Obligatory NBA Finals prediction… Now with more pomp!

So last summer my buddy Justin and I were floating around in his pool on a Pool Day and, he being from Colorado, was/is a huge Denver Broncos fan. We had spent a good part of the day talking crap to each other about the fantasy football draft (which we performed at said pool as well) and our discussion on whose team was better evolved into who the better real life teams were. About this time Denver had made some pretty good off-season trades to stack their defense and Justin was feeling all great about them. Then he grew some balls and decided to tell me that they were going to win the Super Bowl.

I almost choked on my beer. There was NO WAY the Broncos were going to win the Super Bowl. Just no way. He told me I could pick ANY team—any other team—and would bet me $50 that the Broncos would win the Super Bowl. If my team won, I got the coin. If the Broncos won, he got it.

My point here is not that the Broncos lost. (They had an altogether sub-par season.) But I chose the Patriots. We all know how that ended. I was a David Tyree incompletion away from $50. Either way, BEFORE THE SEASON BEGAN I had picked the best team in football and was *this close* to being right.

So when basketball came around, I made another pompous declaration before the season began that there was no way the Boston Celtics were going to lose the championship this year. And so far, I’m sitting pretty good—despite the media all season long talking about how awesome the Western Conference is. (For the record, I agree with them. The Eastern Conference sucks. The point is that the odds were against the Celtics from the jump.) They’re still not the favorites (most people are saying Lakers in 5 or Lakers in 6), but I’m here to stand by my prediction from way back when. I am going to go ahead and say Celtics in 6. You heard it here first!

Now if only they’d actually WIN, I won’t have picked the second place team in both sports. Oh, and if you want a ticket to the game in Los Angeles, get your credit card out. It’s going to cost you $400 a pop for upper concourse.