1. There was an interview Horry did on ESPn years back when he just trash talked the whole Spurs and was saying how in 04 after the playoffs the only reason he came back the next year was bc people accused him of tanking the series and being a spy for LA and he was offended by these comments. But man the thing I remember about that series was how scared everybody but Tim looked through out it. Horry hit the side of the backboard on a wiiiiiide open 3 to ice the game for us. That's the image I have in my head when I think about that series and not the miracle illegal Fisher shot. I almost don't even see how that's physically possible to miss that badly
, but 04 had more to do with the role players buttholes tightening up rather than Mailman/Payton.
2. There are so many players out there that fit the bill of Davis and to me that shows how ty college is for players. These guys are 1 and dones yes, but why are they even playing college when it does them zero good developmental wise. None of these big time coaches (Cal, Coach K, Roy Williams) give a about the 1 and dones anyways and it shows when they come into the league. A player like Okafur is out of the league in 5 years bc Roy Williams didn't bother coaching him in college and he came into the NBA with zero work ethic, knowledge, and adaptibility. It's easy to blame the kids, but someone has to teach them. To me that's why these great talents have no idea what to do with that talent and flame out as number 1 options. Then they get drafted to Minn or Sacramento, or NO, or the Process 76ers, and they continue to not learn any winning tendencies bc these franchises haven't won in decades. DJ literally said the same thing in his article, nobody taught him how to play growing up. These guys make a ton of money, but the flipside is that they don't live up to their potential.
Lebron had the Jordon effect. Guys were scared to play Jordan. They used to fold to him at the first sign of being punched in the mouth by him. It's the Mike Tyson effect too. Everyone thought thought they were tough til they took one of his hits. Lebron dominated an entire conference so badly that other teams were scared of him. God knows how many Jack in the box parking lots DDR went to those 3 straight years of losing to him. That's what separates the great from the all time greats. Teams were scared to face the Spurs. Nobody was scared to face the Twolves. It's what separates KG from TD to me.
I think the Suns match up very well with the Lakers. With fair reffing, I think they pull out that series. Lebron has trouble staying with young guys. He has been known to cheat on defense and he can't do that off of Bridges and he can't guard Booker. Meanwhile CP3 should be able to calm them down. I think they split the 1st two games of the series and game 4 is where the series will really start. I expect Phoenix to get some swagger after beating LA and do what young teams do and get overconfident and then get a rude awakening and not know how to handle the moment. I think if LA wins game 4 then that series is over in 6.
Guarding Paul George and Kawhi with Ingles and Bojan isn't exactly the key to winning that series
I'm all in on Phoenix btw. I think they can win it all. So Clippers vs Suns WCF and 76ers vs Nets. Clippers vs Nets would be my nightmare finals btw. The amount of bags in that series alone would have to break the all time record