[SmootSmack]

I thought the series sucked. I don't care that the Pistons won. Larry Brown up until last night was one of the best, if not the best, coaches not to have a won a professional title. And Joe Dumars is my favorite NBA player of all time so I have no problem with the Pistons winning the title but I wanted a competitive series and this was far from it.

I know Shaq isn't too popular with some people here but I thought he came to play and played hard every night. But beyond that it was really sad, for lack of a better word. Pistons double and triple teamed Bryant every time and no one else (namely Rush, Fisher, and George) stepped up. Payton has looked totally out of place with the Lakers this year and Malone's age seemed to catch up with him.

I wonder if Kobe was distracted at all during this series knowing that regardless of the results the season was coming to a close and now he has to face the toughest challenge of his life. He's got no basketball games to escape to now.