BOSTON — The Celtics seemed very relaxed here at home, ending their last pre-NBA Finals practice with Ray Allen taking on Paul Pierce in a very casual but loud game of 1-on-1. The Lakers seemed a little more businesslike.
Here is the most basketball-accurate comment Kobe Bryant gave today, in response to a question about so many Celtics hungering for their first championship: “In the Finals you obviously have a lot of hunger. You have the will to win, which is great. But from my experience, you have to execute. You can want it worse than anybody on this planet, but if you don’t have a group of guys or a team that collectively executes well enough to win, you’re not going to win.”
Here is the most interesting comment Bryant gave today, which ties into the big story I’m putting together (you’ll see it on the site late this afternoon) about Bryant’s changes this season in large part to Phil Jackson’s ongoing influence: “For me, the most important step towards trusting my teammates was seeing that they wanted it as much as I do. So by me seeing them working hard — doing extra work, not just practicing at 10:30 and showing up at 10:25, but showing me they want to do it (because I’m there) — I saw that they wanted to put for that effort. It made it a lot easier.”
