The NBA Finals

The National Basketball Association has just completed an 82 game season and six rounds of playoff series, only to produce a duplication of last season's Finals match-up - the Miami Heat versus the San Antonio Spurs.  Couldn't they have just played a seven game series last October and saved everyone a lot of time?

I kid, of course, but like many of you out there, with no strong rooting interest in any particular team, I don't pay a lot of attention to the NBA until Playoffs time, but I am looking forward to following these Finals.

Surely, the Spurs, looking for their fifth championship in this era are one of the most under-regarded dynastic-type teams in any sport.  And they feature one of the least known, and certainly least hyped great players of all time in Tim Duncan.

The Heat, of course, are two-time defending NBA Champs looking to make it three in a row, and when you watch them, you are privileged to see this guy

in action.  Seriously, LeBron James is so good that I can't even come up with words to describe him.  If you can't appreciate that, then you just don't like basketball, won't watch the playoffs, anyway, and probably skipped reading this post when you saw the headline.

The teams staged a terrific seven game series for the Championship last year, and there's no reason to think it won't happen again this year.

Let's tip it off!

The Heat Chase the '72 Lakers

One of the neat things about the Miami Heat's winning streak, just snapped at 27 two nights ago, is that it caused some people to look back upon the team that they were chasing, the 1971-72 Lakers.  It caused names such as Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, and Gail Goodrich to reappear in people's consciousness.  Yes, folks, there really were good basketball players BEFORE Michael Jordan.  I wonder if Mike Greenberg and Stewart Scott realize that?

It was also refreshing to know that LeBron James has a sense of basketball history.  Comments from him in recent days make it apparent that HE knows there were giants who came before him.  Refreshing to see that in a modern day athlete.

NBA Finals Preview: Heat vs. Thunder

Admittedly, while my knowledge of the NBA is pretty much confined to what I hear Tony and Wilbon discuss on Pardon the Interruption, plus watching the fourth quarter of Game 7 between the Heat and the Celtics the other night, I have to admit that I am somewhat looking forward to avidly watching (OK, avidly may be too strong a word for it) this series between Miami and Oklahoma City.

By all accounts, OKC is an up and coming power in the NBA led by youthful stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, and everyone knows that Miami is led by their own Big Three, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and the Other Guy.  (I know, I know...it's Chris Bosh, but I couldn't resist the cheap joke.)   The Thunder went through a tougher road here get to the Finals beating Dallas, the LA Lakers, and San Antonio.  On the other hand, the Heat seemed to defeat some old demons with that seven game triumph over Boston, and in LeBron James, the Heat has unquestionably the best basketball player on the face of the earth. (I base this assertion on info gleaned from PTI and David Aldridge on the Tony Kornheiser podcast.)  Plus, I have actually watched the Heat play on TV, and I have yet to see the Thunder play.

So, on that very shaky and uninformed basis, I am going to go with the Heat to take the Larry O'Brien Trophy home with them to South Beach after a hard fought seven game series.

There you have it: Incisive and Cutting Edge NBA analysis from The Grandstander.  As always, watch, but don't bet!

One final LeBron James comment.  I think it's time to bury the hatchet with LeBron in regards to the now infamous hoopla and hype surrounding "The Decision" of a few years back.  Yes, it was self-serving and narcissistic to the nth degree, and yes, he should have let the Cavaliers know about his choice to leave in advance, but almost everyone around him, including James himself, acknowledge that the whole Decision-hype nonsense was a mistake, so it's time for everyone else to let it go.  I say that knowing that folks and fans in Cleveland, some of whom read this blog, will never be able to forgive and forget, and I totally get that, but it should be remembered that James was within his rights to leave Cleveland as a free agent.  He fulfilled the contract he had with them, took the Cavs to the Playoffs several times, and filled the coffers of Dan Gilbert in the years he was there.  He owed them nothing beyond that, except maybe the courtesy of letting them know ahead of time that he was leaving for Miami.  

It should also be noted that since "The Decision" we haven't heard much from Jim Gray, so maybe we should all be grateful to James for that!

As for me, I am looking forward to watching James and Durant go head-to-head over the next ten days or so.