Manu20
05-23-2005, 11:06 AM
Updated: May 23, 2005, 11:53 AM ET
The NBA's Final Four is fantastic
By Marc Stein
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2005/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=2066426
Stan Van Gundy has been fanning the fire of his Miami Heaters with this one all season, and purposefully so because he knows it angers them.
Detroit and San Antonio, Stan likes to say, are the only two teams out there with a proven championship core.
"Everyone else," Stan likes to say, "is a wannabe."
Dwyane Wade sure looks good, but he's still a wannabe.
So …
If you accept that assessment as more than just a coach trying to keep his players from ever feeling satisfied with themselves, this is where we are in the NBA playoffs:
Two proven forces that know how to get to the Finals and how to win when they do … playing two quality wannabes.
You wanna watch?
You should, if you're smart, because this is a conference finals round so flush with possibilities that it might be tough for the actual Finals to top it. Injuries can always intervene, but why anticipate disappointment? Let's assume instead that Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan will be able to play the whole way through, and Joe Johnson will be back soon, which leaves us to focus on the four elements that make this installment of pro basketball's Final Four so appealing.
Surprises
In these "Star Wars" times, granted, there is an undeniable thirst in life for an Evil Empire factor. And the NBA can't dodge it. Even players and coaches have been saying it since Shaq and Kobe Bryant split up last summer – there's no team to hate anymore. The absence of a team at the Lakers/Jordan Bulls level for generating contempt, for some, creates a passion problem in the playoffs.
Not here, though. Regular readers of this cyberspace know our stance, but in case you're new: Not having a clear-cut favorite is always preferable at Stein Line HQ. Any team still alive can win it all, which (crazy, I know) makes me want to watch more. It's called suspense.
The Heat can beat Detroit. The Suns can outrun the Spurs. I didn't pick either of those prove-it-to-me teams to complete those jobs, but the possibility has to make you curious.
Special talents
Your bitter, glass-half-empty types have been complaining since late April, when Kevin Garnett and LeBron James and Kobe all missed the playoffs.
They weren't any happier after the first round, when Allen Iverson and Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady combined to win four playoff games.
Get over it.
Join us on the half-full side and look at who's still playing.
O'Neal and Dwyane Wade. Amare Stoudemire and the little Canadian whippet (Steve Nash) who edged Shaq in MVP voting. Duncan and Manu Ginobili, too. And don't forget Detroit's oft-overlooked starting lineup. The best starting lineup in the world, full of almost-All-Stars who click.
Dare we say the marquee isn't lacking for attractions.
AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian
Steve Nash has style and a whole lotta substance, too.
Styles
There's no shortage of appetizing choices, same as above.
A) You have Miami and what Shaq sees as the best big-and-small tag team he has ever been a part of. O'Neal and Wade will have to win a few championships to confirm the claim – or at least do better against the Pistons than Shaq and Kobe did, for starters – but Wade is progressing so fast that most questions focus on Shaq's health more than his new sidekick's readiness.
B) You have the ultimate team concept in Motown, with two high-scoring (and underappreciated) guards (Richard Hamilton and Chauncey Billups) flanked by a trio of uber-athletic defensive stoppers (Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace). The Pistons no longer have much of a bench, and they might not have coach Larry Brown much longer, either, but this is still a Seinfeldian-level ensemble cast … when the actors don't get too overconfident.
C) You have the Suns running at a turn-back-the-clock pace and trying to become the first team since the Chicago Stags of 1946-47 to reach the Finals after posting the league's worst points per game allowed (103.3). Offense is the Suns' defense, obviously, but they've already won a league-leading 62 games and two playoff rounds with a system few believed could still work in this league. "We are going to have a shot up within six seconds – no matter what," Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni said. "It might be a bad shot, but we are going to get one up." Bless him.
D) You have the Spurs playing the most exciting ball they've ever played. They still haven't won a championship without David Robinson, and my suspicion is they'll continue to struggle for admirers outside of Alamo Country because of their defense-first reputation, but believe this: No one else on the NBA map can run with the Suns and win at the Pistons' pace. Which is why health and free-throw shooting are the only real doubts about them. "We're willing to be the chameleon," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. Which raises this question: How can you call Team Duncan boring, folks, if it has multiple personalities?
Second chances
With no dynasties or would-be dynasties in circulation at the minute, the new-millennium NBA could start to look somewhat like it did in the late 1970s. That's when the championship was winnable for any team that reached the Final Four, as confirmed by this list of one-hit wonders from that decade: Golden State, Portland, Washington and Seattle.
The problem? The NBA never suffered from a greater lack of fan interest than it did in the late '70s, which invalidates the claims made by all those Daily Dime e-mailers last week who treated our recent fawning over Wade as proof that the media focuses too much on individual brilliance over team success.
Wrong. As the '70s showed, with fan interest dwindling throughout, it's the NBA public as much as the media that responds to dominance.
Yet now we all have another chance to savor the whole package. Consider this Final Four an opportunity to show a bit more appreciation for equal opportunity than folks did 30-something years ago.
The NBA's Final Four is fantastic
By Marc Stein
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2005/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=2066426
Stan Van Gundy has been fanning the fire of his Miami Heaters with this one all season, and purposefully so because he knows it angers them.
Detroit and San Antonio, Stan likes to say, are the only two teams out there with a proven championship core.
"Everyone else," Stan likes to say, "is a wannabe."
Dwyane Wade sure looks good, but he's still a wannabe.
So …
If you accept that assessment as more than just a coach trying to keep his players from ever feeling satisfied with themselves, this is where we are in the NBA playoffs:
Two proven forces that know how to get to the Finals and how to win when they do … playing two quality wannabes.
You wanna watch?
You should, if you're smart, because this is a conference finals round so flush with possibilities that it might be tough for the actual Finals to top it. Injuries can always intervene, but why anticipate disappointment? Let's assume instead that Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan will be able to play the whole way through, and Joe Johnson will be back soon, which leaves us to focus on the four elements that make this installment of pro basketball's Final Four so appealing.
Surprises
In these "Star Wars" times, granted, there is an undeniable thirst in life for an Evil Empire factor. And the NBA can't dodge it. Even players and coaches have been saying it since Shaq and Kobe Bryant split up last summer – there's no team to hate anymore. The absence of a team at the Lakers/Jordan Bulls level for generating contempt, for some, creates a passion problem in the playoffs.
Not here, though. Regular readers of this cyberspace know our stance, but in case you're new: Not having a clear-cut favorite is always preferable at Stein Line HQ. Any team still alive can win it all, which (crazy, I know) makes me want to watch more. It's called suspense.
The Heat can beat Detroit. The Suns can outrun the Spurs. I didn't pick either of those prove-it-to-me teams to complete those jobs, but the possibility has to make you curious.
Special talents
Your bitter, glass-half-empty types have been complaining since late April, when Kevin Garnett and LeBron James and Kobe all missed the playoffs.
They weren't any happier after the first round, when Allen Iverson and Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady combined to win four playoff games.
Get over it.
Join us on the half-full side and look at who's still playing.
O'Neal and Dwyane Wade. Amare Stoudemire and the little Canadian whippet (Steve Nash) who edged Shaq in MVP voting. Duncan and Manu Ginobili, too. And don't forget Detroit's oft-overlooked starting lineup. The best starting lineup in the world, full of almost-All-Stars who click.
Dare we say the marquee isn't lacking for attractions.
AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian
Steve Nash has style and a whole lotta substance, too.
Styles
There's no shortage of appetizing choices, same as above.
A) You have Miami and what Shaq sees as the best big-and-small tag team he has ever been a part of. O'Neal and Wade will have to win a few championships to confirm the claim – or at least do better against the Pistons than Shaq and Kobe did, for starters – but Wade is progressing so fast that most questions focus on Shaq's health more than his new sidekick's readiness.
B) You have the ultimate team concept in Motown, with two high-scoring (and underappreciated) guards (Richard Hamilton and Chauncey Billups) flanked by a trio of uber-athletic defensive stoppers (Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace). The Pistons no longer have much of a bench, and they might not have coach Larry Brown much longer, either, but this is still a Seinfeldian-level ensemble cast … when the actors don't get too overconfident.
C) You have the Suns running at a turn-back-the-clock pace and trying to become the first team since the Chicago Stags of 1946-47 to reach the Finals after posting the league's worst points per game allowed (103.3). Offense is the Suns' defense, obviously, but they've already won a league-leading 62 games and two playoff rounds with a system few believed could still work in this league. "We are going to have a shot up within six seconds – no matter what," Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni said. "It might be a bad shot, but we are going to get one up." Bless him.
D) You have the Spurs playing the most exciting ball they've ever played. They still haven't won a championship without David Robinson, and my suspicion is they'll continue to struggle for admirers outside of Alamo Country because of their defense-first reputation, but believe this: No one else on the NBA map can run with the Suns and win at the Pistons' pace. Which is why health and free-throw shooting are the only real doubts about them. "We're willing to be the chameleon," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. Which raises this question: How can you call Team Duncan boring, folks, if it has multiple personalities?
Second chances
With no dynasties or would-be dynasties in circulation at the minute, the new-millennium NBA could start to look somewhat like it did in the late 1970s. That's when the championship was winnable for any team that reached the Final Four, as confirmed by this list of one-hit wonders from that decade: Golden State, Portland, Washington and Seattle.
The problem? The NBA never suffered from a greater lack of fan interest than it did in the late '70s, which invalidates the claims made by all those Daily Dime e-mailers last week who treated our recent fawning over Wade as proof that the media focuses too much on individual brilliance over team success.
Wrong. As the '70s showed, with fan interest dwindling throughout, it's the NBA public as much as the media that responds to dominance.
Yet now we all have another chance to savor the whole package. Consider this Final Four an opportunity to show a bit more appreciation for equal opportunity than folks did 30-something years ago.