I’ve read a lot lately about whether the Cavs/Warriors, well at this point impending 3-peat in the NBA Finals is good or bad for the league. And I must say as a casual NBA fan I’m tired of it. I’m a die-hard Celtics fan, but outside of them I must say I have little interest in the NBA, and it’s partially because of this run of the Cavaliers and Warriors in the Finals. The first two years of it was fine with me, year one the Warriors were the young, upstart team that you could really root for. Year two we had the comeback and LeBron finally bringing a championship back to Cleveland, but all the drama now is out the door. Is this matchup a rivalry? I guess you can say that because they keep meeting in the Finals, but I really don’t think it’s good for the league.
Now I realize those who think this might be good for the league will say that as a Celtics fan, I have no right to complain about this because of all the Lakers/Celtics Finals matchups in the 80’s. While I wasn’t alive to see any of those, ask any fan or player who was a part of that rivalry; that was very different from this one. Those teams really hated each other, and it showed on the court! Those games were the ultimate basketball rivalry, and in my opinion, this Cavs/Warriors rivalry will never come close to what that one once was.
Another thing that annoys me about this impending matchup is the way it happened. As of today, neither team has lost in the postseason. Is that an incredible feat? yes, and I’m not taking anything away from either team because they clearly have been playing very well, but at the same time it’s incredibly boring when their combined 19-0 record contains only seven combined wins by less than 10 points.
I won’t even get into the Kevin Durant issue when it comes to this series, where the league has gotten to the point where if you don’t have a legit Big 3 (or 4 in the Warriors’ case), you won’t win. However, I will still cover the issue as a whole, because as a Celtics fan, I think it’s sad that I have to talk about the team about having to still sign Gordon Heyward, draft Markelle Fultz and possibly trade for Andre Drummond to have a chance. In any other sport, it really doesn’t matter how many All-Stars you have, anything can happen. Mike Trout, the best player in the world of baseball has sniffed the postseason once, and got swept. He hasn’t even been close since. Look at football and hockey, anything can happen. You never know who’s going to win any given game or series. In basketball, it has seemed inevitable all season long that the Warriors and Cavs were going to meet in the finals again, and honestly I don’t see how even die hard basketball fans can find that fun.
