MVN - Most Valuable Network

Here’s Your “Third Time”

If you are what you say you are
A superstar
Then have no fear
The crowd is here
And the lights are on
And they want a show
Oh oh oh oh, yeah”

-”Superstar,” Lupe Fiasco ft. Matthew Santos

That track was the perfect fit for LeBron’s 50-point outburst at Madison Square Garden in early March. The way the player, the moment, the crowd, the venue, and the spectacle came together for one night for one of the defining moments of the 2007-08 NBA season couldn’t have been more fitting, and no track fit it better than that one.

But forget about basketball in early March, and forget about Madison Square Garden. This is Boston’s Garden, and this is late May. This is Game 7, and you couldn’t have asked for a better confluence of events to lead up to a perfect platform for LeBron James to build his legacy.

We remember Game 5 at the Palace last year. So far, that’s the defining moment of LeBron’s career. But it has been a brisk whirlwind of a four-year career that has been filled with highs and lows, gossip and scuttlebutt, obsessive fans and derisive haters, tough losses and landmark wins, and a load of “youngest ever to” records.

But what happens in Game 7 of this series with Boston, no matter what it is, will embed itself a lot deeper in LeBron’s legacy compared to what happened at the Palace in Game 5 last year. And that’s for a couple of reasons:

It’s Boston.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em (and I’ve always, always hated the Boston Celtics - I don’t know exactly why, but I just have), they’re probably the signature franchise of the NBA. The 16 banners, the parquet floor, “the Gah-den,” and the infinitely long history speak for themselves. Coming up big against the Celtics in Boston all but guarantees you a spot among the hallowed halls of memorable performers.

Jordan dropped 63 on the C’s in the ‘86 playoffs in what was just his second year in the league. Magic has had big Finals moments there. The Bad Boy Pistons had their moments at “the Gah-den.” While places like Madison Square Garden and the Staples Center are big for showmanship, Boston’s Garden is the place where legends are made. As much as I hate the Celtics, basketball history lies inside that parquet floor. It’s the birthplace of basketball, and if you can put on a show in the shadows of 16 championship banners, you’ve earned a spot amongst the legends.

Sunday afternoon, ABC.

This is one thing I’ll never forgive the NBA for: How in the world was LeBron’s 48-point Special stuck up on TNT last year?!?! There was a time when each and every game of the Conference Finals, both East and West, was on prime time on network television. How can you ever forget the NBA on NBC with the lead-ins that made your hair stand on end, the memorable John Tesh intro song, and then nobody other than Marv Albert himself giving each and every game a larger-than-life feel?

THE FOLLOWING VIDEO IS HOW THE CONFERENCE FINALS ARE DONE. PAY ATTENTION, DAVID STERN. THERE IS A REASON THE NBA IS STILL NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT IT WAS IN THE EARLY ‘90S.

That’s how the league should have set the stage for Game 5 of the ECF’s last year. Make the fan hungry for more after the lead-in, play the NBA on NBC song, amplify the crowd noise before the game, and then let Marv Albert and the Czar of the Telestrator set the stage for the epic game. The game should be at 9 p.m Eastern on network TV, not at 8 p.m. on cable. As great as that Game 5 at the Palace was last year, it will always be robbed of being as transcendent as it could have been.

If you are too young to remember the NBA on NBC, you were simply robbed of your childhood. Blame your parents for not conceiving you earlier.

Sunday’s Game 7 won’t be at the real Boston Garden. It’s not the Conference Finals, it’s not in primetime, and it’s not the NBA on NBC (but then again, what is, damn it, what is???). But it’s the closest we’re going to get in this era.

I was nine the last time the Cavs and Celtics played a Game 7 in Boston. Yes, it was the 1992 Eastern Conference semifinals. I remember how the beginning of that night’s six o’clock news on Channel 5 had “Cavs Win” flashing on the bottom of the screen. That’s a moment I’ll never forget. Somewhere out in suburban Cleveland today 16 years after that win, another nine-year old can look at these LeBron James Cavaliers as providing him with his memories of beating Boston in Game 7.

And you have to admit: You hate Boston. You hate everything about them. Spygate, the ridiculous Cursed-to-Bandwagon-Jumping Red Sox naton, that very same parquet floor, those very same 16 championship banners, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge robbing the Executive of the Year award from Mitch Kupchak, Tom Brady, Drew Bledsoe, Ben Coates, Manny Ramirez stabbing the Indians in the back to sign with the Sox, Curt Schilling’s “bloody” sock, my ex-girlfriend, Ben Affleck, Bill Simmons, Bill Belichick, Boston Legal, Harvard, MIT, Pat Patriot, the Green Monstah, the ‘07 ALCS, the ‘99 ALDS, Bill Parcells…EVERYTHING!

Who cares if the Cavs lose to Detroit in the Eastern Conference Finals this year? The satisfaction of beating this overhyped media creation and sending them home for the summer on their own floor will be far better than getting swept out of the Finals by the Spurs last year. This is what the NBA was made for. This is where legends are made. These are the moments that stay with you for the rest of your life as a sports fan.

This is Game 7 in Boston with a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals on the line. And if anybody knows, it’s Mark Price.

The Cavs thought they had Game 1 won at the Garden. After Game 2’s debacle, they could have and should have won Game 5 back in Beantown before a terrible third quarter. The “coulda, shoulda, wouldas” have now turned into a third chance. That third time also goes by the name “Game 7.”

And this isn’t a place to bring excuses.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 17th, 2008 at 9:33 pm and is filed under Danny Ainge, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Kevin McHale, Mark Price, Marv Albert, Bill Simmons, New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, LeBron James, Larry Bird, Boston Celtics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.