I have so many thoughts running through my head. I was convinced that the dream I had last night made sense and would play out. Why else would the Basketball Gods put that in my head? They're supposed to be on our side!!! We were supposed to be up by 14 with 1:18 remaining and Ray was supposed to hit a dagger 3 in Gasol's ugly, unwashed face. Seriously. How could fate, karma, etc. allow this to happen? To one of the most hated sports franchises? I just seriously hate LA right now. Not just the team, but the city...the people. ABC does 3 separate segments of celebrities at the game and probably the only true one was Nicholson. The vast majority of the celebs and fans in general are only rooting for the Lakers (and not the Clippers) because they make their careers there and, well gee, the Lakers win. Fucking definition of bandwagon fans. The fact that their scoreboard needs to incite people to yell "Ko-be! Ko-be!" and all the other requisite chants is telling. They have no idea when and in what situation to cheer! WHY DID THEY GET THE TITLE!?

Why does Ray Allen look like he's 56 ever since Game 2? We NEEDED him tonight more than any other night. If he only hit on a couple of those (WIDE FUCKIN' OPEN) threes, we would have won. It sucks. So much.

I hate that I won't be able to watch ESPN for weeks. Or read any of the articles written either.

I hate that Kobe "No Means Yes!" Bryant has won 5. How does an arrogant, stuck-up, most selfish player in the game get that many? Over a Celtics team that exemplifies team play? To quote U2, Basketball Gods, "You're so cruel." It's like, just the look on his face is so...arrogant! How can people like to play on his team? They can't, can they?

I hate Pau Gasol. You know, there are those players who you hate until they're on your team. He is not one of those players. I'd hate if he was on my team just by the way he plays. Classic European flopper. Wears his hair long so that whenever he makes a herky-jerky move, it looks like he's being mugged and the refs almost always call a foul. I'm not sure how much he did that tonight, but just in general, he's an asshole. By the way, why didn't KG guard him more in the 2nd half???? He had shut him down up until we started playing Sheed and Baby on him. I understand that Odom was on the floor and KG is more nimble and can chase him, but FREAKING STAY WITH WHAT'S WORKING!!!! FUCK.

I hate how we had a chance to close it out in Game 6 and completely shit the bed. Like, diarrhea. All over the bed. We played as if we had that Game 7 cushion, which is the exact OPPOSITE of how you play a closeout game. The fact that no one showed up to challenge the energy of the Lakers is unconscionable. If you are a professional, you do not let that happen.

I hate the fact that Perkins had to get injured. His impact was greater than we gave him credit for, as evidenced by the rebound disparity. (I'm not going anywhere near a boxscore or game recap, by the way. My ESPN.com bookmark will not be clicked for a long while.) Giving the Lakers a billion offensive rebounds and all those extra shots was, ultimately, our downfall. They shot something like 30% in the first half and, granted, we had a 9 point lead, but it could have been so much more.

The few things we can take from this? Kobe sucked balls in Game 7. Almost Ray Allen-esque (props to Ray for his defense, btw). He had the opportunity to become legendary and put the game out of reach, but he bricked everything he took. So, it's not as bad as what I had written in my previous post. At least not in my mind. Another thing? In the all-time battle, it's still 17-16. We're still the better franchise and have had the better players. It just sucks that we couldn't put some distance there.

I don't know if our core will be intact next season. I don't know if it's good to keep us together or not. It just sucks that that could have been our last shot in a loooooong time at another ring. It sucks for the Big Three in general. They're obviously on their last legs (which I would have said regardless of tonight's outcome), and it's doubtful they'll get a crack at it again. It's a double-edged sword in Boston. On one side, they won a championship. On the other, they won ONE championship. As I alluded to in the post before this one, that's not memorable on a team that has had 2 separate dynasties (and one mini one in the mid-1970s). Of course, for our generation, the 2008 win will always be a special one. But for the next generation and so on it will be the most minor blip on the screen. Getting a second one was everything for the team's legacy and, more depressing, the Big Three's legacy. It just slipped away.

Great way to start the summer. Fuck.