| 24 December 2008
Christmas can mean many things to different people: a celebration of the birth of Christ; a time of peace and goodwill; a time to be with family and loved ones; a time to give and receive gifts; a time of meaningless commercialism rendered pointless by corporate greed...
What will your Christmas Day look like? Mine will start in the great white north of Canada when my almost 19 month old daughter wakes up looking for her bottle of milk. "Christmas" won't mean much to her, but she's going to love the tree at her grandparents place and all of the presents underneath it. Presents usually don't get unwrapped until the early afternoon, usually because my mother-in-law is still wrapping through the morning! After presents it's time to eat waaaaaaaaaaaay more food than any human being could possibly force down followed by a bit of a rest, maybe a walk in the snow, put the baby to bed and collapse in a heap. Only this year there's another present waiting for me...If you make schedules at the NBA it's a time to schedule the biggest blockbuster of the regular season in the largest television network in the country - the Lakers and Celtics from the Staples Center coming to you at 5:00pm Pacific Time, 8:00pm Eastern. If you happen to be in the Eastern time zone what better way to spend your Christmas Evening than semi-comatose on a sofa with a cold brew in hand?
The world's greatest player and the NBA's most hated go up against the mamba and the poor man's Inigo Montoya in a classic match up which will, you heard from me first, be a preview of the NBA finals. Anyone looking for predictions knows where this is heading... Celtics by a dozen.
The ace in the hole for the Green Machine these days? The often maligned 3rd G out of the U of K: Rajon Rondo.
The man who was supposed to be the weakest link (you are the weakest link, goodbye) last season, the man who would cost the Cs the championship because he couldn't hang with the best of the rest, the man who continues to confound, continues to shine and continues to get better.
The Big 3?
We might almost be ready to anoint the Big 4...
East All Stars starting 5???Any fan of the NBA has to be salivating at the prospect of this one.
The Lakers have a point to prove after the way they were bitch-slapped the last time they met. By the way the fans perceived KG's behaviour following the series... and that little matter of who really is the best player the planet.
The Cs are going to want to go in and show the Lakers who is owns the league right now.
Neither side is playing at their best right now. Both have struggled in the past couple of weeks and the Cs look prime to be blown out any time soon.
But at the end of the day you have the best two teams in basketball going at it on a night when there really isn't anything better to do than sit on my butt, open a Sleeman's Honey Brown and watch my boys fight the forces of darkness...
Can't wait!
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
