Basketball note

It's a funny thing how, if you tend to root for underdogs as I do, that means your teams usually lose. Perhaps I should have considered this more fully up front, meaning at age 7 or so.

I rooted against the Celtics in the 1980s and actually did pretty well (the Lakers took 5 titles and the 76ers 1 to the Celtics' 3). But now I root against the Lakers, who have taken the Celtics' marquee spot in the sport, and this is not going so well. (OK, I admit I rooted for Michael Jordan, but I was a Chicagoan for most of that time, and found myself admiring his bid to rise above the human frailties that beset us all.)

Though the Lakers were the better team, the Celtics could have won (ex post I'd say Game 7 was a 40 percent shot). For the slightly weaker team to win, it needs a number of things to go its way. Several did for the Celtics, but they needed just a bit more, such as Ray Allen hitting more than one out of every twenty 3's, or perhaps Nate Robinson connecting on that twisting layup and going on a binge. It might also have helped if the referees, throughout the series, hadn't classified guarding Kobe as per se a foul (or if they hadn't repeatedly called more fouls on the Celtics for no apparent reason), but perhaps that's the sour grapes talking.