We heard all about the many storylines going into the 2008 NBA Finals, but we didn’t need to be reminded of the significance. Celtics vs. Lakers, 1-seed vs. 1-seed, both of these storylines pale in comparison to what’s really at stake: Redemption.

Boston’s star trio of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen were brought together in the hope that they could finally win the championship that has eluded all of them throughout their careers. But even these three combined can’t match the significance of one Kobe Bryant.

Bryant, the guy who was so unsatisfied playing second fiddle to Shaquille O’Neal on THREE CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS, forced the Big Whatever He’s Called These Days out of town so he could be The Man. In the process, he had to watch Shaq win a title in Miami while Kobe’s Lakers floundered.

This chain of events helped turn Kobe into the most divisive athlete in recent history. Was he the best player in the world, but surrounded by nobodies? Or, if he was the best player on a mediocre team, did that say something about him?

But this year was the year that everything was supposed to be solved. Kobe finally got some talent to surround him, but not so much that he isn’t clearly The Man on the Lakers. Kobe’s ability to share and play nice for once earned him his first MVP award, and this was supposed to be the year that he finally won HIS first championship.

But now that Boston is up 3-1 on LA, we have to ask ourselves: what if Kobe doesn’t win this year? We think that would be kind of a big deal. For anyone to lose after all that has happened to get so close would be devastating, but for someone with as much hubris as Kobe? The guy who has spent the last four years orchestrating this opportunity at the cost of his reputation and anything else, does anyone think he’ll take this loss like a gentleman? There’s no telling how badly this could end.

We do have one suggestion for Kobe, though. Man up, wimp. Kobe’s supposed to be the best player in the world. He averaged 43.4 points per game in January of ’06, and topped 40 in 27 games that season. His 81-point night against our beloved Toronto Raptors still give us nightmares. The guy is capable of anything.

So how about, after four years of pulling all the crap that he has, he actually shows that it’s all been worth it? We don’t want to hear about how great Boston’s defense is, because we just said how great Kobe’s offense is. We certainly don’t want to hear about Kobe’s teammates being the problem. The problem is Kobe, the man who should be able to rise up and cast a shadow on the entire series.

And frankly, he owes us this much. Fans who love him have forgiven his transgressions for one reason; his ability to play basketball like nobody else in the world. We have no strong feelings for or against him, but we’re probably guilty of this too. We’re not Laker fans, so we don’t care if he’s a locker room cancer. We’re not his teammates, so we don’t care how badly he treats them. We don’t care about his nonsense as long as he plays the way he can. And he hasn’t.

We ignored all his crap so that he could get here and prove us all right. He hasn’t so far, and now his team is down 3-1, a deficit no team has ever overcome in the NBA Finals. It’s about damn time Kobe did something to justify his own flawed self, and maybe it will take doing something nobody else has ever done for him to accomplish that.

We think he owes us all that much.