Every NBA finals has some lessons. The 2008 Finals showed us that three aging superstars could put away their egos and play as a team and bring the Celtics a championship. The 2007 Finals showed us that three players – Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli - from foreign countries could mesh and bring a championship back to San Antonio. This year the Lakers beat the Magic in five games. Two of the games were overtimes. What did we learn? What lessons did the 2009 NBA Finals teach us? Well, actually there were many lessons, things to keep in mind on future finals:

1. The old NBA Slogan “Stay in School” – fuggetiboutit ! Two of the top five players in the NBA were in these finals – Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard – and they never walked on a college campus. What does that say about being seasoned in college?  Not much, apparently, because the second best players on the Lakers and the Magic – Pau Gasol and Hedo Turkoglu – never went to college either. They both matured playing European ball. Okay, you say, don’t be such a downer because at least the third best player on each team – Andrew Bynum and Rashard Lewis – went to college. Err, no, both high schoolers. So that’s the lesson. If you want to make it to the NBA finals your top three players should not have gone to college.
   
   
   
2. If you are a coach in the finals, having a TV announcer as your brother, will not help.
   Yes, Jeff Van Gundy called the games where his brother Stan Van Gundy coached the Magic. No, it did not keep Stan Van Gundy’s suit from looking like he just got off a 12 hour flight. Also, it did not keep Jeff from saying so when his brother was making bonehead plays.
   
   
3. No matter who won, someone was going to Disney. It made no difference that both
   teams were from a  Disneyland or a Disneyworld locale or that the star players – Bryant and Howard – had been to their Disney park dozens of times before, still someone from the winning team was going to a theme park except, this time, with a whole lot of cash. 
   
   
4. No matter which teams were in the finals, Kobe and LeBron puppets were bound to show up in the commercials. Two loveable puppets who looked nothing like the players they were supposed to be. Par for the course since the voices didn’t match either. However, since the LeBron puppet refused to shake hands with the eventual winner, it is up for an Emmy for authenticity.
   
   
5. The name of the team has very little to do with how they’ll play.  Los Angeles doesn’t have a lot of lakes. And Orlando, with a team named after the “Magic Kingdom” didn’t have a lot of Magic. They choked away two games, Game 2 and Game 4, they had locked up. The magic was with the Lakers and in those two games Orlando’s victories fell in the lake. Let that be a lesson for future finals teams.
   Can the aging superstars of San Antonio be Spurred on? Can Cleveland be too Cavalier about their destiny?
   

   
    We won’t know but we can be assured about one thing, there will always be lessons. Every NBA Finals can teach us something.