I, for one have given up on watching the Eastern Conference finals. I have no interest left for them. At this point, I’d rather be watching the Stanley Cup finals — and I’m not a big hockey guy if you didn’t know — or even regular season baseball — especially if that phenom Jay Bruce is involved. It has become painfully obvious that even the two best teams from the inferior Eastern Conference would lose to either of the West’s finalists — the Lakers or Spurs (who were bounced last night after another stunning Lakers comeback). Even with the Celts’ revamped roster, it’s hard to think that they would have a shot against Kobe’s Lakers (how would they defend Gasol and Odom?). Give the trophy to the Lakers now and let’s get ready for the New Dream Team this summer in Beijing.
The one interesting thing that came out of game five the other day was actually combined with some news that should all but rule out the Spurs winning another title using their current flopping style.
After learning that floppers would be fined and possibly suspended in a manner similar to the technical foul rules, Rasheed Wallace — T-master extradonaire — went off on a rant about the Celtics taking dives and flopping. He called out refs and Boston in the obscenity-laden tirade that went as follows:
“All that bull(bleep)-ass calls they had out there. With Mike (Callahan) and Kenny (Mauer) — you’ve all seen that (bleep). You saw them calls. The cats are flopping all over the floor and they’re calling that (bleep). That (bleep) ain’t basketball out there. It’s all (bleeping) entertainment. You all should know that (bleep). It’s all (bleeping) entertainment.”
This is why we should all love and praise Rasheed. If not for him, there would be absolutely nothing interesting about the East, at least until draft-talk really kicks it up a notch.