NBA Finals Set To Start And It Looks Like MLB LCS of 2004

Tomorrow night starts the NBA Finals. We don't know where amazing will happen this year (but we certainly know where spoofs will happen). I think the last time I followed a playoffs this closely was when the New York Knicks played the San Antonio Spurs in the finals. Since then, it's been hard to be a Knicks fan and although I grew a whole new respect for the Spurs, they weren't a team I longed to watch.

But this year I was back. I loved watching a young Chicago Bulls team push the Boston Celtics to the brink. I loved watching the Celtics try to play their hearts out to overcome the loss of Kevin Garnett. I watched Dirk Nowitzki trying to will his team to the promise land. I witnessed basketball return to Atlanta and the Houston Rockets push past injuries to their two best players and make a nice run through the playoffs.

But I really loved the final 4 in this year's conference finals. It reminded me a lot of the final 4 in the League Championship Series in 2004. There you had four superstars trying to get their teams to the World Series which were very similar to these four teams.

A-Rod's Yankees = Kobe's Lakers - You had to see this one coming, right? Two of the most talented players in the history of their respective games...but also two of the most hated. Both guys won MVPs, but were never known as "The Guy" who could lead a team to a championship. And they both had a lot of firepower surrounding them. Both teams had legendary coaches. Kobe has guys like Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol. A-Rod had guys like Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui. The Yankees had made the finals the year before but lost. The Lakers made the finals last year but lost. Got it?

Albert Pujols' Cards = Dwight Howard's Magic - 2004 was a playoff coming out party for a young Pujols. He hit a Brad Lidge slider that I think just landed. The same goes for Superman. He was a great player, but these playoffs have established him as a force. Both were compared to big men who played their position in the past (Big Mac and Shaq). And both of these guys could do the things that wowed the fans (the Howard dunks or the Pujols majestic HRs), but these playoffs made you realize something more about these guys: You can't match up against them. I'm not sure Howard ever reached Pujols level at basketball until the last game against the Cavs...but he helped cement himself as not only one of the best players in the game, but one of the most unlikely winners as well (many picked a very, very good Astros team to win the series easily and the same thing happened in each of the Magic series).

Carlos Beltran's Astros = Carmelo Anthony's Nuggets - Both came into the league with hype and lived up to it, but they were seen as complimentary players before this playoffs. There Beltran dominated with 9 homeruns and cemented his contract he would receive the next year. Similarly, Carmelo dominated in the games he played in the playoffs like he had never shown before and cemented his next large contract. And despite the solo efforts of both guys, they weren't able to make the finals. You also know that these two guys will take plays or maybe even entire games off and just coast. That's why these playoffs are so maddenly frustrating about these guys because you see how great they can truly be when they put their minds to it.

David Ortiz' Red Sox = LeBron James' Cavs - These guys went beyond dominating--you just knew that whenever they were up, something big was going to happen. You knew that when push came to shove, these guys were going to come through at crunch time. And there was nothing you could do to stop them. Your only hope was containing the other elements of their team. They almost seemed to have a destiny that year to win it all for their teams and give a long awaited title to a franchise severely lacking. In some ways, maybe Ortiz' 2003 Sox are a better comparison now because James, after a heartbreaking loss like the 2003 ALCS for the Sox, will have to wait until next year. And you know that's as painful for his fanbase (and for the NBA) as it is for him.