Final curtain

This production is NBA theater at its grandest

June 20, 2010|Shira Springer, Globe Staff

LOS ANGELES — Less than 30 minutes before Game 7 of the NBA Finals tipped off, an overexcited crowd outside the Staples Center believed anything was possible. Even that Lakers forward Pau Gasol would pose for pictures in front of the arena in full uniform. Fans of the Celtics and Lakers fell for 6-foot-8-inch Gasol impersonator Michael Fanter.

“They don’t know what to expect,’’ said Fanter.

No one knew what to expect when the Lakers and Celtics squared off for the NBA championship Thursday night — not the fans, the players, the league staff charged with managing game logistics, or the large media contingent ready to document history. The instant classic came down to the closing seconds and ended with the Lakers claiming the Larry O’Brien Trophy for a second straight season after an 83-79 win. But the game coverage beamed back to Boston, the trophy ceremonies, the obligatory postgame press conferences captured only part of the spectacle.

From the unpredictable to the unbelievable, the NBA Finals are wonderfully, wildly surreal behind the scenes. As Celtics fans go through the stages of grief, a different perspective may be cathartic. How long can you debate the difference a healthy Kendrick Perkins would have made and how many times can you rehash the last few Celtics possessions? OK, don’t answer that. There is more than an offseason’s worth of “what-ifs’’ to ponder.

Maybe it’s too soon to talk about NBA super fan Jimmy Goldstein and his Danish supermodel guest or to marvel up close at a two-acrobat hand-balancing halftime act. Maybe it’s not soon enough. Visiting the corridors, back rooms, and vomitories of the Staples Center won’t make the Celtics’ loss any less devastating. But at this point, a backstage pass to the Finals is better than reliving how the Lakers overcame a 13-point third-quarter deficit.

“I’m always in awe,’’ said NBA commissioner David Stern of how the league produces the Finals. “It’s an incredible undertaking, but that’s what we do.

“After so many years, it becomes incremental [with the increase in scope]. Sometimes you really have to step back to realize how huge it is.’’

Celtics fans can count themselves lucky to have been part of the spectacle. In the last 50 years, only 10 NBA franchises have played in a Game 7 of the Finals. That’s it. For better or worse, Celtics fans have had a rooting interest in the outcome of the ultimate game on eight occasions. Most NBA fans have never had that thrill.

Pep talks and rehearsals