Finally. At last. It's about time. Just a few expressions that had to be running through the mind of former NBA MVP and 4-time NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant who can now be regarded as a champion after finally getting the monkey off his back by adding a Larry O'Brien Trophy to an already impressive resume following Golden State's 129-120 win over the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers last night in front of a max capacity crowd. After being on the losing end to a LeBron James-led team in his first NBA Finals experience back in 2012, Durant appeared much hungrier in his second go around, leading his team in scoring in all five games and averaging 35.2 Points Per Game, 8.4 Rebounds and 5.4 Assists, while shooting 60 for 102 from the floor (.588) and earning Finals MVP honors in his first year with the team. Something only Moses Malone (1983) and Magic Johnson (1980) had done before him. By pouring in 39-points in last night's series-clincher, the 28-year old Durant joined an elite class of players as only Jerry West, LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki managed to average more career playoff points at the time of their first NBA title.
Avenging last year's heart-wrenching loss in which the Warriors became the first team in NBA Finals history to blow a 3-1 series lead, Golden State made quick work of their counterparts, needing only five games to seal the series and claim their second title in three years. Though he wasn't with the team at the time, the heartbreak of blowing that 3-1 lead was also shared by Durant who saw the Warriors storm back from a 3-1 deficit in the Western Conference Finals against Durant's then Oklahoma City Thunder. Both collapses would prompt Durant to leave and the Warriors to pursue him, making for what would ultimately be a mach made in heaven as evident by their remarkable run in this year's playoffs. Finishing 16-1 along their chase to the title, this year's Golden State team has to be up there among the greatest runs in NBA history for their pure dominance. And had it not been for a blowout defeat at Cleveland in Game 4, the Warriors would've been the first to go a perfect 16-0 in the postseason. But it's not just this postseason that's been impressive.
Led by head coach Steve Kerr, the Warriors have stringed together one of the greatest three year stretches of all-time. After claiming the franchise's first NBA title since 1975 in 2015, the Warriors followed that up with an all-time great regular season record of 74-9 as well as another trip to the Finals and managed to bookend it with another NBA title. Had it not been for the 3-1 collapse in which the Cavs climbed their way back to pry the championship away from Golden State's grasp just a season ago, we'd be looking at the first three-peat since the Kobe-Shaq Lakers of the early 2000's. In what's become somewhat of a rivalry, Cavs-Warriors has certainly become must-watch TV over the past few seasons and last night's Game 5 was no different and the viewers would agree as it gained the highest rating for an NBA game since Game 5 of the 1998 NBA Finals. Generating a 16.0 metered market rating, ratings shot up 13 percent from the Game 5's of each of the past two years when these two teams met.
The Real MVP - Immediately following the game, it was only appropriate that Durant was greeted on the floor by his mother Wanda who Kevin based much of his memorable MVP speech around after the 2014 season. The two shared a moment and were brought to tears as confetti fell from the rafters at Oakland's Oracle Arena. Not shying away from his emotions, Durant hasn't been one to shy away on the game's biggest stage either as he became one of only three players to score 25 points or more in each of his first 10 NBA Finals games, joining only Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal. Durant also received a congratulatory hug and handshake from LeBron who Durant told they're, "tied up now" at an even 1-1 against one another in the Finals and that they'll, "have to do this again." Assuming Durant returns to play for the Warriors next season and chooses not to exercise the opt-out clause in his contract, both teams are perennial favorites to make it back to a fourth consecutive NBA Finals next year. And I'm sure we'd be treated to yet another show between LeBron and Durant if they met up as both players were equally good against one another when guarding each other in this series. While Durant scored 43 points and shot 18-for-30 from the floor including 4-for-11 from three with James guarding him, LeBron scored 44 points on 18-for-32 shooting and an identical 4-for-11 from three with Durant guarding him.
Despite becoming the fourth player and first NBA MVP to lose in five NBA Finals, the 32-year old LeBron averaged the first triple-double in NBA Finals history by posting 33.6 Points Per Game, 12.0 Rebounds and 10.0 Assists to further his claim for the greatest of all-time in his seventh consecutive Finals appearance. Sure it's another Finals loss to his belt, but like LeBron said in his post-game presser, "I left everything I had out on the floor every single game for all five games", doing all he could while receiving minimal help from his teammates. A much different approach than the one he took two years ago when he sat at his locker for nearly an hour with a towel over his head. Even when LeBron was on the sideline getting the little rest he received (28 minutes), the Cavs were outscored by 27 points in the series.
With another ring to his resume, Warriors coach Steve Kerr adds ring No. 7 to his mantle after winning 5 as a player with the Bulls and Spurs. As for someone else destined for the Hall of Fame who waited even longer than Durant for his first Championship ring, Steve Nash can finally say he's got one. After playing 20 seasons with the Mavericks, Suns and Lakers and never making it past the Conference Finals, 2-time league MVP Steve Nash joined the Warriors following their 2015 title run as a player development consultant as was one of the first people to receive a hug from Kevin Durant in the tunnel as the players made it from the floor towards the locker room. With Durant being one of the players Nash worked the most with during the season, the two can now share in common that they've got a Championship ring on the way, regardless of how they got it. With the sole mission of winning a ring being the reason Durant signed with Golden State during the offseason which sparked plenty of criticism, he can finally sleep well knowing his decision payed off as a success.
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Tuesday night marked the season-opener for the NBA as a handful of teams took the floor for the first time with one of the match-ups being the visiting Houston Rockets taking on the Los Angeles Lakers. And though the Rockets would spoil the Lakers' home-opener and the return of Kobe Bryant by handing L.A. a 108-90 loss which tied for the worst loss in a season-opener since the team moved to L.A. in 1960, it was who they lost that would be of the most concern. Before the career of the Lakers' promising young star Julius Randle could even begin, the 19-year old rookie had to be carted off the court in the fourth quarter of L.A.'s season-opener at Staples Center. Randle, the seventh overall pick out of Kentucky in June's NBA Draft, suffered a broken leg while driving to the basket and buckling at the feet on an awkward shot attempt.
Randle was rushed to a nearby hospital and underwent surgery the following day to repair a fractured tibia which will most likely cost him the rest of his rookie season. Already expected to be in rebuilding mode and predicted by very few to have a shot at making the Playoffs this season, the Lakers' road just got that much harder. After an injury plagued 2013-14 season just a year ago which caused the Lakers to witness their players combine to miss a league-high 319 games, the start to this season has not been a kind one either. Nick Young who re-signed with the Lakers during the off-season, suffered a torn ligament in his thumb during training camp and is expected to be out for at least the first 4 weeks of the season. Meanwhile, the 40-year old Steve Nash has also been ruled out for the entire 2014-15 season with reoccurring back problems which will most likely end the career of the 2-time league MVP who has been a shadow of his former self since signing with the Lakers in 2012.
For the newly hired Byron Scott who took over the head coaching reigns in late July, the transition for him will be a difficult one now that one of his standout players that the team has such high hopes for in developing will have to watch from the sidelines. Randle's teammates rallied beside him while he waited to have an air cast put on his leg and helped lift him onto the stretcher, a scene no player or fan wants to see, much less in their first career game. Randle finished the game with 2-points (1-for-3 field goals) and was the Lakers' first 1st round pick in seven years and the earliest pick since the team drafted Hall of Famer James Worthy first overall in 1982. Coincidentally, his rookie season woul also be cut short due to a broken leg.
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With the Lakers' Ramon Sessions fleeing Los Angeles by deciding not to exercise his $4.5 Million player option for the 2012 season in hopes of signing a more lucrative contract elsewhere, the Lakers were left on the outside looking in at the point-guard position with the exception of Steve Blake. Refusing to lose sleep over the matter, Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak wasted little time to work his magic as the franchise has appeared to have now found their man as long-time rivals Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant will now join forces in Tinseltown.
Having faced one another for well over a decade now in the Western Conference since both being drafted in the first round of the 1996 NBA Draft, there's very few players currently in the league who've become as well acquainted with one another than Bryant and Nash. And until this past Wednesday, fans would have to wait until the All-Star Game to see Kobe and Nash playing alongside one another. That is no longer the case as the Lakers have agreed to a sign-and-trade deal with the Phoenix Suns which will send Steve Nash to L.A. where he'll ink a three-year deal worth an estimated $27 Million in exchange for first round picks in the 2013 and 2015 Draft as well as second round picks in 2013 and 2014. Though the addition of Nash makes the Lakers look that much older on paper and fails to fit the ideal description of head coach Mike Brown's defensive-minded ball club, he brings with him a dribbling and passing ability that hasn't been seen in L.A. in decades. He's also pretty good at shooting. Not since the Showtime Lakers which featured a backcourt ran by a guy named Ervin Magic Johnson have the Lake Show had a point-guard of this magnitude.
Many skeptics have already begun to question if Kobe and Nash can co-exist and believe the two sharing the floor on the same squad won't necessarily work. They're wrong and here's why; Not in the history of his tenure with the Lakers (16 seasons) has Kobe had a point-guard capable of distributing the ball, not to mention draw attention and run the offense quite like Nash can. With Bryant aware now more than ever that he can no longer put the team on his back and carry them to another NBA title, he'll do everything it takes to get that sixth ring. Even if that means handing over the keys to the offense to a 38-year old guy that has made 8 All-Star teams and has won 2-NBA MVP Awards. If the Lakers had acquired any other 38-year old I would've opposed, but Steve Nash has proven that he still has enough juice left in the tank to fill L.A.'s point-guard needs as he still managed to average 12.5 points and 10.7 assists per game last year which ranked second in the league despite being among the oldest active players in the game today.
With the roster the Lakers currently have, Nash will have plenty of options to dish to on offense with both Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol in the post. And while the deal gives Laker fans something they've been without for far too long -- a legit point-guard, what it doesn't give them, however, is the right to be dubbed the team to beat in the Western Conference. At least not until they can prove that they can go toe to toe with a much quicker and younger Oklahoma City Thunder squad that will remain the consensus favorite to represent the Western Conference in next year's NBA Finals, something they'll be even hungrier for this time around having now tasted defeat. That could all change, however, if the Lakers are able to finally land Orlando's Dwight Howard who they've flirted with on numerous occasions and are once again surfacing in the trade-o-sphere as a possible destination.
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