Thank goodness I won’t be able to see the Lakers and Celtics.

Not that I don’t care. Oh, on the contrary. I care scads. Tons. Oodles.

It’s just that I come from that generation of Lakers fans/followers who remember the 1960s … and far too well, when it comes to the Lakers and Celtics. Does 0-6 in the Finals in that decade ring a bell?(A tolling, bell, maybe?)

And I got a little refresher on it all in 2008, when I reported on the three games in L.A. — including the infamous 24-point-blown-lead in the series-turning Game 4.

No. I am happy to be in Italy for the first three games of the NBA Finals, and then in Abu Dhabi after that.  And “the NBA on ABC” doesn’t translate to this side of the Atlantic, thank you very much.

The Lakers losing to the Celtics is a sort of background noise to my formative years.

I was already a fan in 1962, when the Lakers had a chance to win at the buzzer in Game 7, in the Gahden when Frank Selvy took a short jumper … and missed it. The Lakers then lost in overtime.

And a pattern of pain was established. The Curse. The leprechauns. The dead spots in the parquet floor. The arrogant Red Auerbach and the victory cigars. The outrageous luck of the Celtics.

A little background. The Lakers were ahead of the curve when it came to televising their team. I can’t tell you when they began showing nearly every road game, but it was early in the decade, and they had the ultimate salesman calling their games, the incomparable Chick Hearn. And I watched them regularly. Jerry West, Elgin Baylor … how could you not? Remember, this is way, way, way before ESPN … back when you might get a Saturday “game of the week” in MLB … and you could go five or six days between televised sports offerings. Yes, this actually happened.

As a kid,  I internalized the Lakers when I was, really, a baseball fan first and foremost. I studied Jerry West’s jump shot.  I watched how he played defense and I tried to master one of his most fiendish tactics — the sneak-from-behind blocked shot.

And those Lakers were good. Winning the Western Conference year after year … only to get the Celtics for the championship and always coming up short.

Another bitterly painful series: 1966, when the Lakers came back from a 3-1 deficit to force Game 7 and nearly wiped out a big Boston lead in the final 60 seconds — the Celtics seemed more concerned about how they would celebrate, as you can see in this ancient video — before barely hanging on, 95-93. (Why no foul on the inbounds play?)

In 1969, with Wilt Chamberlain having joined West and Baylor, a championship seemed a sure thing against the aging Celts … but the Lakers blew a chance to take a 3-1 series lead in Game 4. They held a one-point lead and the ball with seven seconds left. Baylor, however, stepped out of bounds in the in-bounds play and Sam Jones put up a brick at the buzzer that knocked around the rim before falling through the basket for a one-point Boston victory.

It came down to a Game 7, in Los Angeles, and the Lakers were ready to close out the Celtics on their home court (the famous Balloons in the Rafters game). But Chamberlain came out of the game in the final minutes with what actually does look like a knee/leg injury, though it remains a controversy 41 years later.

With a bit more than a minute to play, and the Celtics having blown 16 points of a 17-point lead, Don Nelson (yes, that Don Nelson) found the ball in his hands after it had been knocked away from John Havlicek and, with one second on the shot clock, and rushed a shot that hit the heel of the basket … bounced straight up … and fell back through the net. The infamous basket (near the end of this video clip) gave Boston led 105-102, and the Lakers never again had the ball and a chance to lead in a game that finished 108-106.

Boston beat the Lakers again in 1984, and those of us who lived the 1960s thought this torment might never end. The Lakers won in 1985 and 1987 … but the Celtics won it in six in 2008.

Remember, then, that any Lakers fan/follower over the age of 50 remembers the horrible days of the 1960s and never, ever assumes the Lakers will beat the Celtics in a finals … unless perhaps Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are in uniform.

I have no confidence the Lakers will win this Finals. Zero. Boston has the same starting five it did two years ago, except Rajon Rondo is now one of the best two or three point guards in the game. The Big Three of Garnett,  Allen and Pierce are all two years older, but they seem to have saved themselves for the playoffs.

The Celtics have reached here by beating two teams in six games — Cleveland and Orlando — that I doubt these Lakers could have gotten past.

The Lakers are essentially the same team now they were in 2008. Trade Trevor Ariza for Ron Artest and (maybe) a little Andrew Bynum for none … and those are their improvements.

I will read about the games afterward. My suffering will be limited to the instant jolt of seeing the score when I log on the next morning. Assuming I still get the internet.

Get ready for heartbreak, Lakers fans. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’ve seen this movie. About nine times.