MORE GAME SIX MUSINGS: One of the interesting points David Halberstam makes in The Breaks ff the Game is that the NBA is the youngest of the four major sports and was the one most influenced by television and was the one most willing to alter its "product" to get itself on TV. Halberstam wrote that twenty years ago and I think the NBA still sees itself foremost as a television product and will try and do what it can to get itself the all-important Ratings. Watching Game Six you knew the league wanted seven games for these Western Conference Finals. Almost apologetically, they gave the Kings a fair shake in Game Seven and the Kings spurned them but there you go. Hopefully it all worked out for the league, which it probably always does, in the end.

Seeing the Kings try to laugh off Game Six at the end there, I though for sure they would win Game Seven; they would take an obvious screwjob in stride and come out and win. But maybe it hurt them a little too much, and was why one King who did not fall off throughout the playoffs --Doug Christie-- could not respond when the Kings needed him to.

One more thing: I don't think you can blame Webber this time. He did what he could. And Mike Bibby is a deity.