Lakers were totally overmatched. Boston was on fire to win the championship, and they took the Lakers apart throught the whole series. As a Lakers fan, here's a lot of respect to the Celtics, Doc, and Ainge. incredible performance. Totally set the standard at both ends of the court. Lakers couldn't even run their offense.

we watched the trophy presentations all the way through. the Celtics deserve all the best. wow.

This Celtics team is Kevin Garnett's team, no doubt. Paul Pierce got Finals MVP, true, still, the Celtics got to the Finals because of Garnett. And I couldn't be happier. I did meet KG a few times working sports gigs here and he's a true class act off the court. On it, no one is more intense. And with the win, no one celebrated with more sheer joy.

Glad to see it...

What's with the sudden success of Boston teams in the last decade? Lovable losers? Ha! More like Hateable Winners.

Don't tell me the Patriots lost the Superbowl. They were IN the Superbowl, undefeated no less. What about the Revolution?

Oh, those Bruins...I'm sorry, that's one team who's still in the pits. Still, it's ONE team out of the rest.

I despise New York too, but it's time the Big Apple put the Big Irish back in its place.

Wow, Lakers in 5. You are wrong again. You could not be wronger. If wrong was a country, you would be president. It has to be demoralizing for you to constantly be wrong in predicting outcomes of major championships? Especially when Boston is involved and your knee jerk reaction is to pick against them.

And of course you never, EVER address the fact that you picked wrong, that your analysis of why you pick who you pick is completely wrong, you would like us to forget your wrongness. How sad, your only purpose in life is to write about sports and you are really, really bad at analyzing any aspect of it.

Good job, way to go, I pick you to win sports writer of the year!

Bill

Boston fans are insufferable...

Thanks for the great column, King. I barely follow basketball and I haven't watched a game since the Pistons destroyed the Celtics in January 2003. Your column is so entertaining and well-written that it's enjoyable even to people who do not follow the sport. Or sports, in general.

Your reference to "Some Bank or Other Garden" made me laugh out loud. We should start a campaign to pick a more reasonable name for the Celtics/Bruins home arena. How about Auerback Arena? Or we can just call it "Bank Garden" and people will catch on eventually.

King Kaufman often admits when his predictions are wrong. It's one of the things I like about him. He already admitted he was wrong about the Lakers winning in 5. So shaddup already.

after the reminder how they woon the 2002 rings?

One thing can be said about the West-East power disparity. You don't see that in the recent championship titles, and that is not strange. Missing playoffs with a 48-34 record (while a team in the other conference goes through with 37-45) is peanuts compared with a certain disparity regarding championship chances. Life for Eastern conference top teams (Boston, Detroit) is much easier - they basically have to win just one big series to get to the finals, while the Western teams have to be play hard from round 1. Just consider - the most desperate teams (Dallas, Phoenix) have to go out in the first round; the breakthrough surprise team (NO) can't put away defending champs (SA) by game 7; and the same defending champs are exhausted for conference finals. Boston played all series rather fully (as they could allow themselves), but they did not have to face so much uncertainty.

After a decade of Kevin vs. 5 guys, finally he gets a ring.

Some people have lamented that Boston teams have stopped being the lovable losers they used to be. Why couldn't you just keep sucking? they ask us. We liked you like that.

Well, the thing about being a "lovable loser" that gets kind of old is the "loser" part. It is a bit more fun to watch your team win. In any case, the only Boston team that really ever fit that description was the Red Sox during their drought. The Celtics have more than 1/4 of all NBA championships, so historically, they are more of the hated overlord types anyway.

All I can say is, if your teams are losing, don't let it be part of your identity. Keep hoping for that championship. When it comes, and the rest of the country hates you for it, just say that everybody deserves a moment of glory. This is our moment, in Boston. We've had plenty of bad years, and we're going to enjoy this little run.

BTW: Kevin Garnett doesn't like us calling the Celtics the Big Three. I have a good nickname for them, based on their overpowering defense: the Green Monster.

... played great team defense and were toughened up by a series of Eastern opponents who made the Lakers appear soft by comparison.

That team defense was responsible for bottling up Gasol (Perkins's return last night was huge) and Odom (who appeared lost when his driving lanes rarely materialized). With help on each side of him, Posey cooled off Bryant in the pivotal second quarter last night (and then hit threes at the other end). In last night's game, Rondo played more decisively and disrupted the Lakers all over the court.

The Celts dominated the boards at their defensive end all series long. They rarely failed to block out the Lakers on missed shots. Several times last night you had two or three Celtics competing for the ball on missed Laker shots. It was a clinic in how to finish defensive trips.

Even though the West is better from top to bottom, the top teams in the East play better and tougher defense. The Celts benefited from ferocity of the Cavaliers and the Pistons (and even the Hawks). People got on Ray Allen for shooting poorly in the early rounds, but he was smothered in ways that the Lakers couldn't or didn't do. Lots more open looks and easy baskets against the Lakers - for all the Celtics - than in earlier rounds.

Hats off to Doc Rivers, who was severely underestimated going into the Finals. Kind of like Francona and LaRussa in 2004. Rivers made all the right moves, had his match ups and adjustments in place. Good for Ainge and the Celtics for sticking with a good coach and a great man when it would have been easy to let him go after last season.