we don’t then this game will likely be looked at as one that we let slip away.

I don’t even know what to say after that game. The C’s just dominated the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th up until Kobe & The Kobbette’s started nailing three’s like they were going outta style. The weird thing is that even though the lead was cut down to 2 from 24, I never really felt like we were gonna lose this one. Luckily, my feelings held true and they held them off and are now up in the series 2-0. We can easily lose the next three in LA, so the series isn’t a lock yet. I am definitely happier being up 2-0 than I would if we were down 2-0, though. Go Celtics!

We’re just three wins away from an NBA Championship! I know Game 1 doesn’t a series make, but it’s much more important that we win these first two games in Boston than for the Lakers to win even just one so this game was extremely important to me. It was also an amazing game to watch as the series is looking like it could live up to all the Lakers vs. Celtics hype. Game 2 on Sunday will be huge, but I’ll worry about that when the time comes and just try to be excited about this win for the next couple of days. With the Flyers making it deep into the Stanley Cup Playoffs and now with the Celtics in the NBA Finals, this has been one of my best years of a sports fan for quite a long time. Someone needs to tell the Orioles that they ought to be winning more for me! Seriously, did they not get the memo??

Yessssss!!!!!!!! The Celtics are back in the NBA Finals after a 21 year drought and they’ll be in a dream match-up with the league’s MVP Kobe Bryant and his magnificent Los Angeles Lakers. I’m so fucking excited that my heart is just racing like crazy and I can’t help but grin from ear to ear.

To close out Detroit in Auburn Hills tonight in Game 6 was thrilling and I’m so proud of my boys for coming through with their 2nd road win this series. The best part is that it seems we’re getting big games from different people every night. Pierce and Allen came through tonight and so did did role players like James Posey who had a brilliant 4th quarter defensively. The three straight missed free throws definitely made my heart miss a few beats, but the bottom line is that they scored enough points and made enough shots to win.

I’m scared shitless of the Finals match-up with the Lakers and thoroughly believe we’re the underdogs, but, hell, that’s why they play the games. All it takes is another four more wins. It should be an amazing series and I would be beyond thrilled if the boys in green can pull this one out. Go Celtics!!!

I’m fairly exhausted from the four days of mo-cap down in LA followed by the six hour drive back up to the SF Bay Area last night that got me home shortly after mo-cap. My feet hurt and are so swollen that they don’t fit into my sandals anymore and practically every single muscle and joint in my bod is feeling some pain. I wish I could go into details as to why, but that information is classified. Regardless, I should be up for some Mass Effect tonight and will likely do a “Dear Dave” update at some point this weekend. Be sure to contact me quickly if you want your q’s a’d.

I’m a Boston Celtics fan so I’m not complaining, but I’ve been saying from day one that I wouldn’t be surprised if the NBA very strongly urged, if not forced, the T-Wolves to make the Kevin Garnett trade. My reasoning was that the NBA was facing a marketing nightmare because of the Tim Donaghy scandal and needed something to excite the fans. And what better way to do this than giving the C’s KG and making one of the most storied NBA franchises relevant again.

Why do I bring this up again? Well, the Memphis Grizzlies recently completed a trade of its superstar Paul Gasol that looks infinitely worse than the one Kevin McHale got lambasted for when he traded KG to the Celts. Oh, and guess who the trade was with? Yeah, the Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe’s team gave up some scrubs and netted a bona fide stud in Gasol (who debuted with LA tonight scoring 24 pts and pulling down 12 rebounds). It’s as if the basketball god’s (or the NBA front office) is looking for a classic Lakers versus Celtics NBA final to help up its ratings after way too many piss poor draws thanks to teams like the San Antonio Spurs being dominant. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

After working my ass off from 7:30AM to 8:30pm here in Los Angeles, Gordon & I decided to hit up a strip club that my friend Jordanna works at (but doesn’t strip at). I’ll write about it more later, but I’m beyond tired and need to crash. You can still smell stripper on me.

I’m in Los Angeles on a business trip and will be here until Wednesday night. As a result, I may or may not have a new Babe of the Week posted on Monday. I’ll do it if I can but just can’t make any promises. Depending on how things go, I might have some fun STD to brag about having before I head back to San Francisco. I love LA!