Cavs ready for Lakers

THEY TREAT IT as a rite of passage – their rite of passage.A winner-takes-all match-up where nothing short of Premier League basketball supremacy is at stake.The dog days of January aren’t about over-indulging during the remnants of the Yuletide holidays.Not in Station Hill. Not in Husbands. Not when so much is on the line.Practice replaces partying. January is mere preparation for July.And all that stands between a historic Lakers-Cavaliers part four is an opportunistic Jackson side hoping to swipe their own piece of history.Not that MVP Peter Alleyne, Javid Beckles, Pearson Griffith and Kevin Austin battling for Jackson’s first ever trophy in the top flight in a debut finals appearance won’t make for good theatre.It just won’t make for the best drama.Try instead two clubs who’ve split five of the last six league titles. Two clubs with ten past and present national players between them.Two clubs who’ve met in the three previous post-seasons, including successive finals.That’s not just history, that’s the ultimate in rivalry.Consider that Magic Johnson’s Lakers and Larry Bird’s Celtics of the ’80s were supposedly heated adversaries and they met just three times in the play-offs.Then what about the Lakers and Cavs? They’ve already met three times – in succession.And a fourth collision still looms as menacingly as a rain-drenched Kadooment Day.But unlike overly persistent showers during “jump-up”, a fourth instalment of this rivalry is actually being looked forward to by every basketball fan who doesn’t call the surrounding areas of Adriana’s Complex home.The governing Barbados Amateur Basketball Association (BABA) would probably admit to lusting after this match-up too, if they could, considering the standing-room-only crowd that turned out for part one back in 2007.And the opposing players? Hardly any have been shy in showcasing their feelings about a chance to renew the only relevant rivalry in a sport that reveres them.Who can forget Adrian Allman bringing out his house broom to commemorate the 2008 finals sweep of Station Hill?  Or Kelvin Patterson’s Sunday morning declaration last year of walking around clothe-less if Lakers were to beat him in another play-offs?“It’s them I want,” Patterson’s veteran teammate Andrew Alleyne was clearly heard saying while pointing to the Lakers after his Cavs had finished sweeping Warriors just last week.The banter doesn’t stop at Station Hill, either, not when the Husbands men understand the bearing of this rivalry while believing they have plenty to prove after getting swept by the Cavs in the previous first-round.“We want to play them,” revealed Lakers’ equally unreserved Matthew Moore, who has never let Patterson forget those 2007 and 2008 championship victories.“I’m aware that’s what everyone wants as well, but we have Jackson to worry about first.”And worry they should, considering this is a Jackson team that has already taken three of the five meetings this season, including a 20-point drubbing in the knockout semi-finals.But this isn’t what the Ccavs spent he dog days of preparing for.No one wants to over-indulge on Jackson’s quest for a debut Premier League crown.It’s a good storyline but just not the best theatre available.Everyone loves a good sequel though, and what can be better than Lakers-Cavs part four?