Los Angeles Lakers - 2010 NBA Finals Series: Collector's Edition

Let me say this as a die hard NBA and basketball fan, I really don't understand this release. At first, when I saw this set advertised I thought it was going to be a retrospective look at the NBA season that ended with the Lakers being crowned World Champions. When I received the copy I saw the following tacked onto the end of the title: 'NBA Finals Series.' This confused me for a bit, and then I saw a sticker at the bottom exclaiming that this set had all seven games between the Celtics and the Lakers in their entirety spread across four discs.

I'm all for a documentary examining how the Lakers got to the championship. How they persevered through the season, and how they maliciously killed my Jazz in the playoffs, but can I just ask who wants to buy a Blu-ray set that literally only contains seven NBA games? What's the market for this? I just don't get it. As big an NBA fan as I am I can't imagine curling up on the couch to rewatch Game 3 of the 2010 NBA Finals just for fun.

This is a really strange set to review, because I'm not sure what to say. It's seven games from the 2010 NBA Finals in their entirety. The people who are going to purchase this already know who they are. As for me, I have no idea who they are. I'm just confused from beginning to end here!

How do your review seven basketball games? I could say that as a Utah Jazz fan I can't stand the Lakers. The mere mention of their name makes my blood boil. I could say that I sat through this entire series rooting for the Celtics because I hated the Lakers more than any other team in the league. In the end though, there's nothing to review. It's seven complete NBA games of the Lakers versus the Celtics with all the commercials cut out. You get the privilege of listening to two of the worst announcers ever in Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy argue their points of view and that's about it.

High-definition is perfect for sports games, and here its no exception. I've never seen a basketball game (or any sports game for that matter) played out on Blu-ray before so I was very pleased with the result. On TV, with all its quick moving players, basketball in HD is usually hampered with an ongoing stream of micro-blocking that pops up due to the limited bandwidth of cable and satellite providers. This really is the first time I've seen a basketball game played out, in high-def, without any annoying or distracting artifacts mucking up the image.

All of the games and the press conference footage is presented in 1080i, most likely because they used the recordings straight from the television broadcasts (there is a really bad bit of aliasing during Ron Artest's press conference of Game 7 as one of his family members stands behind him with a horizontally striped shirt that pulsates and dances). With that said they still look rather stunning most of the time as players run up and down the gleaming Staples Center floor, or the checkerboard patter of the TD Garden.

Fine detail is at optimum levels when the camera zooms in on players as they take foul shots or dive on the floor for a loose ball. Individual sweat beads are constantly visible, and as always Kevin Garnett is constantly dripping with sweat. You can actually see each droplet form on his goatee and drop to the floor. The man is a sweat fountain. Every person in the crowd is separate. They never end up blending together into an amorphous blob. Colors are perfectly rendered from the gleaming gold uniforms of the Lakers to the forest green uniforms of the Celtics. Overall, the picture is going to please any fan that decides to purchase this set, and it's leaps and bounds over the artifact-ridden television broadcasts.

This set boasts a rather odd audio mix choice. The games are presented in DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo. The rear speakers are completely left out of the mix. The entire sound design is located up front much like it is during its TV broadcast. While I'm sad that they didn't decide to remix the audio in order to incorporate the sound of the roaring audience in the rear speakers and give that "Being There" feeling, the sound presentation isn't half bad.

A few things I noticed were one, the announcers voices were extremely clear, and seem to have been bumped up a bit in prioritization compared to when the games originally aired. If you like hearing Jeff Van Gundy go on and on about pointless stuff, then you'll love that you'll be able to hear him clearly. The next aspect that I noticed about the sound design on this set is that random sounds of sneakers squeaking on the floor or players talking to one another is actually much more audible than it is on TV. I love hearing players talk to each other, and here you can hear players yelling "move" or "good pass" to their teammates. Music from the loud speakers is also perceptible, as is the announcements from the PA announcer about who is coming into the game or who just scored.

As it is, the crowd, even on exciting plays, seems a little subdued and would have benefited from being thrust into a surround sound state. A few nitpicks aside this is a very capable stereo presentation for anyone who wants to relive these games over and over and over again.

• Mini-Movies (HD) – These movies are the absolute best part of the set. Each game has a mini-movie that chronicles the game in a more dramatic look back, with intense music and a narrator explaining what took place. Each mini-movie is about four minutes long, but I couldn't help but wonder how much better this set would have been if it would have followed the mini-movie style and made an in-depth documentary instead of just regurgitating the games we already witnessed.
  
• Press Conference Footage (HD) – On the fourth disc there's press conference footage for each game. Players like Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, and Pau Gasol all offer their insights into specific games. Coaches Doc Rivers and Phil Jackson also make appearances talking about what they did right or wrong during the games. Many NBA press conferences always sound alike with coaches saying stuff like "We came out and played hard. We knew we needed this win. We're just taking it one game at a time." Although it's always fun to hear Ron Artest talk about anything. He's just about the only guy who's really open with his feelings and probably the only player to ever thank his psychiatrist as a person that affected the outcome of an NBA playoff series. Oh, and you get to witness the infamous line uttered from Kobe when a reporter asks how this championship feels and Kobe says it's the best one yet, and now he's got one more than Shaq.
  
• Statistics – Each game you can click on "Statistics" in the menu and see the box score from that specific game.
  
• Scores – Like Statistics you can click on "Scores" and it will show you the individualized scores for each quarter of that game.
  

My only recommendation would be to those who actually find it fun to relive past playoff games in their entirety. Even as a huge NBA fan I couldn't imagine wanting to sit down and watch this over and over. This set really just boggles my mind. However, the video is much better than the television broadcast, and there are some cool extras to go along with the games, like the Mini-Movies and the Press Conference footage. With all that said, I still recommend skipping this just because it's seven full NBA games and not much else. If this series or season would have been recut with locker room footage, in-depth footage in huddles, and a highlight reel then this might have been a set worth owning. As it is, it seems superfluous and ultimately unnecessary.