The Final Score: NBA Finals a Classic in the Making

NEW YORK – It's Game 3 of the NBA Finals. I'm in Brass Monkey, a bar along Manhattan's meat-packing district, with a mishmash of New Yorkers, corporate cognoscenti and international media. Neither the Knicks nor the Nets participate in the title series (the basketball gods’ favor to us all). Still, the crowd is glued to the big television screen. It's expectant when Kobe Bryant drives with the ball. It holds its breath when Ray Allen fires a three-pointer. Even in the home of the Yankees and the Mets, the Lakers versus the Celtics, as a main event, holds its own. The series is only three games old but a reporter's journal is already packed with anecdotes. Pau Gasol proves he is as valiant as Leonidas in Game 1. Allen and Rajon Rondo, with superlative performances, drape a blanket of hush over Los Angeles in Game 2. Then in Game 3, that stocky grand old man, 35-year old Derek Fisher, delivers a riveting fourth quarter tour de force. In each game, there’s always something, there’s always someone. A memorable Finals series isn't dependent on astonishing statistics. Not all numbers cling to memory as well as instances of human folly or human feat. Few remember who had more rebounds or which team shot at a better percentage during the Lakers-Celtics title bouts in the 80's. Many recall the Boston mob that rushed onto the parquet floor at the end of the '84 Finals, crushing both Celtic and Laker players in euphoria. Most remember the Magic Johnson game-winning junior sky-hook at the Boston Garden in '87. We save seminal moments like important folders in our hard drives. From the looks of it, the 2010 Finals is not just a series between traditional rivals, but a meeting between two highly-interesting entities. There's Bryant on one side, Paul Pierce on the other. Gasol and Kevin Garnett offer exciting contrasts. Fisher and Rondo play the point guard position in different ways. On the bench, Phil Jackson coaches with the enthusiasm of 100-year old sage while Doc Rivers mentors the Celtics like an enthusiastic first-time coach. This series benefits from great casting, really. At the end of Game 3, a duel stocked with the highs and lows of a pulsating contest, Fisher sheds a tear and Bryant flashes a rare smile. Two veterans with a combined eight championships show emotion unabashedly like newcomers in the playoffs. It's a Jerry Maguire moment that follows a Cameron Crowe script. Click "save" on your mental desktop. It'll be one of several stories worth repeating long after a champion is crowned. Drinking Blue Moon Beer in a city that has little stake in the NBA Finals (maybe it has some motivation to support the Lakers given the city's dislike for the Boston Red Sox) I raise my tall glass to the Lakers and Celtics. It's been a great show so far. I'm confident the rest of the series won't disappoint. On this night, in this bar, a slice of New York seems to agree. – Mico Halili, GMANews.TV