LEGACY OF NEW LEGENDS

UNEDITED SAMPLE SPORTS ARTICLKE
By Jose Mari Hall Lanuza
IV-Enrico Fermi


Three veterans. Six games. One championship.

This NBA season was filled with many controversies, like superstar trades, trash talk between all-stars, and many coaching flaws. But one of the issues that rocked the industry was the blockbuster trade between the Boston Celtics, the Minnesota Timber wolves and the Seattle Supersonics during summer. This gave way to the monster team-up of all-star veterans now called the Boston Big Three. They are Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. They were three superstar veterans, all hungry for their first ever NBA title. Last June 18, their dream came true.

After a shocking seven-game first and second round playoff series, the Boston Celtics, led by the Big Three, won the conference championships in six games against another Eastern Conference contender, the Detroit Pistons. The Celtics headed on to the Finals against the team of the season MVP Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers. In game six of the best of seven series, the Celtics, with a 3-2 lead, took the Lakers back to the Boston Garden, confident that they would win. And despite the efforts of MVP Kobe Bryant, the Celtics were simply too big of an obstacle. The plays made by Kobe were simply no match for all-star Paul Pierce, who led the Celtics to their 17th championship.

Pierce had help in annihilating the Western Conference champions, in the form of his teammates and co-Big Three, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Both superstars scored 25 points in the last game. Their loss in game 5 fueled the Celtics to play even better than last time. They put up a better performance in the Finals than in the earlier rounds of the playoffs where they needed all seven games to win the series.

In this post-season, many people became unsure of the Celtics’ ability to win a championship, mainly because of the show they put up earlier in the playoffs. They doubted whether the Big Three can perform on the same level as they did during the regular season, setting the bar in the league with 63 wins. After all, the playoffs is a different stage than the regular season.

It was evident during the entire post-season that the Big Three were not as mighty as they were in the regular season. Allen had problems with his shooting, and Kevin Garnett took the role of the leader earlier in the playoffs. But when the Finals came, it was Paul Pierce’s time to shine. He led the Celtics to the title, paved the way for his teammates, and made the season MVP look like a rookie. He scored 17 points in their game six triumph, and he averaged 21.8 points in the Finals. It was definitely a unanimous choice for the management to make Pierce the Finals MVP.

Just a season ago, the Boston Celtics were a 24-win team. They were on the bottom of the food chain in the NBA. They were simply hopeless. But all that changed when Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen came to Boston. In just a span of one year, they simply changed. From being the loser team to becoming the team that everyone wants to beat. This trio of superstars ended the 22-year championship drought of Boston, by giving the Lakers a humiliating 131-92 loss on June 18, winning the NBA title in the process.
All of the three major superstars of the Boston Celtics have never won a championship before. All of them were great, but they lacked something. Each of their former teams had no future. So when the new Boston roster was assembled, everyone knew that this Boston team was nothing like the old one. What’s the proof? The 2007-2008 championship banner, hanging on the ceiling of the Boston Garden.

This trio of superstars never knew how to get a title on their own. They never knew what it felt like, to touch the trophy, to have great teammates. They were deprived of the luxury championships brought. They never even dreamed of this great team. They were simply great players in the shadows of teams that have been champions before.

Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce never knew what it took to become NBA champions. That was back then. You want to know how to become champions? Ask them, they surely know now.