i'm rooting for the oklahoma city thunder to go all the way.
on the other side of things, i'm rooting for the boston celtics to beat the miami heat. so i'm rooting for a thunder vs. celtics finals where the thunder win it all.
there is a part of me that would love to see an oklahoma city thunder vs. miami heat finals cuz i would get so much joy out of watching the thunder beat the heat. but i can't in good conscience ever root for the heat to win anything. i just can't. i watch them on tv and i naturally root against them.
here's my breakdown by team:
san antonio spurs
i'll start with the san antonio spurs. the spurs are a great team with a great coach and a great history as of late. there's not much to not like about the spurs. they play the game right. there's no glory hogs or spotlight thieves on this team. everyone is doing their thing to try and get a win. very good, very principled basketball. sometimes coach popovich can be a bit of a jerk... but he's allowed a certain amount of slack because he is a helluva coach.
oklahoma city thunder
their opponent, the oklahoma city thunder, is, in my humble opinion, the most exciting team to watch. they got a lot of talented, young athletes on this team. they play the game fast and fill up highlight reels. but they're more than just a highlight producing machine. this team can play the game on both sides of the court.
kevin durant is my favorite basketball player in the world right now. you can compare him to lebron james and i get it... lebron is a more complete player. lebron does everything. he's even a great defender. but i'll take durant with a 4th quarter clutch gene over lebron any day. (durant also didn't have his "decision" moment... to be discussed in just a sec).
also they picked up derek fisher. fisher was a laker till the middle of this season. he was unceremoniously shipped off to oklahoma city and called too old. in retaliation, fisher changed his jersey number to 37 (his current age) and has added a veteran presence to this young team. that's a dangerous combo and kinda hard to root against.
and they have james harden. he's awesome. fear the beard, need i say more??
plus, if you watch one of their home games in oklahoma city, the crowd's enthusiasm is infectious. it hits me through the television. i want to be there. they call it the loudest arena in the nba. i can't imagine what that place is gonna be like if the thunder pull off a victory tonight at home.
so although the spurs are a good team, i can only get excited enough to write one basic paragraph about them. i can't help but go on and on about what i love about the oklahoma city thunder. i think i've made it clear why i'm rooting for them.
boston celtics
next is the boston celtics. i used to hate the celtics. the celtics are the blueprint for what i hate about the heat currently (although the celtics have a waaaay better coach). the celtics sorta sucked. then they made two major trades in one offseason and everything changed. they pulled kevin garnett out of a minnesota timberwolves squad that was going nowhere. then they grabbed ray allen from a seattle supersonics squad that seemed to be going nowhere (those supersonics moved to oklahoma city and became the thunder though so things aren't so bad for them at the moment). they grouped these two superstars with paul pierce, who was already a member of a celtics team that seemed to be going nowhere. and in one offseason, they went from awful to awesome. it just seemed like cheating to me. you're supposed to build a team and struggle for a few years to get to the top spot. there was no apparent struggle after the ink dried on the trade agreements.
however, fast forward a few years, and these three superstars are suddenly older. they had an awful start the first half of this season. it looked dismal. then things changed after the all star game and they magically got better. all of the sudden the old man celtics were kicking ass and on their way to yet another playoff berth.
but it was unlike playoff berths of the previous few years. no one knew how long they'd last. no one thought they'd meet the miami heat in the eastern finals and give them a good run for their money.
it's easier for me to loosen up and root for the celtics now cuz it's like i'm rooting for old men that people gave up on in february. once the old men found out everyone had given up on them, they kicked it into high gear and made a statement, "we're not too old. we are something to fear."
miami heat
and then there's the miami heat. i can't stand the miami heat. when lebron james and chris bosh went to join dwayne wade two seasons ago, all i could think of was how unfair this was for everybody else. it's like they took spiderman, batman, and a lesser known member of the x-men (let's say... colossus), and got them all together to defend the same city. and now there's two other cities that are without a hero. not cool. stop hogging all the heroes miami.
lebron james didn't help matters with his "decision" moment. he took an hour of espn tv time to tell the world he was taking his talents to south beach. but he gave money to charity so we're supposed to be okay with that. he still could've made the move and gave money to charity without having to captivate the world with a television show. i kinda found the whole thing classless... and not like, dancing in the end zone classless... i'm talking about a whole city (cleveland) watching with bated breath hoping their hero was using this national stage to come through and let the world know that lebron james will always and forever be cleveland's hero.
instead we got a miami pep rally days later where he talked about winning a possible eight championships now that him and his buddies decided to create an all star team.
two years later and things are not going quite as planned. they lost to the dallas mavericks in the finals last year... close... but not quite. this year, will they even make the finals? all of the sudden boston looks.... how can i put this... like a better team. and the heat were semi exposed before this in a tough battle against the indiana pacers, a team they were supposed to steam roll.
that's not all. here's a few other factors that make the miami heat suck.
their home crowd is awful. don't believe me? watch tonight's game in okc. watch tomorrow's game in boston. then watch any playoff game in miami. my point will be proven.
pat riley. he's a bastard. a couple years back pat riley coached this team to a championship. but earlier in that same season, stan van gundy was their coach. he "resigned." how convenient. same season he "resigns," pat riley steps in as head coach and wins a championship. you do the math.
the heat also flop a lot and the refs protect them more than they probably should.
the miami heat are the evil empire of the nba. look no further. when they lost to the celtics last night to go down in the series 3-2, i thought just for a moment that maybe lebron's magic plan to go play ball with his all star buddies has backfired and he won't get a ring as easily as he thought. even if they do move on from this series, it's suddenly harder than it was ever supposed to be. if nothing else, i get complete satisfaction that this won't be easy for the heat and if they don't do it this year, lebron might be all out of shortcuts.
anyways.....
go thunder!!
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