It's been an amazing year for the NBA, which I suppose comes as no surprise to the league itself since its main advertising slogan this season was "Where Amazing Happens."

It wasn't all that long ago that the NBA was in danger of becoming irrelevant because of thug-like behavior by players, a referee gambling scandal and a boring champion from a small market.

Kobe Bryant, the league's best player, was holding his team hostage and demanding a trade that was impossible to make. That team, the Los Angeles Lakers, had once been considered the NBA's equivalent of the New York Yankees: a perennial championship threat. But now it was in such disarray it was in danger of being completely blown up from within.

The once proud Boston Celtics hadn't had even been in the playoffs since 2005 and hadn't won a playoff series since 2003.

But then Bryant discovered his teammates and his general manager weren't as bad as he thought. A trade (some say a steal) brought Pau Gasol over from Memphis. And a season many thought would be abysmal has culminated in a trip to the NBA Finals.

The Celtics, who perhaps were on the verge of trading Paul Pierce, instead engineered blockbuster trades that brought Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen into Boston to join him. The regular season was mostly a breeze for the Celtics and while the playoffs have been more of a struggle, the team has returned to the Finals looking for its 17th championship.

All this makes for fantastic television and ABC couldn't have hoped for anything more.

"Everybody understood that the Lakers and Celtics is a beautiful Finals and we're happy about that," said John Skipper, executive vice president for content for ESPN/ABC. "You don't get the best matchup every year. This year we got it."

The Lakers-Celtics Finals climaxes a great NBA season on TV for both ESPN, ABC and TNT. Ratings were up substantially on all three networks. Not only does ABC have the Finals it hoped for, but TNT enjoyed the Western Conference finals and the All-Star weekend that will be remembered for the Slam Dunk Contest won by "Superman" Dwight Howard.

The NBA Finals — the first featuring the two longtime rivals since 1987 — could attract some impressive ratings numbers, especially if it goes six or seven games. In the last decade, since the Chicago Bulls' last championship with Michael Jordan earned a record 18.7 rating on NBC, the highest mark for a Finals has been the 12.1 drawn by the Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers in 2001.

"Needless to say, we're just so juiced about this matchup," ABC play-by-play man Mike Breen said early in the week. "I know a lot of people are saying everybody wants this from a ratings standpoint and from a league standpoint, but these are just the two best teams, the best team from the East and the best team from the West and that's what the basketball fans want. After what (the teams) had to go through during the regular season the playoffs, they deserve to face each other."

So after one game of the Finals, everything has fallen right into place for ABC.

"We did not allow ourselves to root publicly," Skipper said, before adding with a laugh, "and that's the extent of my comment."

— Jim Carlisle is a staff writer for The Star. E-mail address: jcarlisle@VenturaCountyStar.com.