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Pro
football unquestionably has become America’s sporting
obsession. There’s no offseason anymore. There’s no
month when the National Football League (NFL) isn’t
front and center in the culture’s consciousness. Even a
complete non-story, such as this Matt Walsh nonsense out
of New England that’s little more than Geraldo standing
before Al Capone’s vault, can hold people’s rapt
attention for weeks.
But
there’s one thing pro football in all its glory can’t
give you: Game Seven. The NFL can’t give you six games
of back-and-forth, day-to-day adjustments and
second-guessing, of cold stares and hard fouls, of
familiarity breeding contempt even among friends. Only
six previous games can produce the desperate drama that
is Game Seven, still the coolest thing in sports—any
sport and any team.
That’s
why for some of us, the Sunday-Monday East-West
double-header of Game Sevens is pretty close to nirvana.
You want to see champions and big stars under the
ultimate pressure? You think pro sports don’t have
single elimination? Sure they do.
Cleveland and
Boston
this afternoon, then San Antonio and New Orleans
tomorrow night are down to their final out. Losers go,
winners advance to the conference finals. It’s one and
done, only with context and recent history, with jobs
and futures and reputations at stake.
It’s
hard to imagine a better mix. In the Boston Celtics,
you’ve got the kings of Game Seven, a franchise that has
an 18-5 record in such games, a club whose very image
was built on its ability to win seventh games. And a new
Celtics team with star power but no pedigree is faced
with the scariest manner of Game Seven opponent, LeBron
James. He’s the player who can slay a champ almost by
himself; ask Detroit. LeBron lost the only Game Seven
he’s played in to date, two years ago against the
Pistons. Still, if anybody wakes up the ghosts in the
new Garden in Boston this afternoon, it seems as likely
the shake will come from LeBron as anybody wearing the
green and white.
In New
Orleans tomorrow night, a total playoff neophyte,
thought to be the worst kind of résumé entry for such a
test, will go against a four-time and defending-champion
Spurs team.
So, in
all, the two Game Sevens in back-to-back days will
involve an historic champ (Boston), a current champ (San
Antonio), a Game Seven virgin (New Orleans) led by one
of the game’s great young talents (Chris Paul) and a
growing legend who quickly has come to understand the
historic significance of certain moments and how to take
ownership of them.
Statistical analysis says the home teams, the Celtics
and Hornets, should be favored. But do you really want
to bet against the Spurs and against LeBron James in a
sport ruled by a handful of championship dynasties and
outsize stars?
It
really is scary how many surreal performances and great
games have been Game Sevens.
Going
back to 1957, the first of five times these two squared
off in the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals
in five years, the Celtics beat the St. Louis Hawks,
125-123, in double overtime for the NBA championship. A
rookie named Bill Russell had 19 points and 32 rebounds
and finished off a series that began—get this—with
St. Louis
beating the Celtics, 125-123, in double overtime at
Boston
Garden.
That was the Celtics’ first league title; who knows how
different the team’s and league’s history might be?
In the
1962 NBA Finals, Russell, who played in a record 10 Game
Sevens, had 30 points and 40 rebounds in another Game
Seven OT victory, this one over the Lakers. Only three
years later, in an Eastern Conference Game Seven,
“Havlicek stole the ball! Johnny Havlicek stole the
ball!” He stole it from Hal Greer, hoping to get it
inbounds to Chet Walker.
Not all
these endings and dramatics involved the Celtics. The
Willis Reed Game, May 8, 1970, at Madison Square Garden,
speaks to the Knicks’ captain limping out to score the
first two baskets of the game against the Lakers and
Wilt. Lost in all this was one of the great Game Sevens,
Walt “Clyde” Frazier’s 36 points and 19 assists.
Three
men who never won NBA championships—Dominique Wilkins,
Charles Barkley and John Stockton—nevertheless turned in
all-time Game Seven performances. Wilkins, 20 years ago
on May 22, scored 47 points against the Celtics, only to
have Larry Bird go nine-of-10 in the fourth quarter to
beat the Hawks, for whom it has been pretty much
downhill ever since. Barkley, playing against Seattle,
had a Russell-ish 44 points and 24 rebounds. And
Stockton
had 29 points and 20 assists in a loss to the Lakers.
The
Lakers, who used to come out on the short end of Game
Sevens all the time against the Celtics, turned around
that trend during Magic’s tenure and beyond. Shaq and
Kobe, in for me the most memorable series played this
decade, were assisted by regrettable officiating to
extend the Kings to seven games, then won Game Seven of
the 2002 Western Conference finals in overtime in
Sacramento. The Suns won back-to-back Game Sevens
against Los Angeles, first the Lakers and then the
Clippers, in 2006.
Every
couple of years, a series will develop that you hope to
see continue to the final game. Baseball has its history
of ‘em, as does the National Hockey League in the
Stanley Cup playoffs. It’s the NBA’s turn, again, to
show off, if not the best of what it has to offer, very
possibly the most dramatic. |
