When Nate Robinson and Glen Davis took the podium Thursday night after the Celtics' Game 4 win over the L.A. Lakers, you saw two rising stars unleashing themselves upon the world. You also heard the five words that shook the basketball world.
OK, well, not exactly.
While Robinson and his "We're like Shrek and Donkey" proclamation were the talk of the TD Garden media room Thursday night, as well as a YouTube sensation as early as the following morning, the cartoon comparisons won't have much shelf life in this series. Two days later, with Game 4 in the rear-view mirror and Game 5 on the horizon Sunday night, it's back to basketball.
"Shrek and Donkey?" asked Ron Artest. "I heard something about it. I didn't see it. Was it funny? I wouldn't know."
When reporters brought up the Robinson/Davis press conference, a genuinely interested Artest asked them to explain the "Shrek and Donkey" one-liner and how it came about. Artest took in the story — Davis' slobbering, Robinson's jumping on his back, the two of them sharing a laugh about it later on the podium — and he seemed to enjoy it.
"That's just cool," Artest said with a smile.
Then he went back to talking about basketball.
With the three-day layoff between Game 4 on Thursday night and Game 5 late Sunday, the Lakers have plenty of time to forget about the shenanigans following Boston's win. That is, if they even noticed in the first place.
"I haven't seen any of it, to be honest with you," said Kobe Bryant. "I haven't seen any of it. I've just been thinking about the next game — things we need to do, adjustments we need to make. Fans, you know, I think that's for them, for their interest in the series. But for us as players, it's just important to think about the next game, from a basketball perspective, how we're going to play it."
