{"id":42332,"date":"2016-04-21T12:45:03","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T16:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=42332"},"modified":"2020-07-19T12:45:22","modified_gmt":"2020-07-19T16:45:22","slug":"a-little-bit-of-basketball-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=42332","title":{"rendered":"A little bit of basketball talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

In a perfect world, the NBA schedule would have had the final regular season Lakers game on Tuesday, and the final regular season Warriors game on Wednesday.\u00a0 Instead, both games are on at the same time, in the same time zone, in the same state no less, as in Oakland, the Warriors are knocking on history\u2019s door, as they go for record-setting win #73, while in Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant suits up for his last-ever NBA game.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now I\u2019ve made no secret of my general ambivalence towards today\u2019s NBA, often waxing philosophy that it\u2019s putrid shit compared to the golden age of NBA I was a huge fan of throughout the 90\u2019s.\u00a0 But I\u2019d be the first among many to admit that on April 13, was a one-in-a-million kind of magical night that, even for one night, a curmudgeon like me can even sit back, look at the night as a whole, and go god damn.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Warriors broke the record that I\u2019ve said time and time and time again would probably never be broken in my lifetime, and Kobe Bryant hangs 60 points on the Jazz<\/a> on his way out the door.\u00a0 I had and still kind of have a difficult time in thinking about which was more impressive, because sure the Warriors winning 73 games is now going to be the new record we\u2019ll probably never see get broken in our lifetimes, but a talent like Kobe Bryant is a guy that we\u2019re probably not going to see in equally a long time.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

LeBron James?\u00a0 He could very well attempt and end his career with more rings than Kobe or Jordan, but let\u2019s be real here, he lacks the killer instinct that either of them had, and frankly he\u2019s already been around long enough to a point where everyone knows he\u2019s not on the same echelon of being obsessed with success.<\/span><\/p>\n

But speaking of Jordan, Kobe certainly went out in a style that it would have been impossible for Jordan to have done, especially had he not come out of retirement and played for the Wizards in all those embarrassing post-prime years.\u00a0 But even if you consider the 1998 Finals where Jordan hung 45 points and a game-winner on the Jazz en route to a title, the championship is a nice touch, but Kobe\u2019s 60 points (also on the Jazz, lol) was probably better.\u00a0 But in reality, MJ came back, played well past his prime, and Jordan\u2019s last game, as a Wizard, ended with him getting fouled by Eric Snow, making his last points on the free throw line, and having scored something paltry like 15 points<\/a> or something.<\/span><\/p>\n

Going back to the Warriors though, the 73-win record is certainly something truly incredible, and I have to accept the fact that it\u2019s in writing numerous times how many times I\u2019ve said that they\u2019d never do it, and that I have to eat my crow in regards to it.\u00a0 I remember thinking and hoping that they\u2019d choke, so I\u2019d be right, but it got to a point where I watched box scores and win percentages and had to admit that my correctness was in trouble.\u00a0 Now that it\u2019s in the past, I can accept that it\u2019s something truly amazing, and again something I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d ever see happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, I do agree with one last opinion though, and that\u2019s if they don\u2019t win the NBA Championship this year, those 73 wins are kind of meaningless.\u00a0 And with Stephen Curry hurt, Golden State\u2019s chances at repeating as champions (still weird to say words like that) take a substantial hit.\u00a0 But I will say that if the team can advance, and beat the Spurs, then they\u2019re probably a lock to repeat, because there\u2019s nobody in the Eastern Conference who can hang with the Warriors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sort of unrelated, but kind of, how much does it have to rule to be Steve Kerr?\u00a0 Member of the 72-win Chicago Bulls in 1996, won a bunch of rings with MJ and the Bulls, goes to San Antonio and wins another ring with the Spurs, and then begins a coaching career, wins his first NBA championship as a coach, in his first-ever season as a coach, and then goes on to coach the team that breaks the 72-win record.\u00a0 For a guy who was once known as a three-point specialist who once got in a fight with Michael Jordan<\/a>, he\u2019s certainly had a pretty charmed career, which isn\u2019t even over yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, I think I\u2019m more impressed and enamored by Kobe Bryant\u2019s final game than the Warriors winning 73.\u00a0 The Warriors\u2019 job is still not finished, and like many people, I\u2019m likely to get burned out on basketball by the time the Finals begin.\u00a0 As for Kobe, the story is complete, with one hell of an ending.\u00a0 Especially with how often the media loved pointing out Kobe\u2019s relative ineffectiveness and injuries throughout the whole rest of the season leading up to the finale, but then, almost like something Michael Jordan would\u2019ve done in his prime, simply willed together a masterpiece of a last game, to basically set the basketball world on fire and witness some magic and the closing of a career that might just never be seen again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who knows, maybe I\u2019ll be proven wrong yet again, and someday the Milwaukee Bucks or the Minnesota Timberwolves will win 74 games.\u00a0 But make no mistake, I think the probably of that is a lot higher than witnessing anyone remotely close to being The Next<\/em> Kobe Bryant.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a perfect world, the NBA schedule would have had the final regular season Lakers game on Tuesday, and the final regular season Warriors game on Wednesday.\u00a0 Instead, both games are on at the same time, in the same time zone, in the same state no less, as in Oakland, the Warriors are knocking on … Continue reading A little bit of basketball talk<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[59,52,58],"class_list":["post-42332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-basketball","tag-owned","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42334,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42332\/revisions\/42334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}