It was ugly, but it sure was intense and highly competitive, and while I'm not a fan of either team (although I did bet on the Celtics +150 to win the series), I must say, I probably haven't gotten this into an NBA game since Michael Jordan retired. Did you see the Lakers' emotional reactions afterward? Pau Gasol and Derek Fisher were legitimately crying. Kobe Bryant turned into a different person (more on that in a bit), and even Phil Jackson was less surly, looked genuinely happy and for the first time ever, wasn't condescending. Every player is happy right after winning a championship, but my theory (and this might seem obvious), is that winning a close, hard-fought battle like that (in Game 7 no less), is more rewarding than if L.A. won by 20.

Since Ray Allen set a Finals record with eight three-pointers in Game 2, he shot 30.6 percent from the field (19-for-62), including a dreadful 3-for-16 in Game 7, even missing his first free throw of the series as well. Even worse, a lot of those were wide open looks, and as far as offense goes, I blame him for Boston's loss. However, Allen's terrific defense on Bryant outweighed his poor shooting. Bryant certainly attempted some questionable shots, but Allen deserves a ton of credit. He really D'd up.

Rasheed Wallace is a poor rebounder, but he's a solid defender, and when he posts up, he can still be effective on offense. Those bank shots were impressive. So was his clutch three. Anyone who followed the regular season closely and then watched Wallace play a big part in Game 7 of the Finals and Fisher also hit a huge three-pointer would have a hard time believing it.

There were some questionable calls here and there, but at least the refs weren't the story of the game, an all too often occurrence in the NBA. Love how they let the teams play, especially over the first three quarters.

Lamar Odom has a bunch of talent, but he's really not all that valuable of a basketball player, rendered essentially moot during this series. He can't shoot – both from the outside and from the line. Boston fans definitely rooted for him to try to score when the ball was in his hands, even more so than Artest. It's great Odom can handle the ball like a point guard at 6-10, but he averaged 7.6 points and 1.3 assists this series.

I'm a big Rajon Rondo fan, and he's definitely the most valuable fantasy player on the Celtics (and will be soon in real life as well), but right now, Paul Pierce is Boston's best player – he's really the only guy on the team who can create his own shot and score in a set offense. His FG|PERCENT| wasn't great with Ron Artest playing such good defense, but for what it's worth, Pierce was the only Celtics player who posted a positive in the +/- category on Thursday (admittedly, a flawed stat).

I loved when Jeff Van Gundy (by far the best color commentator in any sport) mocked Brian Scalabrine, referring to him as a "lockdown defender." That was almost as funny as Jordan's son posting this tweet.

Pretty crazy the Lakers were able to win with Bryant shooting 6-of-24 from the field, also missing four free throws and posting a 2:4 assist:turnover ratio. Has a team ever clinched a championship while shooting 32.5 percent from the field and 67.6 percent from the line? I doubt it. Anyway, watching Bryant's postgame interview (the one with all the reporters) was eye opening. I really can't explain how good he was. Smart, funny, affable, even admitting he was lying when he previously said the whole Boston/L.A. history stuff didn't matter to him as well as taking full responsibility for his disappointing performance in Game 7. Asked what having five titles meant to him, Bryant responded, "I got one more than Shaq." Brought the house down.

But speaking of interviews, Bryant's paled in comparison to Artest's, which was the best ever in the history of sports (especially factoring in the moment). Addressing zero of the questions Doris Burke asked him, Artest emphatically thanked his psychiatrist, the hood and implored all of us to buy his new single that just dropped. I had high expectations leading into this exchange, but it's safe to say Artest blew even those away.

Pau Gasol is better than Dwight Howard. That is all.