Jimcs50
06-03-2007, 12:05 PM
Hello, Cavs; see ya, Pistons!by: Marc Stein
posted: Sunday, June 3, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry
So it's Timmy's Spurs against LeBron's Spurs Lite in the NBA Finals.
Let's just say that network types and folks in the league office who care about TV ratings aren't the only happy ones.
I've said before that, if I was rooting for any individual in the East to get to the title round, it was Detroit's Chris Webber, who has been one of my favorites for years, largely because of his passing skills and notebook-filling candor.
Yet I suspect that I won't be alone in saying that I'm not going to miss the Pistons when the playoffs resume Thursday.
Not a bit.
If you allow me to be so vain and quote myself from the ESPN.com writer survey we trotted out Friday, these sentiments hold: "Whether or not they can haul themselves off the mat again, it's time for the Pistons to get over themselves. They still have a quality core of players, but they're so much more arrogant than they were before going to the Finals in 2004 and 2005. They unite in blame against Flip Saunders whenever something goes wrong and play with a sense of entitlement that, frankly, has grown tiresome."
Those sentiments, again, were registered before Game 6, when Rasheed Wallace proved to be the epitome of tiresome with a farewell tirade that could well mean he'll be sitting out the first game of next season to serve a suspension.
By contrast ...
Although this couldn't have happened without the overall suckitude of the East and the favorable draw that got the Cavs to the conference finals, Cleveland advancing to the Finals with a less-than-Finals-worthy roster is a fantastic story. For at least three reasons:
1. Few fan bases know sports torture like Clevelanders ... although I feel the need to pay homage here to my old friends in Buffalo, because they've also suffered a bunch and since nearby Olean was my home base until the Braves and the Steins moved to Southern California in 1978.
2. The Cavs have spent the last two years trying to emulate everything that the Spurs do, hiring San Antonio disciples to coach (Mike Brown), run the front office (Danny Ferry) and co-install a program built upon a wear-you-down defense and one transcendent star to take over in crunch time. And now -- even though they couldn't swing that midseason deal for Mike Bibby they were so desperate to make -- we get to see the wannabe Spurs playing their role models in the Finals.
3. LeBron James' mere presence guarantees that this series will actually be watched by the masses now, which might finally give the Spurs some of the overdue spotlight they deserve.
I'm struggling to stomach this new practice of drawn-out podium ceremonies to crown a conference champion, but I'm always ready to listen to Bill Russell and quite enjoyed hearing him inform the victorious Cavs that they were now representing the entire East. "Make me proud," Russell told them.
I submit that the Cavs will make him prouder than the Pistons would have, even if they're dusted in five games. You might have given Detroit more of a chance to take San Antonio to six or seven, because of the Pistons' experience, but this is simply not the same squad that won it all in 2004 and narrowly fell to the Spurs in a seven-game classic in 2005.
It's not because Ben Wallace is in Chicago, either. Saunders is bound to get the biggest slice of blame, but all that We Win As A Team stuff that you really felt during Sheed's first year and a half in Motown is a memory. Sheed was back to his time-bomb self in this series and Chauncey Billups -- as with Big Ben last summer -- might prove too expensive to keep if he's going to hold out for max dollars in free agency at 31. Most of all, ever since Saunders replaced Larry Brown, Detroit's players have seemed intent on proving they can win without listening to anyone. I (and others) mistakenly believed that the motivation to prove they could win one without Larry would be a big boost. It's been the opposite.
If we were getting the '04 or '05 Pistons, who played on the edge but as a fiery and gritty ensemble -- as opposed to over the line and disjointed -- we'd have been lucky to get a Spurs-Pistons rematch, with or without casual fans tuning in.
But these Pistons? A team that splintered in the playoffs last spring and this spring? A team that splintered with Big Ben and without him?
I'll take LeBron and his no-names, thank you.
posted: Sunday, June 3, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry
So it's Timmy's Spurs against LeBron's Spurs Lite in the NBA Finals.
Let's just say that network types and folks in the league office who care about TV ratings aren't the only happy ones.
I've said before that, if I was rooting for any individual in the East to get to the title round, it was Detroit's Chris Webber, who has been one of my favorites for years, largely because of his passing skills and notebook-filling candor.
Yet I suspect that I won't be alone in saying that I'm not going to miss the Pistons when the playoffs resume Thursday.
Not a bit.
If you allow me to be so vain and quote myself from the ESPN.com writer survey we trotted out Friday, these sentiments hold: "Whether or not they can haul themselves off the mat again, it's time for the Pistons to get over themselves. They still have a quality core of players, but they're so much more arrogant than they were before going to the Finals in 2004 and 2005. They unite in blame against Flip Saunders whenever something goes wrong and play with a sense of entitlement that, frankly, has grown tiresome."
Those sentiments, again, were registered before Game 6, when Rasheed Wallace proved to be the epitome of tiresome with a farewell tirade that could well mean he'll be sitting out the first game of next season to serve a suspension.
By contrast ...
Although this couldn't have happened without the overall suckitude of the East and the favorable draw that got the Cavs to the conference finals, Cleveland advancing to the Finals with a less-than-Finals-worthy roster is a fantastic story. For at least three reasons:
1. Few fan bases know sports torture like Clevelanders ... although I feel the need to pay homage here to my old friends in Buffalo, because they've also suffered a bunch and since nearby Olean was my home base until the Braves and the Steins moved to Southern California in 1978.
2. The Cavs have spent the last two years trying to emulate everything that the Spurs do, hiring San Antonio disciples to coach (Mike Brown), run the front office (Danny Ferry) and co-install a program built upon a wear-you-down defense and one transcendent star to take over in crunch time. And now -- even though they couldn't swing that midseason deal for Mike Bibby they were so desperate to make -- we get to see the wannabe Spurs playing their role models in the Finals.
3. LeBron James' mere presence guarantees that this series will actually be watched by the masses now, which might finally give the Spurs some of the overdue spotlight they deserve.
I'm struggling to stomach this new practice of drawn-out podium ceremonies to crown a conference champion, but I'm always ready to listen to Bill Russell and quite enjoyed hearing him inform the victorious Cavs that they were now representing the entire East. "Make me proud," Russell told them.
I submit that the Cavs will make him prouder than the Pistons would have, even if they're dusted in five games. You might have given Detroit more of a chance to take San Antonio to six or seven, because of the Pistons' experience, but this is simply not the same squad that won it all in 2004 and narrowly fell to the Spurs in a seven-game classic in 2005.
It's not because Ben Wallace is in Chicago, either. Saunders is bound to get the biggest slice of blame, but all that We Win As A Team stuff that you really felt during Sheed's first year and a half in Motown is a memory. Sheed was back to his time-bomb self in this series and Chauncey Billups -- as with Big Ben last summer -- might prove too expensive to keep if he's going to hold out for max dollars in free agency at 31. Most of all, ever since Saunders replaced Larry Brown, Detroit's players have seemed intent on proving they can win without listening to anyone. I (and others) mistakenly believed that the motivation to prove they could win one without Larry would be a big boost. It's been the opposite.
If we were getting the '04 or '05 Pistons, who played on the edge but as a fiery and gritty ensemble -- as opposed to over the line and disjointed -- we'd have been lucky to get a Spurs-Pistons rematch, with or without casual fans tuning in.
But these Pistons? A team that splintered in the playoffs last spring and this spring? A team that splintered with Big Ben and without him?
I'll take LeBron and his no-names, thank you.