I watched about five live minutes of Game 1 of the much awaited NBA Finals then became bored and changed channels to the more intriguing tale of money laundering in a Cypriot bank starring Russians and New York real estate guys. Game 1 was as I feared it might be with the Nike West Coast All Stars having just too much offensive firepower for pretty much any team on the universe currently. This is just very simple…Curry, Durant, Green, and Thompson are too much on one roster in this age of salary cap pro sports.
Maybe Cleveland can make a game or two competitive or maybe Draymond Green will kick LeBron in the balls again to get him worked into some sort of hyper state, but I just don’t see it happening.
I mean, even before Durant exited Oklahoma City to join the team he couldn’t finish off last season in the Western Conference Finals — this was a Warriors nucleus that won 73 games last season and was one game away from finishing the Cavs in five games for a repeat. Just think, if Green hadn’t kicked LeBron in the balls we’d be seeing a threepeat with this nucleus plus Durant.
Make this clear, Durant didn’t put Golden State over the top, he puts them out of mathematical reach for any other team in the NBA. The Nike All Stars are 13-0 in these playoffs with an average victory margin of around 17 points a game. Yawn.
There is one silver lining in all of this, we pretty much know this Warriors group won’t visit the White House and waste their time with Caligula. The thought of Caligula and Cupcake in a photo op embrace might put me over the top.
Maybe in all of this there will be some closure for Kevin and his mother. Maybe now that he’s finally won an NBA ring he can move on to another team in the league and the NBA can have some degree of competitive legitimacy again. Kevin himself said he was very intrigued with the Celtics last July in the Hamptons. My advice to Kevin Durant would be get your ring then maybe opt out to some other team in a big market like Boston, LA, or even Washington D.C. Dude, your mother won’t say this, but I will…you’ve ruined the NBA.
Consider this—if some GM could put Westbrook, Harden, Kawhi, and Lebron together on the same roster they might be able to beat the West Coast All Stars, but even then that wouldn’t be a given.
If only Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, and Wilt could have joined the Celtics—who knows how many rings they would have won.