ything out.
The standard was set back in the 1960s, when everybody picked Wilt, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor to destroy the creaky, boring Celtics every year in the NBA Finals, continued when Worthy, Magic and Kareem were supposed to blow the doors off of Bird, McHale and Parrish, and has now been appropriately punctuated by the nearly unanimous picks of the Kobe/Gasol Lakers over the Boston Celtics to win the 2008 NBA Finals. Across three generations, everyone and their mother have picked against the Celtics and chosen the Lakers to steamroll Boston and cruise to a championship, based either on the flashy talent of LA and their dominant players (Wilt, Kobe and Magic), or on the way in which they destroyed the competition in the Western Conference Playoffs, or on the traits that Boston lacks (youth, athleticism, a superstar etc.)
