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  July 2010

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Just a few hours ago, the Pittsburgh Penguins upset the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 in a classic Game Seven of the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals to give the organization its first championship since 1992. While it doesn’t look like the 2009 NBA Finals will come anywhere close to a Game Seven, what’s considered by some to be the greatest Finals in the league’s history came to a winner-take-all finish 25 years ago today. Paced by 24 points from Cedric Maxwell and a plus-19 advantage on the boards, the Boston Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 111-102 in Game Seven of the classic 1984 NBA Finals. Continue on to examine other championship clinchers on this day in basketball history, including Magic Johnson’s last Finals’ game and Michael Jordan’s first title in 1991, and the Lakers’ three peat in 2002.

The ideal role model versus the anti role model. The golden boy vs. the bad boy. Altitude vs. attitude. Make no mistake about it, the 1993 NBA Finals was primarily about two very good teams, the two-time defending champion Chicago Bulls and the rising Phoenix Suns, battling for an NBA title. Still, this series was also about two of the game’s biggest superstars, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkely, meeting on the biggest stage. Sixteen years ago today in Game Two of the 1993 NBA Finals, Jordan and Barkley became the first opposing players in Finals history to each score 40 points in the same game. While both players would end up with 42 points, it was Jordan and his Bulls who got what mattered most: the victory and a 2-0 series lead. Continue on to examine the 1993 NBA Finals pitting His Airness with His Scariness.

June 10th is a historical date when it comes to women’s basketball. On this day in 1977, Lusia Harris of tiny Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi became the first woman ever drafted by an NBA team. Harris was a seventh round selection of the then New Orleans Jazz but would not attend camp with the team since she was pregnant. Approximately nine years later, current ESPN sideline reporter/basketball analyst Nancy Lieberman-Cline became the first woman to ever play in a professional men’s basketball game. Suiting up for the Springfield Fame of the United States Basketball League, Lieberman would be not only a victor on the court (her team defeated the Staten Island Stallions 122-107) but more importantly an inspiration to women basketball players all over. Continue on to examine this significant day in basketball history.

Through two games of the 2009 NBA Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers have done a magnificent job of limiting and frustrating Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard. While fouling Howard when they needed to (sending him to the line a combined 25 times in the first two games), the Lakers have been pretty effective for the most part in utilizing their lengthy front line and collapsing perimeter players to swarm Howard and make it hard for him to move around the rim. By no means have the Lakers had to rely on a Hack-a-Shaq philosophy with Howard, something that the Indiana Pacers did nine years ago today. In Game Two of the 2000 NBA Finals, the Pacers sent L.A.’s Shaquille O’Neal to the free throw line an NBA-playoff record 39 times in an eventual seven-point loss. Continue on to examine how the notoriously bad free throw shooter Shaq responded to getting hacked so much in Game Two.

Last night the Los Angeles Lakers were able to take a 2-0 series lead in the 2009 NBA Finals with an overtime home victory against the Orlando Magic. Five years ago today, the Lakers had similar overtime success in a Game Two at the Staples Center. Led by Kobe Bryant’s 33 points, the Lakers held off the surprising Detroit Pistons to even up the 2004 NBA Finals at one game apiece. Unfortunately for a team with four future Hall of Famers in Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Karl Malone and Gary Payton, the Lakers would not win another guy in a series dominated by the Pistons. Continue on to examine the 2004 NBA Finals as it compares with the 2009 NBA Finals.

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