Joint Contrast

By – J.C.

While the Sacramento Kings entered the week just happy to be as close as they are to securing the No. 1 selection in the NBA Draft, the majority of NBA fans and league personnel care more about the anticipated championship showdown between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. This dream matchup has induced drool sessions and questionable officiating since before both the MVP voting took place and the Conference Finals could even tip off.

But much like the Kings will find out on Tuesday, Los Angeles and Cleveland could find out that having the odds in their favor doesn’t guarantee that they’ll get what they’re after once the balls get done bouncing. Even if the league orders its referees to make a few calls that could help sell ads for next months finals, four more wins are needed to move on.

Is there any interest out there in a finals matchup between the Denver Nuggets and Orlando Magic? I mean, would it be so bad to change things up a bit? Just imagine it. It’ll be like 2006 all over again. Remember when the unusual suspects from Miami and Dallas provided some fresh faces in June compared to that of the regular fraternal group of trophy-hogging franchises?

An unlikely champ, like the Miami Heat turned out to be, won’t be so bad, will it? Before that little television ratings hiccup in the hoisting of the hardware it was Boston, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Houston and San Antonio trading it back and forth each year since as far back as 1984. Let’s pause to think about that. That’s six teams passing around the title over the course of 24 seasons like it was some sort of small-town neighborhood hottie.

Since the post-lockout season of ’98-’99 the Lakers (’00-’02, ’04, ’08) have proved to be the key ingredient in pulling in television viewers during the finals while the world has tired of seeing the Spurs (’99, ’03, ’05, ’07). In all fairness, the Miami-Dallas series at least pulled in a better audience than the last three times the Spurs were on display.

Of the NBA’s Final Four this season the Lakers are the only team to have won a championship. And they did that 14 different times, to be specific. Eight times since 1980 to be real specific, and they’re the only team left with an all-time winning record in the playoffs.

So, why not Denver and Orlando in the NBA Finals? Sure, they’re both historically sad-sack franchises that nobody gives a damn about, but the fact that they even got this far is a little more impressive having done so without the glow and history that the Lakers possess or the global appeal that King James affords Cleveland.

SPEAKING OF DENVER / LOS ANGELES

The last time the Nuggets mattered this late in the season was in 1994 when the then-No. 8 seeded team knocked off top-seed Seattle in the opening round of the playoffs, before then losing to Utah 4-3 in the Conference Semifinals. In 1978 they lost to Seattle 4-2 in the Conference Finals.

But in 2009, far from that monumental upset of ‘94, the Nuggets come into this series with a bit of a chip on their shoulders. At least they should, having lost three of four to L.A. over the course of the regular season, not to mention being swept in the first round by the Lakers in the playoffs a season ago during L.A.’s run to the NBA Finals. Even deeper than that though, for long-time fans, are memories of a first round 2-1 playoff exit via L.A. in 1979, a 4-1 loss in the Conference Finals in 1985, and a 3-0 first round loss in 1987. The Lakers used Denver as stepping-stones to NBA titles following those 1980s postseason meetings.

But this time around the Lakers have been tested, most notably by the injury-plagued Houston Rockets, and look prone to being knocked out earlier than the majority of basketball fans would like.

SPEAKING OF ORLANDO / CLEVELAND

In the East, things have looked eerily easy for Cleveland as they’ve swept past two teams that barely put up a fight. Orlando on the other hand has showed signs of dominance, then complete complacency from one game to the next. Despite their different paths to the Conference Finals, and the fact that the Magic has taken eight of the past 12 games against Cleveland dating back to the 2006 season, there is plenty the two teams have in common.

While the Cavs were relaxing over the weekend a local newspaper columnist in Orlando called the Magic’s Game 7 victory in Boston “one of the greatest days in Orlando sports history.” That’s basically admitting that the Magic, like the Cavs, have little history of note in the first place. Which come to think of it, is not too far from the truth.

The fact is that, much like the Cavaliers, the Magic’s true shining moment came when they capitalized on a trip to the Conference Finals in 1995 after getting past Boston and Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in the opening two rounds. They then defeated Indiana 4-3 to advance to the NBA Finals that year but were eventually swept by the Rockets. Superstar-in-the-making Shaquille O’Neal left town the following summer, after losing to the Bulls in a return trip to the Conference Finals. He went on to win three titles with the Lakers while arguing with his new boyfriend, then added insult to Orlando’s injury by winning another title in Miami while the team continued drowning in it’s own disrepair.

In Cleveland’s case, purely basketball related, the Cavs have had their own version of “one of the greatest days in Cleveland sports history” when they knocked out the Pistons 4-2 in the Conference Finals just two years ago. But then, much like the Magic, they were swept by a Texas-sized broom, courtesy of the Spurs. Only the good news for the Cavs was that the team’s marquee player hadn’t skipped town shortly thereafter, although the rumors have been swirling full swing ever since.

The first time the Cavs got this far in the playoffs they lost to Boston 4-2 in the 1976 Conference Finals. Jordan then bounced the Cavs from the postseason during five of six trips between 1988-94, including a 4-2 loss to Chicago in the 1992 Conference Finals.

It’s tough to argue that with so much history of hoops heartache and despair that one team deserves it more than the other. So, I ask you, why not Denver and Orlando in the NBA Finals? Probably because no one will sit in front of their TV’s long enough to find out how it’ll end.