FanHouse Hakeemolajuwon

By losing the first the first two games of this series, the Orlando Magic have secured their place in history, trailing only the old Baltimore/Washington Bullets as the team with the most consecutive losses in the NBA Finals before getting a victory.

The Bullets lost nine straight consecutive games. They were swept by Milwaukee in 1971. They were swept by Golden State in 1975. They lost Game 1 in 1978 before beating Seattle and winning the NBA title that year.

The Magic have lost six, adding these two to 1995 when they were swept by the Houston Rockets. Can they make it seven tonight? Here are the first six in chronological order:

Dwight Howard is on the verge of making history and no one seems to notice. He's averaging 2.9 blocks and 14.0 rebounds a game, putting him on pace to become not only the youngest player to lead the league in blocked shots (beating out Marcus Camby by nearly a year) but also only the fifth player in NBA history to lead the league in blocks and rebounds in the same season.

You may not know what he looks like, who he was and why people felt he was special enough to teach them but Pete Newell was one of the best coaches college basketball has ever seen.

Newell died yesterday at the age on 93.

Newell was a legend and held the respect and admiration of the game's other legends. Newell coached for 14 years at San Francisco, Michigan State and California. He compiled a 234-123 record and won the 1959 NCAA Tournament while at Cal. His final head coaching gig came the very next year when he took an Olympic team with Oscar Roberston, Jerry West and Jerry Lucas to a gold medal.

He also beat UCLA's John Wooden the last eight times they met.

He's legacy lives on with his "Pete Newell Big Man Camp". The camp has been going on for over 30 years and has taught the likes of Lew Alcinder, Bill Walton, Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson. The camps have become a mandatory stop for any big man wanting to get into the NBA.

It might be time to change his nickname to "Big History" Bob. After a plethora of memorable playoff moments, seven championship rings, one memorable hip check, and more three pointers than you can count, Robert Horry has etched his name into the annals of NBA lore for the ages. Tonight he has the opportunity to add another page in the gigantic tome that is his career.

With an appearance on the floor tonight, Horry will become the all-time leader in NBA playoff appearances, after tying the previous record holder Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Game 4 with 237.

It's an amazing feat for a player to just have that many appearances in the games that matter most, let alone to have as many games where said player actually makes an impact as Horry has. He's won championships with Houston, Los Angeles, and San Antonio. He's played alongside Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, and Tim Duncan. He's played for Rudy Tomjanovich, Phil Jackson, and Greg Popovich. And he's breaking a memorable record, most likely, tonight, at 37 years old. Horry has drawn his fair share of criticism over the years for his feisty attitude and on the court toughness, but it's no question that he'll go down as one of the most respected veteran performers the game has ever seen. Tonight is just another in a long line of feathers in his cap, in a pursuit of yet another ring for his fingers.

The Basketball Hall of Fame revealed its seven newest members on Monday: Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing and Pat Riley were all accepted in their first year of eligibility while Adrian Dantley, announcer Dick Vitale, Pistons owner Bill Davidson and women's collegiate coach Cathy Rush were finally accepted after falling short as finalists in the past.

Much will be written about the three big names to get the nod -- Olajuwon, Ewing and Riley -- and deservedly so, but I'm most happy for Dantley, who had to suffer through being a finalist in six of the past seven years before finally getting the nod. Dantley, who's currently a Nuggets assistant coach, was so used to being stuck as the bridesmaid that he almost didn't answer the phone when the Hall called on Thursday. From the Denver Post:

Dantley found out Thursday. "He's a funny cat, because he didn't want to take the phone call because he thought he was going to get rejected again," [Nuggets coach George] Karl said. "I kept saying: 'Tell him to take the phone call! It's gonna be a yes!' "

Dantley never has been shy about talking about his apprehension to answering the phone when the Hall calls. "Every time around the last week of March, I start feeling kind of funny, seeing whether they are going to say yea or nay," Dantley said in an interview with The Post in February. "It's a weird feeling when the guys say, 'Sorry you didn't make it, you're eligible for next year.' . . . The last couple of years I haven't even answered my phone."

I think part of the reason it was easy to overlook Dantley's contributions to the game is because he spent the bulk of his prime years in relative obscurity with the (pre-Stockton/Malone era) Utah Jazz. But he retired as one of the league's top 10 scorers of all-time, and he's still in the top 20. Had he played in the spotlight of a major market like New York, he'd have been a shoe-in years ago.

The Basketball Hall of Fame finalists were announced yesterday and this year's potential class includes new nominees Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon and Pat Riley. Also remaining from previous years are Chris Mullin, Adrian Dantley, Dennis Johnson and Golden State coach Don Nelson.

The complete list of 15 Finalists includes a total of 10 candidates from the North American Screening Committee - players Ewing, Dantley, Johnson, Olajuwon and Mullin; coaches Nelson and Riley; and contributors Victor Bubas, Bill Davidson and Vitale. Two candidates each comprise Finalists from the Veteran's Screening Committee - player Richie Guerin and contributor Johnny 'Red' Kerr - and the International Screening Committee - coach Togo Soares and player Maciel Ubiratan Pereira (both of Brazil), with coach Cathy Rush representing the lone nominee from the Women's Screening Committee.

One would have to think that Dream and Ewing (YES!) are stone cold locks for first year induction, along with Riles; you could probably actually argue that Ewing deserves to get in just based on the monster he's created in Orlando this year.

In the wake of last year's playoffs, there were thoughts that the league office's mechanisms for parity had finally started to kick in. From the salary cap and the luxury tax threshold, to changing the rules to benefit teams without a traditional center, to creating the draft lottery, the NBA has been making an effort to create parity. Last year, for the first time in a number of years a team outside of the usual Lakers, Spurs, Rockets, Pistons, Bulls group won the NBA title. As well, the Mavs and Suns, two teams without traditional centers, were two of the best teams in the league.

Upon further analysis, you might find that last year's playoffs weren't really proof of parity after all. Miami did win the title, but they did that mostly because they were able to obtain Shaquille O'neal. And this year, the Spurs and Pistons (two perennial champions) are the favorites to win the entire thing again. If you define parity (as CNBC's Darren Rovell does) as the amount of teams that win a championship a given period of time, it's obvious that there isn't much parity in the NBA.