Tag: Stephen Curry

Even with NBA Finals heartbreak, Tatum has arrived

Life for someone in the public spectrum has never been harsher than it is right now, particularly for someone playing sports at the highest levels. With the evolution of social media, action on the playing field never goes without instant praise or criticism. If a star player on the verge of reaching superstar status has a performance that ranks with some of the best ever seen, people are quick to say this is the “coming out party,” or the moment he or she can be mentioned with the best in the world. Once the performance is below the expectations set on the “superstar,” those same people who were so quick to elevate the player are just as quick to say they haven’t arrived yet. This is the reality Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum faces, as he and his team attempts to heal from losing in the NBA Finals to the Golden State Warriors.

When the Celtics can get past the disappointment stage, they can look at the season as a success, especially considering the team was meddling around .500 in January. A lot of growth occurred in Boston, and the same can be said for Tatum, who constantly heard he and fellow teammate Jaylen Brown couldn’t make it work as a duo. During the playoff run to the finals, Tatum had many moments of brilliance, showing why some people would say he’s the best in a crop of young players knocking on the door of ultimate success. When the Celtics got there, it’s no secret Tatum struggled to duplicate those classic performances. Therefore, the hot take artists and members of the social media toilets were ready to tear him down, as if those positive thoughts were never said. Stephen Curry, who won the NBA Finals MVP, went through periods of slander. So did Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo (among other greats). The point is every player who makes meteoric rises to the top has to endure good and bad, and Tatum is no different.

To understand how quickly things can turn around on the praise or dump meter, it wasn’t too long ago when Tatum led the Celtics to a shocking (to some) sweep of the Brooklyn Nets in the first round. Fast forward to the conference semifinals, and Boston was down 3-2 to Antetokounmpo and the then-defending champion Milwaukee Bucks with Game 6 in Milwaukee. It was Tatum who scored 46 points to keep the Celtics’ season alive. Boston would go on to knock the Bucks out in Game 7 at home, and in another seventh game against the Miami Heat in the conference finals (also on the road) Tatum led the squad with 26 points and was named MVP of the series. There were many in the media who thought the Celtics would win the championship, and Tatum was on his way to being a bona fide, top-5 basketball player in the world. As we all know, Boston came up short, and guess who’s in the crosshairs for why they did.

Even with the subpar performance in the finals, what other player who is younger than 25-years-old would people rather have than Tatum? Luka Doncic? Ja Morant? Devin Booker? Trae Young? All of the players mentioned can score in spades, and scoring is the glamour stat in all sports. What puts Tatum over the top is his completeness as a player. Not only can he score with anyone in the league, he can affect the game in ways the others can not. Tatum is better on defense than any of the young players mentioned, and besides Booker (with the Phoenix Suns last season), the others haven’t been to the NBA Finals as of yet. It’s understood basketball is a team sport, but at the same time, there is more put on individual accolades than ever. So if we’re going to play that game, Tatum has the others beat in this regard.

While this is a society that judges people on the latest happenings, it’s important to consider the entire body of work. Could Tatum have played better in the finals? Of course. Could he have been more aggressive looking for his own offense at times? Absolutely, but to say Tatum is a disappointment is a bit harsh. All of the credit should go to Golden State’s defense for the struggles, but the willingness to take on double-teams and be a willing passer should not be overlooked when it comes overall growth. It can be easy to forget, but Tatum is only 24 years of age, and the Celtics have a young team around him that points to being competitive for years to come. Based off of the apparent rise during this year’s playoff run, Tatum has arrived, because only stars get the treatment in the public where they can shine, then fall flat before sustainability kicks in.

The NBA title asterisk argument, and why it doesn’t make any sense

Here we are, in the middle of the 2021 NBA Finals, coming close to crowning a new champion. As it stands right now, the Milwaukee Bucks have a 3-2 series lead over the Phoenix Suns, with Game 6 scheduled for Tuesday night in Milwaukee. Both of these teams have been through a lot in their journey to the championship series, and whoever wins deserve the time to be celebrated. It’s been said nobody can ever take a title away from a team who wins it. Unfortunately, there are many who will try to take it away, or at the very least, attempt to lessen the legitimacy of the triumph. Regardless of who wins, either the Bucks or Suns will have to hear how (among other things) teams they faced along the way were not at full strength, which is basically saying their paths were made significantly easier. The 72-game regular season is also something that will be thrown in to dump dirt on the potential victory. All of this equals the mastery of the halfway acknowledgement, where you have people admitting the championship run happened, but with an asterisk. Words like phony and cheap are constantly thrown around to explain a team’s quest when it’s perceived they did not exactly “earn” it. Come with me as we look at other title runs that commonly have an asterisk by it, and then talk about why these cases against the winners equate to glorified excuse making.

1999 San Antonio Spurs – Going into this particular season, there was serious doubt a season would even take place. The NBA and the Players Association were in the middle of a lockout, and a deal wasn’t reached until January of that year. As a result, the season was shortened to 50 games, and the All-Star Game was cancelled. With the campaign compacted, it was the Spurs, lead by future hall-of-famers Tim Duncan and David Robinson, who would emerge as the team to unseat the Chicago Bulls as the new heirs to the throne. Of course, the Bulls looked totally different from previous years, as Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman all left the team, and the Los Angeles Lakers, with young superstars Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, weren’t quite ready to ascend to the throne just yet. To top it off, the Spurs defeated an eighth-seeded New York Knicks team to win the franchise’s first trophy. Bottom line is whoever won the title in this campaign was going to get grief simply because it wasn’t the normal 82-game format. It just happened to be the Spurs. Being a teenager who was growing up in San Antonio at that time, I can say first hand the fans down there didn’t care about the way victory was claimed by their team.

2012 Miami Heat – Like the ’99 season, the 2011-12 was also shortened by a work stoppage. The difference is the powers that be were able to salvage a 66-game season instead of 50, with the games starting Christmas Day. The Heat, with the “Big 3” of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, were coming off of a crushing loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 Finals. With everything on the line, they were able to come through and get the elusive title James sought after in coming down to Florida from the Cleveland Cavaliers in the summer of 2010. Having said that, the championship didn’t come without its doubts. Besides the season being 66 games, people wonder to this day whether or not the Heat even get to the Finals if the Bulls, who had the best record in the Eastern Conference that year, didn’t lose point guard Derrick Rose to a injured knee in the first round of the playoffs. In the conference finals, Miami needed all seven teams to get by a Boston Celtics team that had Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen all on the downsides of their respective careers. With the team the Heat had, it was not a huge surprise seeing them win, but for the haters out there, these are the excuses they put in front to justify the asterisk.

2015 Golden State Warriors – Unlike the first two case studies, the Warriors actually played a full 82-game season. They also had the league’s best record at 67-15 and the Most Valuable Player in guard Stephen Curry. On the surface, this is the team that should have won it all with all things considered, but the argument comes against them because of their opponent in the NBA Finals, the Cavaliers. It was the first year in James’ return to Cleveland after being in Miami for the last four seasons, and he had another version of the Big 3 in the form of himself, guard Kyrie Irving and forward Kevin Love. On the way through the East, Love suffered an injured shoulder and was lost for the rest of the season, and Irving hurt his knee in Game 1 of the Finals. Now here come the questions. What would the result have been if Cleveland was healthy (One can ask the same question in reverse when it comes to the Cavs’ title win the year after)? It’s always tough because injuries are part of sports, and we never know when, where or who they can happen to. It’s probably fair to say it’s often not the best team who rises to the top, but the healthiest. For LeBron (and the few remaining Cavs) fans everywhere, health will always be a question, but isn’t that the case for many teams in the history of sports?

2019 Toronto Raptors – In a time where we are always looking a story to captivate us, this version of the Raptors was one a person can get behind with ease. Forward Kawhi Leonard was traded to Toronto from the Spurs before the year started, and with that move, the whole country of Canada was being carried on Leonard’s back. The end saw the Raptors winning the title, defeating the Warriors, who were trying to become the first team since the Lakers in the early 2000s to win three straight league championships, 4-2. With this run, there are two glaring points some fans and media will point out to take away from Toronto’s accomplishment. One, James left the Eastern Conference to sign with the Lakers, and teams that had him playing for them had made the Finals eight straight times. Two, the Warriors saw Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson go down to catastrophic injuries. Yes, Golden State was favored to win it all going into the season, but to say they would have won just off of projections ignore the original reason why games are played. It just goes to show why there is an element of luck, good or bad, that goes with the skill, and for the people in the city of Toronto, I struggle to see any evidence of care about how the Raptors brought a title back to not just that metropolitan area, but the country as a whole.

2020 Lakers – I probably don’t have to explain why this case is questioned, but for research purposes, here it goes. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the season, and sports in general, stopped as we know it, and there were questions about the season being canceled altogether. From March 11 to July 30, the season was in limbo, but it did return to resume playing in Orlando, where teams met to play in the NBA bubble. Needless to say, the circumstances the players were facing were unlike any they have faced before. So with that being said, mental and emotional toughness was going to be key for the team that could rise to the top. It ended up being the Lakers, but people would be quick to point out how the “break” really helped James and newly-acquired forward Anthony Davis by helping their bodies recover from the grind of the regular season. Davis has a detailed injury history, and James, as great as he is, was showing signs of the wear and tear of a long career that has seen countless runs to the Finals in previous years. In other words, critics say L.A. would not have won the title if it wasn’t for the pause in action.

So there are five cases detailing why some fans and media want to put an asterisk on these title runs, but to be honest, the people who have these opinions sound dumb and jealous. If their favorite team, or in the case of the media, their pick to win, came through for them, they are not complaining or talking about the perceived pitfalls they want to throw on the winners. They would put a more positive spin on it, saying how their team was tenacious and showed the heart and grit necessary to complete such a task. Also, it’s quickly forgotten all of the other squads had the same circumstances to deal with. It’s not like there was a different set of rules put together for the team that hoisted the Larry O’Brien trophy. To sum it up, the asterisk argument holds no water with these scenarios, and it won’t when the Bucks or Suns get their moment to shine sometime this week. That does not mean people won’t try to fill the broken cup with BS. We’re just left to decide if we want to take the cup, and that decision should be easy if things are looked at by principle instead of who is involved.

Time to answer the annual best player in the NBA (world) question

So the free agency period in the NBA has come and gone, and what a period it turned out to be. This class of free agents was one of the most star-studded in recent memory, and the results of the moves has turned the league into a place where, dare I say it, parody, might be the theme of the upcoming season. Through all of the moves, there has been a lot of debate (as usual) in regards to which player holds the title as the best basketball player in the world. Obviously, this answer varies depending on who you talk to, but for me, it’s between four men. Before I dive into the debate, I want to send my apologies to fans of Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (this season’s regular season Most Valuable Player) and Houston Rockets guard James Harden (not really), because they aren’t on this list, but here are the four dudes that are:

Could it be Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard? Most players who come off of an NBA Finals MVP instantly become part of this conversation, and the same is true in this case. Leonard is coming off of a season where he led the Toronto Raptors to their first NBA championship, and he was traded to them by the San Antonio Spurs before last season. In his only season in a Raptors uniform, Leonard quickly reminded all of us how good he is, and the run he went on during the playoffs can compare to some of the all-time great runs we’ve ever seen. Going to the hardware count, he has two titles, two Finals MVPs and is also a two-time Defensive Player of the Year award winner. Maybe there is a little bit of prisoner of the moment energy when it comes to Kawhi, but this man was always among the best in the league.

Might it still be Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James? I say still because in the estimation of most fans and analysts, James has held this title for quite a while. Even though we didn’t see him in the playoffs this season, the “Chosen One” has more than enough to back up his claim for the world’s best. He is a four-time regular season MVP and a three-time NBA Finals MVP to go along with his three championships. To go along with all that, James has been on a team that has made the Finals eight straight seasons (four with the Miami Heat and four with the Cleveland Cavaliers) before the miss with the Lakers. Say what you want about LeBron, but it’s hard to ignore the man has been historically good for a decade and a half.

Maybe it’s Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant that takes the vote. The instant boost into the best player discussion from winning Finals MVPs was mentioned earlier in the article. Durant was the beneficiary of that boost in 2017 and 2018, where he won the award on the Golden State Warriors’ title teams. We all know Durant is already one of the best scorers ever to play the game, and he has four scoring titles to back that up, and he has a regular season MVP award by his name also. Because of the Achilles injury he suffered in Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Raptors, it’ll be a while before we see him on a basketball court, but don’t be surprised if KD comes back to remind us of how potent he can be.

Perhaps it’s Warriors guard Stephen Curry who claims the best player award. Curry is already widely known as the greatest shooter of all-time, and he still has some years left two play. He has two regular season MVPs, and is the only played to win that award by a unanimous vote (2015-16). He’s also a three-time NBA champion, and is also given credit for revolutionizing the game because of his shooting ability. Unlike the other three players mentioned above, there’s nothing physically imposing with Steph. He can dominant a game entirely with skill.

There are my four player who are in the running for best player in the world. Of course, I can’t complete this article without actually listing them, right? On my rankings, I would still have to give a slight edge to James. LeBron has been on the top of my list for a while, and it’ll take more than a season to knock him off the No. 1 spot. Leonard would be second, followed by Curry, then Durant. I would love to hear who you have as the best player in the world. Is one of my four, or do you have Antetokounmpo? Maybe Harden, or perhaps Russell Westbrook? Let me know, then let’s debate.

Two players, two reminders of greatness

In sports, there are times where a player reaches a level of greatness, go off the radar for a little bit, then rise back up to let people know they’re still around. Most of this can be attributed to the way society is, especially with us being in the “What have you done for me lately?” attitude that has taken over. Another part is people just didn’t realize how good a player was when they were destroying everyone in their path, and when they do it again, it’s some sort of coming out party. The “surprise” of what’s going on is what dominated the airwaves when it comes to discussing Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry and Toronto Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard, who are duking it out in the NBA Finals. Honestly, this isn’t any sort of coming out party, nor should anyone be surprised at the high level these two are playing at. What both are doing is reminding everyone how great they were, and still are.

Of course, while Curry and Leonard are sharing the biggest stage in basketball, the paths the two used to get there this season are drastically different. Let’s start with Curry, who is making his fifth straight NBA Finals appearance with the Warriors. The seventh pick in the 2009 NBA Draft was the league’s Most Valuable Player two seasons in a row (2014-’15 and 2015-’16), and became the only unanimous winner of the award the second time (not to mention winning one league title and being seconds away from making it two during this span). After forward Kevin Durant joined the Warriors in the summer of 2016, Curry became a very potent sidekick in many’s eyes. Through it all, the shooting never left, then Durant goes down with a calf injury in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Houston Rockets. The injury to Durant was supposed to spell doom for Golden State, but Curry said not so fast. From that moment, to the completion of a sweep of the Portland Trail Blazers in the conference finals, the son of sharp-shooter Dell Curry went on a tear that quickly reminded people what he’s capable of. After Game 5 of the Rockets series, Curry scored 33 points or more in each game. Suddenly, analysts and bloggers were acting like this was a shock. I guess people forgot how great Curry was before Durant even entered the equation.

While Curry’s road wasn’t exactly easy, it was nothing like the route Leonard took to get to this point. The 15th pick in the 2011 draft (traded from the Indiana Pacers to the San Antonio Spurs on the same day) came into the league know as a great defender, but worked to improve his game in some form every year he’s been in the league. The hard work cumulated in the form of an NBA Finals MVP in 2014, and two Defensive Player of the Year awards in the years that followed. It seemed like the sky’s the limit for Leonard, then came the 2017-’18 season, in which he only played in nine games for the Spurs. There was a lot of controversy in regards to a quadriceps injury Leonard was nursing. The Spurs medical staff cleared him to play, but his team was saying he wasn’t ready to return. Regardless of what happened or what side a person is on, the bottom line is the dispute led to a serious disconnect, and ultimately, a broken relationship that was beyond repair. Leonard would be traded to the Raptors, and what followed him was a reputation (in some’s eyes) of someone who quit on the Spurs. With his new team, Leonard would quickly reminded people how good he is, leading Toronto to a 58-24 regular season record, and the franchise’s first Finals appearance. During the playoffs, Leonard had plenty of scoring outbursts, prompting analysts to ask where is that coming from. Again, how quickly people forgot this man was the best “two-way” player in the league.

Both Curry and Leonard have interesting stories that have seen the highest of highs, and some low points. Everyone who plays sports will experience peaks and valleys, but for those players who have achieved a certain level of greatness, it’s hard to imagine them becoming sorry all of a sudden unless unforeseen circumstances happen. Both of these men never lost their skill, or work ethic. They were just put in situations where their individual excellence was forgotten. For Curry, he sacrificed his own status of being the man for the Warriors to make room for Durant and put titles over personal fame. For Leonard, he didn’t (or at least his team didn’t) think he was healthy enough to play. At any rate, both are back to doing what they do, and doing it at a high level.

For more context, we can’t forget how historically good these two were, and are. Curry, with his shooting ability, has literally changed the way the game is played. Leonard is a rare player who can score with the best, and can also guard all five positions on the court on defense. How quickly people forget how good players were. It’s so bad, people will be the talk of the day one minute, and forgotten about the next. From here forward, Stephen Curry and Kawhi Leonard should be mentioned in the best player in the world conversation, and what they have done in the playoffs should serve as a reminder. The problem is these names should have never left that conversation in the first place.

The curious case of the Warriors

As the Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors beat each other up in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Golden State Warriors, the two-time defending NBA champions, are enjoying an extended break as they wait and see who they will play in the NBA Finals, which start May 30. After sweeping the Portland Trail Blazers out of the Western Conference Finals, the Warriors get to rest and get a little healthier before they make their fifth straight finals appearance. For the rest of us, we get to dissect everything off the court surrounding this team, and it has made for some interesting conversation across the airways. Before we continue the dive, keep in mind I believe all of this is comical, and the potential for this to become hilarious is super high.

Let’s start with naming the characters in the soap opera, and at the same time, catch things up to the current point. Golden State was in a hotly-contested series with the Houston Rockets. In Game 5, with the series tied at two games apiece, forward Kevin Durant goes down with an injury (diagnosed as a calf strain, although it looked worse when it happened) in the third quarter. Most people thought losing the reigning NBA Finals MVP would spell doom for the Warriors, but it has proven to be the opposite. Golden State would win Game 5, then go to Houston and eliminate the Rockets in Game 6. Afterwards came the sweep of the Blazers in the conference finals. In other words, the Warriors haven’t lost since Durant went down, and the team looked like the one before he came there, yes, the one who won the title in 2015 and won an NBA record 73 games the year after.

Through this improbable run, we have been reminded about the greatness of the splash brothers, guards Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson (as if we needed it), the versatility of Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala and a bench that has people thinking the motto “Strength in Numbers” is still alive and well. Curry, in particular, has been on a tear since Durant went down. Going back to Game 6 of the Rockets series, he has scored 33 points or more in every game since, topping off the stretch with a triple-double in the close-out of Portland, where he had 37 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists. Green also had a triple-double in the last game the Warriors played.

The recent run has media outlets everywhere asking questions about whether or not Golden State even needs Durant to win what would be their third straight title going forward. Numbers would tell you no, especially the record of 34-4 for the team when Curry plays and Durant doesn’t (since Durant was signed by the Warriors in the summer of 2016). All of this conversation is apparently getting the attention of the probable free agent to be, because he is being his normal sensitive self and clapping back on all of his doubters through Twitter, among other social media outlets. One of the people who Durant was going back and forth with is Fox Sports analyst Chris Broussard, who basically said in so many words the worst nightmare is becoming a reality for KD (more on that in a minute). Seeing how thin-skinned Durant makes me shake my head, but hey, at least he isn’t creating fake accounts to shake the “haters” off this time.

Looking at things objectively, it would be hard to believe a team could be better without the services of a man who many would say is the best basketball player in the world. Having said that, one could see where that opinion is not far-fetched. The ball moves, and everyone is involved in the offense. As great as KD is, he is primarily an isolation player, and he has to have the ball in his hands to make his biggest impact on a game. As a team, it’s easy to fall in love with a player who can score in bunches, but it can make it easier for a team to defend them. Back to that worse nightmare comment from Broussard. My translation is if Golden State wins the title without Durant, the temperature, if it can go any higher, would really go up in terms of the team needing him at all. We can hear the critics now, saying how weak it was joining a team he couldn’t beat as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder. The critics will also say it’s proven KD is a luxury to the Warriors, not a necessity. All he did was make an already great team even better. This is what has been coming towards KD, and will reach a higher pitch if another trophy comes back to the Bay Area. I will be interested in the result, but for now, I’ll just sit back and laugh at Durant’s sensitivity on full display.