Glorious way to get it going

October 28, 2008|Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist

We interrupt this increasingly interesting NFL season to inform you that the Los Angeles Lakers begin defense - what? The Celtics won? I think that's going to come as news to some of the pundits. So scratch that. The World's Greatest Basketball League begins its 62d season tonight, and the Boston Celtics are the defending champions, you betcha.

The commissioner will be here to dole out the rings to the champs, and he will be able to hold his head higher than in the past few years since the American-born players from the league over which he presides have actually won a major international championship for the first time since 2000. Of course, as the Big Cheese of the NBA, David Stern can take great general pride in the fact that 26 of the 36 players who stood on the podium in Beijing to receive their golds, silvers, and bronzes perform in the National Basketball Association.

But about those Lakers. They are indeed the chic pick to win the 2008-09 title. The only rotation loss from the team that reached the 2008 NBA Finals was Ronny Turiaf, who sought more playing time in Sacramento. And to that mix they welcome back 21-year-old center Andrew Bynum, who, when you weren't looking, was quietly inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in a private ceremony last September.

Just kidding!

But there are many NBA folks who are making it seem that way. They keep pointing to how well he was playing when he sustained a season-ending kneecap injury last January, and they say that he, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Trevor Ariza, and Luke Walton will constitute the NBA's No. 1 frontcourt this season.

I grant you, the Bynum numbers are impressive, even more than I thought. I've been going around telling people his entire reputation was based on six games played just prior to his injury. Mea culpa. That's just not so. It's more like 17 games, during which the Lakers went 14-3 and in which he averaged 16 points and 7 rebounds while shooting 68 percent from the floor. And he just tossed in 23 points during a 29-minute exhibition outing against the Oklahoma City Thunder (nee Seattle SuperSonics, which is another story we'll get to) the other night.

The league's general managers overwhelmingly selected the Lakers to dethrone the Celtics, and all I can say is that among them are people who have made some drafting decisions that do not exactly qualify them for a basketball Mensa chapter, so take that for what it's worth.