2018 NBA Finals: LeBron James, Warriors’ legacy and the 5 biggest takeaways
5. The Warriors fatigue is understandable, but overstated
One of the best things about sports is the unpredictability of it all. The NFL Playoffs and NCAA Tournament are so fun because in a one-game sample size, anything can happen. Cinderellas are made, underdogs knock off heavy favorites and even undefeated juggernauts can lose on the biggest stage of all.
In the NBA, this is rarely the case. In a seven-game series, the better team eventually wins out nine times out of 10. There have been historic defeats, of course, with the most recent being only two years ago, but that seems like a lifetime ago thanks to the Warriors’ addition of Kevin Durant.
The truth is, the NBA has always been a predictable league. Most years, you can take a look at every team’s roster after free agency and have a pretty good idea about who the 3-4 legitimate title contenders are, and most of the time, you can predict the next champion in September.
This predictability has turned into downright inevitability with KD joining Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, which has understandably turned some people off. It usually takes a team winning two titles before the casual observer gets sick of them in any sport, and with the Warriors and Cavs squaring off in four straight Finals — and the Dubs winning three of them — it’s no secret people are ready to see this emerging dynasty crumble.
Here’s an especially terrifying thought for those who wanted more competition:
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) June 9, 2018
This may have been/probably WAS the tough season for the the Warriors, the weakpoint, the year they were vulnerable.
They kicked everyone’s ass but Houston anyway.
Even NBA diehards have tired of watching gorgeous basketball, because it’s like watching your friend who’s too good at NBA 2K play: Yeah, he manipulates the game like no one you’ve ever seen, and there’s a certain beauty in it, but at a party when people want to be entertained, you’re going to take the controller out of his hand and let two less experienced players play, because at least the game will be close and the final result won’t be so predictable.
With that being said, there are a myriad of reasons contributing to this all-time high Warriors fatigue, and it’s not just that they’re too damn good. For one, the same matchup in the Finals for an unprecedented four straight years isn’t good for creating intrigue. Michael Jordan‘s Chicago Bulls didn’t elicit this same kind of fan weariness, and part of the reason is 1997 and 1998 were the only years they faced the same opponent during MJ’s six-year title run.
Yes, Jordan’s Bulls were never as heavy favorites as these Warriors, but what if the 60-win Atlanta Hawks had given us a 3-point battle in 2015? What if we had gotten a Warriors-Toronto Raptors matchup this year, or if the young Boston Celtics had held at home in Game 7 and the league’s No. 1 defense got to take on its No. 1 offense?
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And all this comes without looking at the West: What if the Oklahoma City Thunder had held on in Game 6 of the 2016 Western Conference Finals and given us a fair Kevin Durant-LeBron James Finals rematch? What if Chris Paul hadn’t been hurt for Games 6 and 7 of this year’s conference finals and we got Houston Rockets vs. Cavs?
We could play the “what if?” game all day, and it’s true that ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Those scenarios are tantalizing, but they never came to be, and even if they had, the Dubs probably would’ve dusted anyone other than LeBron James in the Finals too. There’s no denying, however, watching them wax someone else for a change would’ve been more intriguing.
That’s another angle to consider in the Warriors hate: The love for LeBron James. The King put together one of his finest seasons and arguably his best postseason run at 33 years old. Gone are the days of hatred from “The Decision.” Finally, the world (or at least, most of the world) can appreciate LeBron for what he is: the greatest player we’ve seen since Michael Jordan.
However, that also makes it 10 times easier to despise the team that continually has his number in the Finals because their roster stacked the deck. The Dubs owe no one an apology for the unprecedented talent, culture, luck and success they’ve had in assembling this juggernaut, but watching LeBron toil away and put up all-time numbers and still fall miserably short is disheartening. No one wants to see Hercules reduced to Sisyphus time and time again.
The final and biggest problem is the aforementioned illusion that the Warriors have taken the unpredictability and competition out of the equation. The NBA has been the most predictable league in sports for some time now, but it’s reached an all-time level of inevitability thanks to the Warriors.
While that’s true, it’s worth noting that while the end result has been unsurprising in three of the last four years (and it took a Draymond Green suspension for the lone surprise), it was only two years ago we got the greatest upset in NBA Finals history. It was only a couple of months ago people were wondering if the Warriors might be vulnerable with Curry returning from injury. It was only three weeks ago the Rockets took the Warriors — even this Kevin Durant rendition — to seven games with CP3 out for the final two games of the series.
The Dubs breezed through the first two rounds, sure. Even the first few games of the conference finals were blowouts. But Games 4 and 5 were terrific, and the Rockets had the upper hand in both Games 6 and 7 before the Warriors woke up against a shorthanded team. Even in a four-game Finals sweep, we got two terrific, competitive games in Games 1 and 3, and watching Curry explode for a Finals record 9 3s in Game 2 was entertaining for those who weren’t blinded by their hate for Golden State.
The final destination of the 2017-18 NBA season was what everyone expected, but the journey there was nowhere near as formulaic or boring as last year’s playoff run. The Eastern Conference playoffs were fun again, the Dubs actually got challenged and even a criminally short championship series featured a couple of unforgettable moments.
We don’t watch our favorite movies over and over because we have no idea what’s going to happen; we watch them because they’re entertaining. Of course, everyone has their own preference on their favorite movie. Not everyone likes this Warriors saga, and even those that do can agree that after watching this particular movie so many times, it’ll be nice to put something else on the TV.