Since the beginning of the 2016-17 NBA season, basketball pundits have predicted that this year’s NBA Finals would be a rubber match between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
And unless the injury-depleted San Antonio Spurs and Boston Celtics manage to overcome tremendous odds in the conference finals, this will indeed be the third year in a row that the Warriors and Cavs will face off for the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
There are some, especially Spurs fans here in the Valley, who won’t be happy to see such a rematch. However, true basketball fans should rejoice in a Cavs-Warriors finals because it means that the winner of this year’s NBA title will truly be the very best in the league.
Of course, not everyone appreciates greatness. The fact that the Warriors and Cavs have been on a collision course since the end of last season rubs many fans the wrong way.
To some, this inevitable rematch seems to render the entire regular season moot. After all, why play 82 regular-season games and go through three rounds of the playoffs only to end up with the same two teams that were in the finals last year?
Also, there are those who feel the Warriors don’t deserve to be in the position they are in because they went out during the offseason and added Kevin Durant to an already powerful team. For some reason, this group of people seems to think that getting Durant was illegal and that somehow the Warriors cheated by signing such a high-profile player.
Finally, there are those, who for one reason or another, hate LeBron James and the success he has had over the years. He’s too cocky, outspoken, brash and way too much of a self-promoter. However, most of these people are the very same who worshiped Michael Jordan despite the fact that his Airness was no less cocky, outspoken, brash and self-promoting.
Regardless of all the naysayers’ notions, the Warriors-Cavs rivalry is good for the NBA. It brings back memories of the old Celtics-Lakers rivalry of the 1980s when the two powerhouses faced off three times between 1984 and 1987. Back then Magic Johnson’s Lakers and Larry Bird’s Celtics were the two best teams in the NBA and their championship meetings were epic.
The same can be said for the Warriors-Cavs finals the past two seasons. In 2015 the Warriors beat the Cavs for their first championship since 1956 and last year the Cavs overcame a 3-1 series deficit to claim the franchises’ first-ever title and stop the Warriors from repeating. Should the two face off again this season, the battle could be one of the best in NBA history.
As a result of the Warriors’ loss last year, the team went out in the offseason and signed Durant to bolster their roster. There was nothing illegal about the move. As an unrestricted free agent, Durant had every right to go to the Warriors so why hate on the man for wanting to play on a team that gave him the best chance of winning a ring?
LeBron did the same thing in 2010 when he left Cleveland to go to Miami and as a result won two NBA titles. If he makes it to the finals this year, it will mark the seventh time in a row that he’s played in a title series and eighth time overall.
Like it or not, James has to be considered the greatest of all time. True, he’s yet to reach Jordan’s six rings, but one can argue that he’s every bit as good and another title this season would go a long way in proving this point.
The NBA conference finals are not officially over. The Celtics won a big Game 3 on Sunday night to get back into the Eastern finals and the Spurs… Let’s just say that no NBA team has ever come back from an 0-3 deficit to win a seven-game series. But who knows? They’re not out of it yet.
However, here’s hoping that the Warriors and Cavs hold serve and make it to the NBA Finals so that we can all watch the two best teams in the league battle for supremacy.
