The Golden State Warriors just won the NBA
Finals; I’ve surprised myself the past several weeks by watching the NBA
playoffs and enjoying actually sitting and watching the games again after a
long hiatus. This was a good Final series mainly because it was hard to pick which
team to pull for with long championship droughts for both teams; with no
championships of any kind in Cleveland for 50 years they became my sentimental
favorite.
The NBA has been virtually unwatchable for a
long time. The former commissioner created street ball with refs and those guys
were not very useful either. Jordan made
palming the ball acceptable the way he brought the ball up the floor; it would
have been called traveling in the real OLD days, as in pre 1983. I think Kobe should
send Mike a couple truckloads of champagne for getting the extra step allowed which
helped him score probably 3 to 4,000 more points over his career. I watched Dr.
J in his prime; he didn’t need that extra step. Stern oversaw an influx of too
many young players not bothering to improve their skills and being more interested
in making the Top Ten Plays on ESPN, thus becoming the standard fare the past
couple of decades. The past few years
with Miami putting together their Big 3 then making 4 straight trips to the Finals
and winning twice was unprecedented; the Lakers have tried that experiment
twice and failed miserably both times. When it comes to the Finals, great teams
win championships and that’s what the Finals this year was about.
It was fun to watch the way the Warriors moved
the ball around; sometimes the ball didn’t touch the floor after the first pass.
Stephon Curry is just a fabulous player
and one of the best shooters I have ever seen. Steve Kerr’s championship
pedigree paid dividends while he coached his butt off. Even with the team he
had he still had to use them right and he did.
This is a young solid team that should be in the conversation for at
least another few years.
Cleveland just didn’t have enough left in the
tank after going up 2-1; their energy level after that game just wasn’t there
the last three games. The Cavs grit and scrappiness got them the lead in the series,
but it wore them out. The last three games they had too many shots that hit the
front of the rim and would just drop; a glaring sign their legs were approaching
jello. Lebron James had to do too much and the other guys just didn’t step up
after they won Game 3. Even with Tristen Thompson banging the boards like a
boss they just didn’t have the horses. Cleveland
fans are left to wonder what might have been if Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving had
been able to play the whole series.
If anyone had told me I would be watching the
NBA Finals this year back when the season started I would have choked on my
coffee from laughing. I write the words “I
enjoyed it” with more than a dash of incredulity. Only time can answer the
question, Will I watch next season?
