A Storm Approaches...

I find myself sitting in my living room, watching the last five minutes of game six in the Orlando and Boston series, and I hear a loud crash of thunder. Boston is leading 88-71 and in Columbus, Ohio, its been cloudless and eighty-five degrees all day. The thunder is just in my mind, but the storm it heralds will take over the sports world in the next two weeks.
In the first round, the Celtics ended the current Dwayne Wade era in Miami, then in the second round ended the current Lebron era in Cleveland, and now in the conference finals have ended the fluke that was the Orlando Magic of this year and last. This is the same Celtics team (or is it?) that went 14-11 in the two months leading up to the playoffs. In April they lost to the Rockets, Knicks, Wizards, Bulls, and Bucks. Now that game six is over though, this Boston team has rendered three premier basketball squads into mere footnotes of the late '00 decade.
Unfortunately for Lakers and Suns fans, this is the Celtics team we'll see in the NBA Finals, not the March and early April Celtics team. A healthy Celtics team who's starting five has never lost a series.
Last week I put fifty dollars on the Lakers beating that Celtics team in the finals, this week I'm sweating that fifty dollars as the Lakers barely won game five at home against the Suns. Bynum is pulling the all-too-familiar injury card, Fisher has less than five 10+ point games left in him and more than five games where he'll allow 10+ points. Phil is being shopped by lottery teams while he's still in the playoffs and he and Artest are playing twitter patty-cake.
While this isn't the best place I've put fifty dollars, I have hope. His name is Kobe Bryant. Kobe has scored 30 or more points in eight of his last nine games. In only two of those nine games has he had a negative point differential. He's averaging 28.9 points, 6.5 assists and 5.1 rebounds in these playoffs. Only two players averaged 25/5/5 in the regular season (Kobe and LBJ) and only three players averaged 20/5/5. (Throw in Tyreke Evans)
Kobe is playing like he knows what I know...if he wins two more rings he'll be a viable choice in the "Greatest of All-Time" argument. More importantly, Kobe is playing like he wants me to win fifty dollars. But as my mind drifts into celebration mode as I imagine how I would spend that freshly won fifty dollars, a thunderclap from the East snaps me out of it. Am I writing the Suns off? Yes. I don't believe they have a chance to win this series, even with their road performance in game five. I feel for Steve Nash, I want him to get a trip to the finals and even win a championship, but not this year. Kobe has to win another three in a row. Partly for his own sake, and partly to even a race for the most championships that started with the Lakers in 1949. Since then the Celtics have gained the lead and have 17. The Lakers have 15. With a second three-peat from Kobe and a fourth three-peat from Phil the score will even up at 17. Then Lebron and Wade's Bulls can win 11 straight and we'll have a three-way tie for first.

(If your first instinct was to add eleven to how many years you think Lebron and Wade have been in the league to see if it equals more than 20, I wasn't entirely joking.)
This storm I'm talking about, though, is not one of change. There isn't a torch being passed on. Its not a juggernaut bearing down on the league, extending its claim as a superlative. This storm is an evening process. The greatest are getting company, welcome or not. There will now be a discussion when it comes to the greatest player of all time, not just a name. The super power teams of the East and West will be equal again for the first time since 1961.
If you couldn't tell, I'm glad its coming. Probably not for the reason you think though. While I do dislike Michael Jordan fanboyism, I'm ready for an NBA that doesn't ask you to aim to be like just one player. An NBA that isn't headed towards all small forwards and power forwards who's favorite players growing up were Michael Jordan and Karl Malone. My favorite player was and is Reggie Miller. I loved watching Hakeem versus Ewing. The skill set those players had is not the popular skill set of today, though. I blame it on one slogan..."Be like Mike." Hopefully when Jordan is no longer the obvious G.O.A.T. a percentage of new players will aspire to be like Steve Nash, Andrew Bogut, or Brandon Jennings.