What Year Is It?

When you wake up on Thursday you may have to look at the morning's paper to realize just what year you are in.

If you were just listening to the sports or entertainment news, you may have felt that you have traveled back in time to the 1980s.

The biggest movie in the theater these days stars Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, something we haven't seen since 1989.

Well, the NBA can do it one better.

The Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers will renew their glorious rivalry on Thursday night in the National Basketball Association Finals. This will be their first meeting in the Finals since 1987 (meeting previously 10 times since 1959).

The Lakers have been pretty consistent in the years since, including winning three titles with the Shaquille O'Neal/Kobe Bryant combination. But, they had fell to the bottom of the Western Conference playoff teams since the departure of O'Neal, only to be reinvigorated with the arrival of Pau Gasol this season.

The Celtics, however, have been an up and down team for many years since 1987 - reaching the conference finals in the 2001-0-2 season, only to lose to the New Jersey Nets. Last season, the Celtics finished second-to-last in the NBA with 24 victories. In the offseason, though, the Celtics worked their magic and landed Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to join perennial all-star Paul Pierce - now known as "The Big Three".

The Celtics haven't been this exciting since their original "Big Three" in Larry Bird, Robert Parrish and Kevin McHale. If the Celtics win a title this season, they may send another ring to McHale (now the Minnesota Timberwolves GM), who OKed the trade for Garnett from Minnesota.

So the year may be 2008, but there certainly appears to be some resurgence to the great years of the '80s. I hear Beverly Hills Cop is coming back - I am not spiking my hair again, no way.