BeatSC.com makes the case:

[T]he Celtics have two trojans on their roster:  Brian Scalabrine and Rookie Gabe Pruitt.

We would call Scallopini a has-been, but he’s more of a never-was.  He had been nothing more than a spectator during this entire Postseason, watching the games in street clothes from the bench.  That is, until his ex-trojan buddy took matters into his own hands, sort of.  While playing against Pruitt in a pick-up game at practice, Celtic Tony Allen hurt himself, forcing the Celtics to tell Scalabrine to locate his uniform for Game 5 of their sereis against Detroit.  So Brian suited up, but still watched from his chair at courtside.

Believe it or not, that’s a BETTER deal than Pruitt got.  Not only hasn’t Pruitt played since April, but they don’t have enough chairs for him on the bench, so during the Playoffs, he hasn’t even been able to watch from the bench with the rest of his teammates.  Talk about “disrespect.”  So he may be the first guy to get a Ring, but still regret leaving “College” early.  If he starred with O.J. Mayo last season at SC, he could have gotten drafted into a situation where his team would actually play him.  But it’s still pretty cool to get a Ring, even as a spectator.  Just ask Bruins Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Trevor Ariza.

Kareem, who was instrumental in the Lakers 80’s Dynasty, will be watching nostalgically, as a Special Laker Assistant.  He worked mostly with Andrew Bynum this year, and Bynum is out until next Season, so we’d like to think that Kareem is now contributing to the immense success of new Laker Center Pau Gasol.

Also spectating for the UCLakers will be Trevor Ariza.  He is back from injury and definitely one of the 12 “active” Lakers, but it looks like he won’t play unless there is a blow-out, or major foul trouble.  It’s too bad, because before he got injured, he had absolutely cracked Phil Jackson’s ”rotation.”

And a STAPLE of that rotation, at Staples and on the Road, is Jordan Farmar.  You can almost set your watch by Jackson’s substitution pattern.  Farmar replaces Derek Fisher with about 4 minutes to go in the 1st Quarter, and stays in until Fisher returns, about halfway through the 2nd Quarter.  The same pattern is repeated in the 2nd Half, which shows how much confidence Jackson has in Farmar, letting him get crucial, 4th Quarter minutes while Fisher sits.   That confidence was evident — and rewarded — when Jackson left Farmar in when the Lakers were down 17.  Phil didn’t panic, and Jordan didn’t let him down, scoring 6 straight points to invigorate the Lakers.

So even though Laker owner Dr. Jerry Buss is a big trojan supporter, with the three above-mentioned Bruins, the Purple and Gold Lakers are a lot closer to Blue and Gold than to Cardinal and Gold, especially going against the only team, practically in History, to have two trojans on their roster (even if one of them is ass-glued to the bench and the other one is somewhere in Section 17, about 6 rows up).

Read the full post here .

Don't forget we will have the game 2 open thread up tomorrow night right before 6:00 pm PST.

GO LAKERS & GO BRUINS.