NBA Playoff Storylines, Conference Semifinals Style
Look out Wrestling, you’re not the only sport with stories to tell. The NBA has storylines too. Here’s everything you need to know about all of the big contenders in this year’s run for the Championship Trophy.
This is Fantastic
The TNT “Inside the NBA” crew of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Shaq and Charles Barkley should be watched, even if the games are skipped. Whether there are quips about cities having “big girls” or Smith and Barkley’s heads being super imposed on male contortionists or the “shirt-off” between Shaq and Sir Charles, these guys provide genuine candor amid the myriad of self-importance, brand-protection and over-analysis that chips away at sports enjoyment.
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A Final Run
Can this incarnation of Boston Celtic greats make a legitimate run at a championship? Thanks to the Chicago Bulls early playoff exit, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen have another shot at making the finals. Will their legs hold up? Will the Chris Bosh injury pave the way for them to reach the finals?
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This Guy
If Kobe Bryant is in the playoffs, his team is a threat to win it all. The guy who was once Shaq’s sidekick is the closest thing the NBA has to Jordan – a determined, acceptably arrogant winner with the bonafide hardware. The Lakers aren’t a championship caliber team, but Bryant is a championship caliber player and always worth watching.
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Take Notice of OKC
The Oklahoma City Thunder play fast, which makes them fun to watch. Plus, the Thunder’s top star Kevin Durant deserves to be a household name. The 6-9 forward is a long and sleek scorer with a repertoire of quick-trigger jumpers, twirling layups and dunks of authority. Plus, the thousands of fans who line Thunder Alley outside the team’s home arena to watch playoff games on the big screen TVs defines a special relationship between this team and Oklahoma’s only major pro sports team.
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The Spurs Awesome Boringness
The hottest team in the NBA is the San Antonio Spurs. There is nothing flashy about this team. No dunking over Kia’s, no Decisions, no mercurial Hollywood types. They just win. They’ve won 15 straight and 29 of their last 32 games. By moving the ball so much and so well on offense they drain opponents’ energy and create easy shots for themselves. This leads to one of the most demoralizing plays in sports – the Tim Duncan layup a.k.a. the “I’m a big man and I could do something showy like dunk and flaunt my manliness, but instead I’ll go glass with a layup and just win championships. Step off.”
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Will Bron Bron Fail?
Outside of watching some athletic phenom do things we never thought possible (think Jordan switching hands in the air, rookie Magic Johnson playing center in the Finals and Bird stealing a pass and dishing a game-winning assist with a second left), the next best thing fans love watching is some athletic phenom fail. The voyeuristic satisfaction increases when the phenom – King James – has developed himself into one of the most reviled sports figures. The cheers for failure get fuel from the dumb comments James makes and his uncanny desire to set screens for the final shot rather than taking it. So no, people are not watching to see if Lebron James and the Miami Heat will win the NBA championship, they are watching to see if he will lose.
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