NBA Chanpionship 2010

NBA Chanpionship 2010

But first we go to a sports bar in Washington for the final game of this year’s National Basketball Association championship.

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DOUG JOHNSON: Tens of thousands of basketball fans lined the streets of Los Angeles on Monday to watch a victory parade. They were celebrating the Los Angeles Lakers’ victory over the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association championship game. Shirley Griffith has more.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The Celtics led the series three games to two. They needed just one more victory to win the best- of- seven games series and the NBA title. But the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant scored twenty- six points in game six to force a game seven in Los Angeles last Thursday.

Our summer intern, Mike DeFabo, visited a sports bar in Washington for the game. He talked with some fans watching the game on television.

RYAN: “ Well, it’s getting toward the end of the week. So I just called some friends. It’s game seven so we figured it would be a pretty good game, pretty close. Why not, come celebrate the end of the week with a beer and a good basketball game. Being here definitely helps me get more into the game. I mean the crowd seems to be into it. Even just people at the bar are cheering for big shots.”

ZACK: “ I respect Kobe[ Bryant]. I respect his game. I think he’s one of the top five players probably of all time. I wouldn’t want to be his teammate. I think if I was a Lakers fan or Kobe was on my team that would be something I’d really look forward to as a sports fan. But he’s also kind of that great sport enemy that we can all sort of love to hate.”

GINA: “ I’m a Lakers fan. I always have been since Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul- Jabbar and back in the good old days. I didn’t realize this is a Red Sox bar which would kind of mean that it’s a Celtics bar, too. But it feels kind of good watching the Celtics fans walk away sad.”

The Lakers played from behind for most of the game. They were losing by as many as thirteen points in the second half. That was until Ron Artest tied the game with a little more than seven minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Sasha Vujacic closed the game out for the Lakers. He hit two free throws in the final seconds to give Los Angeles an eighty- three to seventy- nine victory.

Kobe Bryant was named most valuable player in the finals for the second straight year. He averaged almost thirty points per game. This was his fifth NBA championship. Bryant said this championship is sweeter than the rest because it came against the Celtics.

The two teams have met twelve times in the championship series. They last played against each other in the finals in two thousand eight. The Celtics won that series in six games.

This was the Lakers sixteenth championship in team history. They moved one championship closer to the NBA record. The record is held by none other than the Boston Celtics, who have won seventeen titles.