I'm no sports fanatic, but I'll tell you this: watching the Pistons dismantle the Lakers in what should have been a four game sweep is one of those things that warms my heart.
These weren't any Lakers, either. They're the storied Lakers, playing their A game with the single greatest player and the most dominant player in the game today (Shaq--and don't argue with me--is not even in the top ten best players in the game . . . he's bigger than anyone else, he gets the benefit of the doubt every time he knocks some defender over on his way to the basket, and he used to be able to run). These are the Lakers, give or take a few guys, who came back to beat my home team, the Portland Trailblazers, in game 7 of the Western Conference finals.
For me, there's nothing like watching a "dynasty" fall apart. Especially since I love teams that play well most of the time but don't win championships often enough: the Blazers, the Broncos, the Mariners, the Cubs.
The best thing about this championship series, much like the World Series last year, was that this Detroit team doesn't have any one dominant player. There are guys who are all-star quality, sure, but the Pistons won this series because they played team basketball. They hustled harder, they defended better, the attacked better. Sound like the Marlins last year? It should.
