Orlando Magic Basketball Team

Kobe Bryant scratched at it until it bled. Derek Fisher clawed at it until it hurt. The rest of them dug and dug until it finally, willfully, wonderfully disappeared. The Lakers' seven-year itch is gone. Awash in relief and redemption, Los Angeles' cornerstone sports franchise is once again champion of the NBA.

We probably won't know who has been actually coaching the Lakers this series until Phil's next book is published. Right now the best we can do is offer congrats to Coach Phil & Coach Kobe and thanks to the Magic for playing as if it has never been coached to win a big game. The guy coaching the Magic was so outclassed against the likes of Coaches Phil & Kobe, he was playing a rusty Jameer Nelson with the game on the line.

Phil Jackson was immersed in a two-month trek that included stops in Bora Bora, New Zealand and Australia, where he caught lobsters and cooked them under the stars with one of his former players, Luc Longley. Never in the early stages of 2005 did he envision returning to the Lakers, who had signed Rudy Tomjanovich to a five-year, $30-million deal as Jackson's successor in the summer of 2004. But Tomjanovich quit abruptly in February 2005, and Jackson returned to the Lakers four months later.

The Lakers are looking for redemption in the NBA Finals. In many ways, so is Trevor Ariza. The Lakers' starting small forward was jettisoned by the Orlando Magic in November 2007, deemed a non-fit for an offense that required shooters, not stoppers, under the system of newly hired Coach Stan Van Gundy. The Lakers saw a hint of potential in Ariza and sent Brian Cook and Maurice Evans to the Magic for Ariza, a trade that surprised several Lakers players who were close to Cook and Evans.

When Kobe Bryant worked out for the Lakers as a high school graduate in 1996, he stunned them with his leaping ability and raw basketball talent that few 17-year-olds had ever possessed. Lakers luminary Jerry West, the team's executive vice president at the time, said it was the greatest workout he had ever witnessed.

And now, the Magic's Mystery Tour. Lakerdom is gearing up for Monday's game here with Cleveland, the latest in a series of, quote, possible Finals previews, unquote, but don't look now, there's one tonight too. With less fanfare, or none, the Lakers are about to play the NBA's hottest team, which doesn't happen to have LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce or Ray Allen.

Finally, a foil. Frankly, this shadow boxing -- or maybe it should be called shadow basketball -- was getting rather dreary for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who last played a game of real meaning on May 11. Only it's not the defending champion Boston Celtics showing up on Wednesday night for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals; the guest will be the Orlando Magic, which beat the Celtics in Game 7 on Sunday.

Game 7 drama showed up and seized Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals between Cleveland and Orlando. So much for this series needing to breathe, searching for its dramatic range. It found all the right notes, fast-forwarded past ordinary and hit thrilling almost immediately. The Cavaliers wasted a dynamic 49-point, eight-assist performance from league MVP LeBron James as the Magic rallied to win, 107-106, on Wednesday night at Quicken Loans Arena.

It may have been the shot heard 'round the NBA, but the Orlando Magic refuse to let it define this series. LeBron James made what many analysts were quick to call one of the greatest NBA postseason shots of all time, nailing a three-pointer with one second left in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals to give Cleveland a huge win over the Magic and tie the series, 1-1. It didn't turn out to be a fatal blow.

Happily, they start the NBA Finals tonight in the nick of time, before anyone drops dead from analysis and coverages of breaking stories . . . Like the Jameer Nelson Comeback Story, with Orlando's gutsy tyke, who was supposed to be out until next fall, trying to make it back this spring. This is huge, not only because he's a comer who was selected as an All-Star, but, as everyone notes, he averaged 27 against the Lakers. Or maybe it's just medium-sized.