Begin right here: Are the Thunder a horny group and a horny champion? They’re not, though Shai Gilgeous-Alexander simply had a season for the ages and so did the opposite children on his group who simply took over the principal’s workplace.
We obsess on a regular basis with the NBA about triples, that means 3’s. However have a look at the triple SGA had with a scoring title and an MVP and now a championship, one thing solely Michael and Shaq and Kareem have ever performed. And the man did all of it as cooly as Tim Duncan as soon as did with the Spurs. By the way in which? These Spurs weren’t horny, both. All they did was win.
Did we get cheated out of what was shaping as much as a reasonably great Recreation Seven on Sunday evening when Tyrese Haliburton went down with an Achilles the way in which Kevin Durant as soon as did within the Finals of 2019? We did get cheated, and that can at all times be a part of the Thunder’s story, though they nonetheless did every little thing they needed to do within the second half when it was as if the Larry O’Brien Trophy was sitting there at midcourt.
However pretty much as good a narrative because the Thunder actually did turn out to be this season, begin to end, all the way in which to 84 wins in all, we come out of those Finals and this whole playoff season, with a a lot larger story, and meaning even larger than all of the hand-wringing in regards to the Finals rankings:The NBA acquired much more fascinating during the last couple of months.
The NBA WAS lots, due to simply how rattling good the Thunder had been, due to the Cinderella run that the Pacers had been on till Haliburton fell down; due to Haliburton and the Knicks and even the Thunder going the space towards the Nuggets earlier than they needed to go the space once more within the Finals.
However then got here the postseason we simply noticed. Then got here Knicks vs. Pistons, what actually was a blast from the previous. Then got here Knicks vs. Celtics. After the Knicks had been obsessing in regards to the Celtics for the previous few years, they not solely beat them, they twice got here from 20 factors down in Boston to beat them, leaping them like that and by no means actually letting them up. Would possibly the Celtics have discovered a solution to come again on the Knicks if Jayson Tatum’s Achilles hadn’t exploded? May need. However I doubt it. And for those who’d watched the primary few video games of that sequence, so must you. The Celtics had been higher than the Knicks, by lots, within the common season. Simply not when the cash was on the desk, and never when their 3’s stopped falling.
The Western Convention? It positive was purported to be the strong-man competitors of the NBA, and the perfect attraction. And perhaps the playoffs over on that aspect of the game would have been lots sexier if Steph Curry hadn’t gotten damage. However he did. It’s why the NBA’s most entertaining sequence and most compelling ultimately, though it didn’t go the space, was Knicks vs. Pacers within the Jap Convention finals. That was the one which started – and perhaps ended – with that loopy shot from Haliburton on the finish of regulation in Recreation 1: Off the again of the rim and up towards the ceiling earlier than we actually did get essentially the most well-known ball-drop in New York Metropolis since New 12 months’s Eve.
Knick followers will at all times surprise if their group might need been in a position to throw out the common season and get a sequence off the Thunder within the Finals the way in which they did that very same factor to the Celtics. However they didn’t get cheated this spring, not with three rousing blasts from the previous: Towards the Pistons, towards the Celtics, towards the Pacers. Then they fired their coach. Hey, they could have modified their playoff narrative beginning in April. Simply not their proprietor.
However regardless of the way in which their season ended, the Knicks did turn out to be an enormous a part of the NBA story over these two months, and never simply due to the way in which they lit up the Backyard. However an excellent higher story, in the entire grand scheme of issues is that this:
In entrance of our eyes, and as soon as and for all, the league acquired youthful, and in a giant manner. LeBron James, nice as he nonetheless is, won’t ever once more be thought-about the face of the NBA and neither will Steph Curry. Possibly Durant can if the Rockets make a run subsequent season. However the league is now about SGA going ahead. It was going to be about Haliburton earlier than he acquired damage. It’s about Anthony Edwards and Jalen Brunson and Cade Cunningham in Detroit. It’s about Donovan Mitchell and Victor Wembanyama. And due to town and the stage, it’s going to be about Luka, as properly, Laker followers dreaming about Luka getting LeBron on one final run. You already know the checklist of younger hoops expertise is longer than that. Not only one face of the league going ahead. Plenty of faces.
We nonetheless don’t know whether or not Giannis needs to go away Milwaukee or keep. All people who loves basketball, faculty or professional, can’t wait to see how good Cooper Flagg goes to be on the subsequent stage. All in all, a next-level time for professional basketball. Put me down as somebody who at the beginning of this season felt just like the league’s model was wildly overrated. No extra.
