Heat Lightning

The NBA Finals are finally upon us and, as many expected during this condensed season, youth has risen to the top. In a battle of elemental fundamentals, the much scrutinized Miami Heat will have their second shot at raising a banner in the East, while the ever-maturing and largely adored Oklahoma City Thunder will represent the West and attempt to realize their potential just 3 short seasons into the OKC era, leaving the city of Seattle to look on with mixed feelings.

Neither team got to the Finals without first weathering the last stand of a couple of the league's elder statesman in Boston and San Antonio, but this is arguably the first time during this post-season where Miami and OKC playing a team built to run the floor with them. This should make for a series that could, at times resemble a track meet more than a basketball game and makes for some interesting matchups on both ends of the floor.

The most intriguing matchup by far will pit everyone's favorite second pick of a draft, Kevin Durant, *shakes head at Portland* against the world's most reviled first pick, LeBron James. I'm curious how often these two will actually be guarding each other. With all respect to Shane Battier, I'm hard pressed to find a player more capable of at least making Durant work for his points than LeBron James. Kevin Durant's game seems to become more well-rounded by the season and this year he's really been rising to the challenge defensively, making the effort to check the league's elite. I doubt very much Scott Brooks will have Durant guard LeBron for any extended period of time, as Harden will likely draw Wade and Sefolosha the daunting task of James, but down the stretch it would surprise me if Durant requests to guard James and, as LeBron struggles to do late it games, rises to the challenge.

Now, for all the flack that LeBron James takes for his inability to make (or even take) clutch shots late in games, let's not forget whom we're talking about here. I dislike the guy as much as the next sports fan with a pulse and a television, but he makes the term "beast mode" almost seem appropriate for use in sports journalism. The luxury of LeBron is his ability to be so dominant in games that the final minutes aren't important. As if it was in doubt, LeBron's performance in Boston proved that he's more than prepared to step up in big game situations, but he's yet to prove that he's up for the big moment.

Dwayne Wade has proven himself capable of brilliance time and time again, James Harden is OKC's most well-rounded (not best) player, and Westbrook is showing naysayers that his shoot-first-have-it out-with-KD-later point guard philosophy can be successful, but I think the most compelling matchup in the finals well be the Bosh/Ibaka matchup. As fun as it can be to mock Chris Bosh's emotional, don't-dive-because-you-might-hurt-me attitude, he's an invaluable cog in the Miami offense as their only post and mid-range scorer who compliments James and Wade perfectly. His ability to step out, board, and straight up make teams pay for over helping makes him Miami's X Factor in my opinion. What's scary is that he seems to be playing with a chip on his shoulder for the first time in his career. Look out, he's not just happy to be there anymore.

Serge Ibaka makes for some of the most highlight worthy defensive plays in the NBA, on top of that he's really perfected a mid-range jumper that, during the Laker series, made Bynum and Pau look like second fiddles to the Perk-Ibaka tandem in the post. Given Miami's lack of interior scoring, look for OKC to go small again as they did in San Antonio. His ability to check Bosh, patrol the paint, and hit open jumpers could pay championship dividends.

For all their differences in personel, these teams are built to win in a pretty similar, fast-paced, fashion. Neither team is especially deep, with a roster centered around three scorers and a bunch of blue collar guys who know their respective roles, and this series could go either way and will be hotly contested. With that said, I give a slight, but distinct edge to the Thunder heading into the series. With the exception of Battier's performance in game 7 of the conference finals, I've yet to see any of Miami's gunners step up and consistently hit the shots afforded them by James and Wade's penetration. I will say that Mario Chalmers' play has been drasticly undervalued and he may be due for a coming out party similar to Jeff Teague's rise to relavance against D. Rose last season, but as I mentioned before, Miami is facing a mirror image of themselves in the athleticism department. As a result, if this series becomes essentially a battle of "Big Threes" OKC's trio compliments each other a little better than the three amigos of South Beach.

On the OKC end, I think the Thunder learned a lot real quick from the Spurs about how to play as a team and share the ball. To take such a shot to the mouth from San Antonio (with emphasis on game 2) and recover so quickly and thoroughly is a testament to that team's character and coaching. I kind of feel like the Thunder said "if you can't beat them, join them" and their more unified offense makes them a scary team that I feel has one or two more dimensions than Miami that may prove to be the difference.

Traveling Violation: The Implications of a Darwinian NBA

Back in 2008, I had the amazing opportunity to make the trip to the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts and watch the Celtics and Lakers renew their rivalry (then for the first time in decades) on the grand stage of the NBA Finals. I have a lot of memories from that day that I’m sure I’ll never forget:

1. Having a legitimate conversation with Magic Johnson and lying by saying I played high school ball because I sincerely doubted he’d care to hear about the fact that I chose musical theatre instead and my reasons for doing so.

2. Sitting behind Trevor Ariza on the team bus and wanting nothing more than to say I wish
he was still a Knick. Present company made that statement a little inappropriate.

3. DJ Mbenga… Enough said.

4. Donovan McNabb’s atrocious-looking red sweater vest.

5. The awesome Laker-Celtic highlight reel accompanied by Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight.”

And plenty of other little moments that would be worth an article in itself and, of course, the actual game.

Something else occurred to me that night and I admit it didn’t feel as profound to me back then as it does now, but as Paul Pierce and Kobe Bryant acknowledged each other at center court it dawned on me that both Paul Pierce and Kobe Bryant had been on the Celtics and Lakers,
respectively, for their entire careers and, incidentally, my whole life.

Despite the similarity of playing their entire careers for one team, Paul Pierce and Kobe Bryant’s individual back stories heading into that series could not be more different. Kobe’s character
was often questioned in the sense that he was, at times, viewed as a self-centered hot dog, whose ability to emotionally and mentally lead a team and raise others to his level of, let's face it, greatness was in doubt. Kobe was a proven winner who, while yet to win a title without Shaq, never had his heart, guts, and individual abilities questioned.

Paul Pierce had very good years with the Celtics and had nice run of playoff pushes with Antoine Walker throughout the early 2000s. The Celtics never quite got over the hump and as the once proud Boston franchise tried and failed to rebuild around him, the team’s winning percentage suffered and Pierce bore the brunt of that burden as some of the Celtic faithful unfairly doubted his heart and desire to win and, in some cases, called for his release via trade or head via guillotine.

However, in the summer of 2008, none of that seemed to matter. For both men that season was a journey towards vindication as each player picked up some All-Star (Pau; Allen, KG) help and were rewriting their legacies as I sat there counting the banners in rafters; nearly all of them from the old Boston Garden.

Such a revelation was worth note back then and in my mind its significance has only been magnified since. As I look at the league today, I see Darwin’s “Survival of the Fittest” theory come to the wide world of sports. With the advent of these new Super Teams in Miami and New York, it seems to be the new fad amongst the NBA's elite to unite in your favorite metropolitan area and gang up on everybody else. Now, this really is not the end of the world. I wrote an article last year about how the small market “little engine that could” teams will always find ways to be relevant and a thorn in the side in these luxury tax welcoming Goliaths and I definitely stick by that statement, but a couple of things have changed since I wrote that article that may change the game forever.

While I’m not 100 percent sure, I feel pretty confident in saying that no longer are current teams with free agents able to offer their current players more money than their other suitors. That is to say that (hypothetically) no longer can the Mavs offer Caron Butler more than any other team in the league. The cap on what amount suitors can offer Caron no longer exists. Therefore it’s a free-for-all as to who can offer Caron the best deal and from Caron’s perspective there is no longer a monetary incentive for Caron to sign an extension, mid-season or otherwise, so it’s in his best interest as a professional and businessman to wait until his contract expires to hear multiple offers from whatever teams are interested in him.

Now, Dallas is arguably a championship contender, so maybe Caron is inclined to stay there anyway and he may not be the best example. But apply that same situation to Brandon Jennings and Kevin Martin and you can see why and how many players would wind up changing their scenery and joining and/or forming and makeshift All-Star team and instant title contender.

League owners are wise to this and don’t want to end up hanging in the breeze waiting for their particular superstar to decide to stick with, or ditch them. Owners are now being proactive and seeking to eliminate the possibility of winding up with nothing by trading these stars to other teams to ensure at least some sort of return on their investment, even if it’s not the All-Star himself. Hence, all this madness (compelling, but madness) regarding the future homes for 2012 free agents Dwight Howard and Chris Paul. Even if a player is leaning towards staying with one franchise, there’s a chance that the team’s owner ship won’t take the risk and ship him out, just to be safe. These factors are creating a future NBA with players more mobile than at any other point in league history.

Simply put, get used to the Super Team trend and be careful whose jersey you buy as a result. The league is evolving and while I’m not ruling quality basketball coming from small market teams, franchise players may indeed be even more of an endangered species than they were before. Players will graze where grass is greener and so as not to be left with no lawn at all, NBA owners will help them slide under the fence.

With all that said, I’m sure there will be exceptions to this rule throughout history and already I find it hard to believe that Dwayne Wade or Dirk Nowitzki will ever leave Dallas and Miami,
but nonetheless the game is changing and both the mindsets of the players and owners are adjusting, potentially at the expense of career franchise players.

In hindsight, Bryant and Pierce’s nod at center court ran deeper than Paul acknowledging Kobe and vice versa. These future Hall of Famers seemed to be paying an homage not only to each other, but to their franchises they represented which after 19 long years had finally come
full circle to revitalize something that albeit unspoken, was perennial in the first place. In that moment Paul and Kobe embodied the NBA’s fabled past not only through the jersey’s they wore that night, but the route which they took to get to get there. It was "The Truth" versus "The Show". The same as it ever was. The same as it always will be.

The CBA makes me wonder if such a moment will ever happen again.