NBA Fans in Seventh Heaven

Pro football unquestionably has become America's sporting obsession. There's no offseason anymore. There's no month when the NFL isn't front and center in the culture's consciousness. Even a complete non-story, such as this Matt Walsh nonsense out of New England that's little more than Geraldo standing before Al Capone's vault, can hold people's rapt attention for weeks.

But there's one thing pro football in all its glory can't give you: Game 7. The NFL can't give you six games of back-and-forth, of day-to-day adjustments and second-guessing, of cold stares and hard fouls, of familiarity breeding contempt even among friends. Only six previous games can produce the desperate drama that is Game 7, still the coolest thing in sports -- any sport and any teams.

That's why for some of us, the Sunday-Monday East-West doubleheader of Game 7s is pretty close to nirvana. You want to see champions and big stars under the ultimate pressure? You think pro sports don't have single elimination? Sure they do. Cleveland and Boston this afternoon, then San Antonio and New Orleans tomorrow night are down to their final out. Losers go, winners advance to the conference finals. It's one and done, only with context and recent history, with jobs and futures and reputations at stake.

It's hard to imagine a better mix. In the Boston Celtics, you've got the kings of Game 7, a franchise that has an 18-5 record in such games, a club whose very image was built on its ability to win seventh games. And a new Celtics team with star power but no pedigree is faced with the scariest manner of Game 7 opponent, LeBron James. He's the player who can slay a champ almost by himself; ask Detroit. LeBron lost the only Game 7 he's played in to date, two years ago against the Pistons. Still, if anybody wakes up the ghosts in the new Garden in Boston this afternoon, it seems as likely the shake will come from LeBron as anybody wearing the green and white.

In New Orleans tomorrow night, a total playoff neophyte, thought to be the worst kind of résumé entry for such a test, will go against a four-time and defending champion Spurs team.

So in all, the two Game 7s in back-to-back days will involve an historic champ (Boston), a current champ (San Antonio), a Game 7 virgin (New Orleans) led by one of the game's great young talents (Chris Paul) and a growing legend who quickly has come to understand the historic significance of certain moments and how to take ownership of them.

Statistical analysis says the home teams, the Celtics and Hornets, should be favored. But do you really want to bet against the Spurs and against LeBron James in a sport ruled by a handful of championship dynasties and outsize stars?

It really is scary how many surreal performances and great games have been Game 7s.

Going back to 1957, the first of five times these two squared off in the NBA Finals in five years, the Celtics beat the St. Louis Hawks, 125-123, in double overtime for the NBA championship. A rookie named Bill Russell had 19 points and 32 rebounds and finished off a series that began -- get this -- with St. Louis beating the Celtics, 125-123, in double overtime at Boston Garden. That was the Celtics' first league title; who knows how different the team's and league's history might be?

In the 1962 NBA Finals, Russell, who played in a record 10 Game 7s, had 30 points and 40 rebounds in another Game 7 OT victory, this one over the Lakers. Only three years later, in an Eastern Conference Game 7, "Havlicek stole the ball! Johnny Havlicek stole the ball!" He stole it from Hal Greer, hoping to get it inbounds to Chet Walker.

Not all these endings and dramatics involved the Celtics. The Willis Reed Game, May 8, 1970, at Madison Square Garden, speaks to the Knicks' captain limping out to score the first two baskets of the game against the Lakers and Wilt. Lost in all this was one of the great Game 7s, Walt "Clyde" Frazier's 36 points and 19 assists.

Three men who never won NBA championships -- Dominique Wilkins, Charles Barkley and John Stockton -- nevertheless turned in all-time Game 7 performances. Wilkins, 20 years ago on May 22, scored 47 points against the Celtics, only to have Larry Bird go 9 of 10 in the fourth quarter to beat the Hawks, for whom it has been pretty much downhill ever since. Barkley, playing against Seattle, had a Russell-ish 44 points and 24 rebounds. And Stockton had 29 points and 20 assists in a loss to the Lakers.

The Lakers, who used to come out on the short end of Game 7s all the time against the Celtics, turned around that trend during Magic's tenure and beyond. Shaq and Kobe, in for me the most memorable series played this decade, were assisted by regrettable officiating to extend the Kings to seven games, then won Game 7 of the 2002 Western Conference finals in overtime in Sacramento. The Suns won back-to-back Game 7s against Los Angeles, first the Lakers and then the Clippers, in 2006.

Every couple of years, a series will develop that you hope to see continue to the final game. Baseball has its history of 'em, as does NHL in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It's the NBA's turn, again, to show off if not the best of what it has to offer, very possibly the most dramatic.