Normally you wouldn't find me blogging about the NBA anymore, but I decided to make an exception this time around in celebration of this momentous event.
First off, you gotta give mad props to the Toronto Raptors. They pulled off a highly improbable victory against a feisty Golden State Warriors team that fought toe to toe until the end despite being hobbled with injuries to key players at critical moments.
I won't go into the debate wherein people would say that this was just a fluke for Toronto and that they would be forever be questioned since the Warriors did not have much of Durant during the series and lost Klay Thompson to an ACL during the final game. I will say this though, that people also need to remember that Golden State capitalized on injuries during their championship runs too. In short, "Quits lang" :P Ok, enough about that..
I have been following the NBA avidly ever since late grade school, around the time of Jordan's second coming. It started kinda late for me because I wasn't really into basketball as a child due to my physical limitations because of my neurologic deficits. That and the fact that the only NBA exposure I used to get was the odd episode of NBA action that I would see from time to time on Saturdays.
My interest shot up when I got together with the boys. One of my earliest NBA memories with them was watching the NYK-HOU Finals during a birthday. After that I was pretty much hooked. BestFriend even gifted me with a Barkley jersey from one of his trips abroad for use during our jam sessions.
Eventually cable TV and the internet came around and made the NBA all the more accessible to my corner of the world. Dynasties were pretty much the norm in the NBA, what with all the championship gear the Celtics and Lskers have accumulated through the years. Chicago was also pretty dominant in the day, with Jordan getting 6 rings before eventually hanging up his sneakers for good and becoming a back office guy for the Hornets. Too bad Barkley was denied his own trophy though. :(
I was also witness to the impressive performance put up by the Pistons to win a chip against a heavily favored and methodical Lakers team bannered by Shaq and Kobe. That was a series for the ages.
One of my most favorite runs in recent years was the 2008 championship run by Boston's "Big Three" of Garnett, Allen, and Pierce. Being a Garnett fan since his time in Minnesota, it felt really good seeing the Big Ticket get to win one for himself.
The emergenco of Lebron James seems to have ushered in a new era in the NBA where the balance of power would tip where the players would want it. Now you have superteams of players getting together by themselves, putting together their own teams for a shot at immortality. AS expected, the competitive balance of the league began to be heavily skewed. It seemed like the championship trophy would follow lebron whereever he went, although the Spurs had a lot to say about that. :P
The most recent iteration of a superteam is embodied by the Golden State Warriors. They have a pretty stacked team that was seemingly unstoppable. I initially had no problems with them, since the team was patiently built over the years to become the powerhouse they are. I respected that. Then came the serpent known as Durant. He joined a stacked team that had just beat his ass the previous season and didn't really need him to win anyway, and just made them totally unbeatable. That's when my interest in the NBA waned dramatically, since the championship outcome seemed to be a forgone conclusion. What would be the point in watching anyway?
That's why I'm really happy for Toronto. I seem to have this tendency to root for the underdog, and also tend to side with the team that has not won a chip ("Give chance to others" is a big part of my morality). I'm also happy that the stranglehold of Golden State has been broken and the NBA can be fun again.
This may sound pretty cold, but I'm happy that Durant will be taken out for a season to recuperate. I hope when he comes back he would have reflected on the impact his actions have caused in the league and how he ruined the competitive balance of the teams. Truth be told, I liked him a lot when he was with harden and Brodie on the Thunder. That was a pretty fun team.
