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Agreed.
Can only supply a worthy opponent every couple of years.
I would say Detroit and Boston are the only post-Jordan teams that were actually on the same level as the teams out west.
I know Miami won it all in 2006, but that was more a product of Dallas' signature choke jobs than anything Miami did. The truth is that was a 50-something win team in a crappy conference that lucked out when Ginobili fouled Dirk.
Orlando has no business in the finals just as Cleveland had no business two years ago.
Agreed.
it's not just the eastern conference.
I would say there have been only 4 teams that have been on a real championship caliber level: Spurs Lakers Boston and Detroit
All others in the finals have been basically one hit wonders, east or west
Im not sure I agree with that.
Could Dallas have made a legitimate claim that they were the best team in 2006 and 2007? I think so. I think the same for the Suns in 2007 as well.
Miami was a silly fluke.
The teams were looking quite close until Stan had a brain-fart with Jameer...
I think the teams are close, but Stan Van G. decided to pull a Mike Martz/Bulger thing with Jameer, and it is killing the Magic.
I don't think playing Jameer hurt the Magic at all. He actually played well in the second quarter. And, the Lakers really broke it wide open in the third quarter with Alston playing most of that quarter. It still came down to outside shooting and Lewis and Turkoglu weren't very good offensively last night.
And, I agree that the Eastern Conference has been bad for a long time. Things like that happen sometimes. The AFC and the American League boast similar dominance in their sports. It may or may not change anytime soon. But, it will eventually. The difference in strength and quality of conferences happens. Oh well. Does it really matter? Conferences don't win championships, individual teams do.
If they couldn't win a le or even make it to the finals, how can they make a claim as best team? The Pacers had the best record in the NBA in 03-04 and made a finals appearance in 2000(?)
I put teams like the mavs, suns and pacers in that next tier of close but no cigar teams.
Alot of this was about lopsided teams.
Shaq, Kobe together in the early 2000's. Shaq by himself was unstoppable except by fouling him. With Kobe you have one of the All-Time duos.
Spurs with Duncan/Tony Parker/Manu all in their young prime together with vets like Bowen and Horry.
The Pistons until last year usually had 5 All-Stars/Borderline All-Stars on the team.
Celtics last year had 3 legit All Stars and guys like Rondo/Perkins/Posey.
This year's Lakers have Kobe/Pau/Bynum/Odom/Ariza/Phil and a decent bench.
But in between, there were some OTHER great teams that just couldn't get past the Champs but were awefully close.
Early 2000's Sacramento Kings
2004-2007 Mavs
2004-2007 Suns
Last time I looked... Detroit and Boston only won once.
There was also some bad luck / stupid move on Draft night
1) Celtics missed out on Duncan
2) Joe Dumars picking Darko instead of Melo
Stuff like that.
Playing Jameer was a catastrophic failure. Upset the rhythm of the team and now Alston is probably pissed as as he played his ass off all playoffs long only to get benched to a guy who hasn't played in 4 months. Horrible coaching decision.
Very true. I would put all three of those teams way ahead of this current Magic team, the 2004 Orlando team, the 2006 Heat etc.
It's all about matchups.
Rafer Alston always had this problem in Houston. If he doesn't get his minutes or he's looking over his shoulder like (Steve Francis, Mike James) then he sucks. If he feels like he's the man, he plays semi decently. He needs to play 35 minutes or more because he's a rhythm shooter. It also takes 3-4 games for him to get his groove back if he's given the starters role again. SVG has already f'd up and there is no way for Rafer to be effective for the rest of the series.
B.S. excuse. Alston started both the first quarter and third quarter. He played the entire first quarter. If he can't handle losing a few minutes to Jameer, that's on Rafer. It wasn't Jameer's fault when Kobe had his little run at the end of the second quarter or that Rashard, Hedo, and Pietrus couldn't score during that same stretch. And, the Lakers broke the game open in the third with Rafer in the game and Jameer on the bench. Rafer also went on a two minute stretch in that third quarter where he took four consecutive Magic shot attempts, missing all four. Blaming the loss on playing Jameer is a pretty poor excuse.
yeah, good point. Boston pretty much has sucked up until last year, so really shouldn't count for much.
Detroit went to back to back championship series and were in the ECF a solid number of times.
My point ultimately is that it's the Spurs and Lakers in the west. Take away these two teams and there's not much difference between the east and west in terms of le contenders. Detroit comes the next closest.
What's the most annoying is every year the ESPN east coasters nut themselves about how, "This is the year the east re-claims the le as the better conference," every year they look re ed for saying it. The west is still by far the more superior conference. The 4th seed in the east only finished 1 game ahead of the 9th seed in the west and chances are that's only cause of an Eastern conference schedule.
When the 4th seed in one conference wouldn't make the playoffs in the other conference it's not even a question which one's better.
That was the forbidden fruit that Stan ate from... Yeah, Jameer looked good in 5 minutes, but every second after that, he was puting his team completely out of rhythm, when Rafer had them running the 1st quarter like a well oiled machine. 5 minutes was fine. 12 was not. He killed them.
In the 2nd half, Rafer was looking like a guy looking over his shoulder.
Why do people act like the Cheat LEGITIMATELY won a le?
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