I will always fight the concept that you can judge a player’s ability by how many championships he’s won.

The absurdity was obvious Thursday night. Yes, Kobe Bryant won another ring. He was MVP of the series, too. But am I the only one who noticed he went 6 for 24 from the floor last night? Certainly ABC didn’t want to deliver that news, as it came very sparingly throughout the game. Guy was horrible. Shot selection was terrible and his shot making was even worse.

If the Lakers had lost, he’d have been the goat. But they won — and somehow he gets the credit for it. Fact is, the other guys — Derek Fisher, Ron Artest, Pau Gasol — stepped up and carried Bryant. No disgrace in that at all. It happens… but again, it merely points out that you need teammates to win.

And all the great players who toiled in the NBA for years without talent around them pay a heavy price for that. I mean, seriously — Oscar Robertson may be the best guard I’ve ever seen, but he didn’t win a title until he found Kareem Abdul-Jabbar late in his career.

After all these years people — even some of them outside of Boston — think Bill Russell was better than Wilt Chamberlain simply because of all the titles Russell won. Nothing against Bill, but if you ever watched the two men play there would be no doubt in your mind which was the more talented player.

Russell was blessed to play for a team that had cornered the market on talent in the NBA, while having the best coach and front office in the league.

I’m not a Kobe hater. I think he’s the best player in basketball and probably just about as talented as the player — Michael Jordan — he has copied, in almost everything from his walk to his step-back jumper.

But I guess I would tend to judge how good he is by his actual performance — in big games like a Game 7 in the NBA Finals — rather than the contributions of his teammates, which won him that last ring.

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– As bad as the Lakers played, it’s incredible the chances they still had inside the final minute of the game. Kobe Bryant had two brutal turnovers, one in the halfcourt where he tried to pass the ball back outside and the other in the Boston end where he couldn’t get an outlet pass over Kevin Garnett and missed a chance for a layup that would have cut the lead to four.

– As good as Bryant is, you can see how hard it’s getting to be for even superstars in the NBA to “get their own shot” consistently throughout a game against a quality opponent. It’s fine when Bryant is draining difficult outside shots, but over time, particularly late in games, it’s extremely difficult for a player against today’s defenses to do that. He’s got defenders all over him. It’s no wonder why he had seven turnovers for the game.

And you wonder why I’m down on the Trail Blazers’ chances of ever making a long playoff run using so many isolations for Brandon Roy? If Bryant can’t do it consistently, how could you expect Roy to do it? And spare me from any thoughts Roy is better than Bryant.

The Lakers are much, MUCH better when they share the ball. When they work the triangle and get good shots inside. But it’s a killer for them when Lamar Odom no-shows and Andrew Bynum isn’t healthy.

Bynum is the key to this series and a difference maker. But it appears that knee is getting worse the longer he plays.

– I give Danny Ainge a ton of credit for adding Nate Robinson to that team late in the season. People laughed when he did it, but it was a huge move. At the level of the Celtics, very often just one big quarter from an unexpected source can mean a championship. Or don’t you remember Herm Gilliam for the Trail Blazers in 1977?

– I am not sure that Boston bench can continue to produce at that level in Los Angeles. I will believe it when I see it.

– Big Baby is pretty good. Over and over we see this — effort and timing matter a lot more in rebounding than height.

– Doc Rivers continues to show he’s an outstanding coach who has a great sense of his team. He has a great feel for substitutions and insists on unselfish play at both ends of the court. On top of that, I think he’s managed to stay humble and retain his sense of humor. I love the way Boston plays at both ends of the floor.

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I’ve made this known before, but I have to reiterate — don’t count me among those all geeked up for another Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals.

The tradition of this doesn’t move me much. I’ve seen them play enough over the years. Been there, done that — even in the days when a 2-2-1-1-1 travel schedule in a seven-game series between Boston and Los Angeles meant enough cross-country flights to jet lag me for days.

I find these the two most unlikeable franchises in the league — mostly for their arrogance, I guess. There is nothing very lovable about either team, if you ask me. And I’m hard-pressed, too, to pick a winner in the series or to even say which team I’d like to see win.

Usually, I’m more accustomed to subtly pulling against one of these teams. Now, I’ve got to watch one of them win. I suppose, if you put a gun to my head — and I wish you wouldn’t do that, by the way — I’d have to say I’d prefer the NBA championship stays in the West. But really, it wouldn’t break my heart to watch Phil Jackson lose a series.

However, it looks to me as if the Lakers may have too much for Boston this time around. I like the Los Angeles front line over Boston’s. And I like Kobe Bryant over anybody in basketball. The only thing that worries me is the physical nature of Boston’s defense. In the West half of this bracket, the Lakers haven’t seen a mugging like they’re going to get from the Celts.

I’m not sure the Phoenix Suns did much to prepare Los Angeles for the Celtics.

That’s Boston’s big chance — to physically beat up the Lakers and make it an old-fashioned, NBA wrestling match. And even without the physicality, the Celtic defense is much better than anything the Lakers have seen to date in the postseason.

I can’t recall ever saying this before, but I wouldn’t mind seeing it end quickly. Man, it seems to me that this has been one long NBA season. I wouldn’t mind seeing it finish up. Let’s get to the draft so we can start the whole thing all over again, right?

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A few observations about the Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles:

– One of the better Portland defensive efforts in a while. Not sure it was because of Portland’s effort, personnel or just that the Lakers are struggling so much with what they’re trying to do. Either way, it was outstanding, particularly on the perimeter players — and we haven’t said that very often, have we?

– I’m not going to tell you the Blazers are better without Brandon Roy. That’s absurd. But I will tell you is that they move the ball on offense better without him than with him. And they probably defend a little better, too. I believe Roy is having some injury problems that may be more serious than we’ve been told. He’s just not moving very well lately — and this was PRIOR to the knee tweak Sunday.

– I’m not going to tell you that the  Blazers have a better chance of beating Los Angeles than Utah or Denver or Dallas. I’m still not going there. I have to see Kobe struggle in the playoffs before I buy into that stuff. But I will say, that finger injury definitely seems to have impacted his shooting and unless he can be the real Kobe again, the Lakers aren’t the real Lakers.

– Rudy Fernandez, as I’ve said before, is VERY good with the ball in his hands as a playmaker. When he runs the pick-and-roll he actually looks for the guy who is rolling toward the basket — and can deliver it to him quickly. I would use him to run more of that stuff. He also looks a lot better on the floor when he isn’t looking over his shoulder, expecting someone to enter the game in his place. I’m just sayin’, OK?

– If I had one question to ask any player after that game, the one I’d ask would be to Martell Webster, and it would be, “What the hell were you doing on that “shot” with three seconds to go?” Man, if the Lakers hadn’t bailed him out by fouling him, he would have looked completely foolish. There was way too much time left for a desperation heave like that. Of course, give him credit for making the free throws. Nice work.

– If Kobe has to miss two free throws and Fisher another inside the final seconds of the game for Portland to win, I don’t like the Blazers’ chances of repeating this feat anytime soon.

– Monday night ought to be one dilly of a game against Oklahoma City. Of course it seems like every time I say that this season, one team doesn’t show up and bring it.

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Am trying hard not to post on weekends. Using them to rest up and since most people check this blog on the boss’s time Monday through Friday, I have been able to get away with it.

But that was some game. Probably the best one I’ve seen the Blazers play against a quality opponent in some time. Great focus at both ends of the court and an excellent defensive job.

Martell Webster was terrific on Kobe Bryant and is playing with great energy. He got plenty of defensive help, too, and Portland’s scheme on Kobe was terrific.

Andre Miller was solid, as he’s been for the most part lately and you have to give everyone who played a lot of credit. Brandon Roy, of course, was special. He seems to save his best for the best teams.

You just wish they came out with that kind of focus and energy all the time. Make no mistake, it was a special night.

(An interesting sidebar to the game: Jerryd Bayless did something in  the first half I don’t think I’ve ever seen. He hit four straight shots when he was basically behind the three-point line but had his toe on the line — getting credit for only two points. Each shot looked so close to a three-pointer. Man, look down next time, kid. You cost yourself four points.)

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A lot of people are pointing at Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson and saying yes, Phil can handle Ron Artest. After all, Phil made it work in Chicago with Dennis Rodman. Artest joining the Lakers can do nothing but make the Lakers better.

I would not be so quick to jump to that conclusion.

Rodman, while probably crazier even than Artest, was not the problem on the court that Artest will be. Rodman did not want to shoot. In fact, when you passed him the ball he reacted as if you’d just pulled the pin on a hand grenade and lobbed it to him. What Dennis wanted to do is rebound and he did that just about as well as anyone ever has.

Artest not only wants to shoot, he’s the most toxic kind of shooter — the type who thinks he’s good at it and isn’t. I think it’s going to make for some long nights for Kobe Bryant, trying to somehow get it through Artest’s noggin that those long jump shots he favors aren’t going to be what’s best for the Lakers.

And that team does play in Los Angeles, you know. Ron Artest anywhere near Hollywood just seems like such a potential trainwreck. I’m not sure if Artest looks for trouble or if trouble just has a way of finding him but it’s going to be fun to watch this play out.

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Nike has certainly set the standard for advertising shoes. Nobody is even close. But here’s the thing about those ads we keep seeing featuring puppets of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant:

I don’t care if you think they’re funny, cute, entertaining, just OK, awful or totally annoying. Doesn’t matter. It all comes down to one thing — I just don’t see any way in the world those ads are selling one, single, solitary shoe.

No way. And they aren’t doing anything for the popularity of the two players, either.

So really, what’s the point?

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I’ve come to believe that as far as the media is concerned, this series is all about Kobe Bryant. And whatever happens tonight it’s likely to be explained in one of these ways:

– Kobe just wouldn’t let them lose.

– Kobe is tired.

– Kobe just isn’t as good as everyone thinks he is.

And it’s still only Game 4.

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He’s worn out. At least that’s what this column in the Los Angeles Times talks about, using a veritable festival of one-sentence paragraphs. Maybe he is. He has every right to be. But he’s also just as entitled as anyone else to have an off-night once in a great while.

Besides, it’s not as if he’s out there playing alongside a Laker team for the ages.

After reading about Tuesday night’s game in all sorts of places, I still have to marvel at how experienced media people still, after all these years, have such a tendency to jump on the bandwagon of whatever team won the most recent game in these series.

And by the way, if Courtney Lee had made that shot at the end of Game 2, would the media have been heavy on Bryant’s ass by now or what?

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Some day someone is going to say or write just that about the 2009 NBA Finals. You know, ol’ Kobe Bryant just willed them to the title.

Yeah, except ol’ Kobe is the luckiest stiff on the planet this morning.

Courtney Lee blew a chance to make one of the biggest shots in NBA Finals history Sunday night — and a layup at that — and it saved a turnover-prone Kobe from being the fool in that game.

With wide-open teammates all over the floor in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter, Kobe tried to win the game himself — only to have his jumper totally capped by Hedo Turkoglu. With sixth-tenths of a second to go, the Magic had the ball at midcourt.

Stan Van Gundy can really coach. I’m just guessing here but I think he used a fake out-of-bounds play, something he didn’t intend to run, just to set up a possible game winner. The Magic called timeout after the first one, when Turkoglu didn’t at all seem to be ever intending to inbound the ball.

Then, after a 20-second timeout, Turk lofted a high-arching pass intended for Lee, who had used Rashard Lewis’ high pick to totally free himself. I believe Lee may have gone up in the air just a shade too soon, catching the pass on his way down instead of on the way up, when he could have possibly even dunked it.

It was a still a dead-cold layup on the left side, though, and Lee barely missed curling it in with his right hand. It was a shame Orlando squandered such a brilliant play – and the guy who missed the shot had previously missed a layup just seconds earlier.

But what was an even bigger shame is that Bryant emerged with his strut intact, even though the man he was guarding on the play was Lee. But a storyline is a storyline in the NBA. And all those same people who have been predicting Orlando’s quick demise for the last three days will stick to their version of history.

Yeah, it will be remembered as Kobe’s vindication, most likely. HIS title.

But I’ll always remember Lee’s missed opportunity.

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