Stop Watching the Finals

First appeared on June 21st, 2012
in The Lebanon Reporter

Stop watching the Finals. Yes I know they’re amongst the highest rated of all time and ours is a free country, but the only people still watching the Finals are the very same who’ll pay money to see Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Yes I realize there are 3 games left but they’re meaningless so catch an American Pickers marathon, teach your cat Spanish or grab your moccasins and thunderstick and go outside to pray for rain-it really doesn’t matter just don’t waste your time watching the Finals.

Will anyone really miss them after all? (Besides the 16 million people who’ve been watching each game on average of course). They were the most misunderstood Finals in history. Lost in all the static over James and his legacy, Wade and his health, Durant and his impending superstardom or Westbrook and his shaky decision making was the fact that the entire series hinged on Chris Bosh.

Bosh came to Miami the third wheel of the much ballyhooed “Big Three” tricycle. A conveyance Heat fans were going to ride to more championships than LeBron could count on one hand. After one season however it became painfully clear that Bosh wasn’t superstar material when his touches were limited by the ball hawking James and Wade.

So he was relegated to accepting a role he’d likely never imagined himself playing. It took him a while to sort all this out and find his role, but we’re finally seeing Bosh embrace it in these Finals.

James and Durant have the inside track for Series MVP, but the ultimate destination of the Larry O’Brien Trophy remains in the hands of Bosh. When he’s good, and playing the role they need, Miami is very good. But when he’s trying to be the Chris Bosh of Toronto Raptor-fame he becomes a non-factor and the Heat struggle. The latter of these two is the only shot OKC has, which is why I’ve declared the Finals over.

And forget scrambling for the stat sheet because what makes Bosh effective doesn’t show up in the box score. Nobody charts how many shots he alters around the rim or how many plays Bosh keeps alive by tapping out a rebound he can’t corral. There is no value to be placed on the energy he infuses into the arena, and consequently his teammates, by diving on the floor for a loose ball. He can do all of this as a 7 foot multi-billionaire, and yet he can also pop out of a screen and roll to nail an open 20 foot jumper when OKC sends two defenders at James.

You knew all along James would get his 30 and Wade would rack up some highlight plays on his way to 25. But what Miami needs in addition to this is Bosh’s energy and leadership. Without his presence there’s nobody to challenge Harden and Westbrook at the rim. And Bosh remains the perfect, and perhaps only, counterbalance whenever any power struggle arises between James and Wade.

Unfortunately the Finals are over and you’ll have to wait another year to prove me wrong. Should you happen to find basketball being played Thursday night at 9:00 on ABC surf on, for it is most likely highlights of the Israeli professional circuit or home movies from the VanGundy boys youth league days back in NYC.

It’s tough navigating this hypersensitive, politically correct world of ours, so when I say stop watching I don’t mean to speak to you like you are a trained monkey or loyal dog; it’s just that these Finals are over so sit boo-boo, sit.

© 2012 Eric Walker Williams

Digging Deeper into the Playoffs

First appeared on June 7th, 2012
in The Lebanon Reporter

Old versus Young. Experience versus enthusiasm. Carson versus Arsenio. We’ve seen this act before so it should be nothing new. Well maybe new is a bad choice of words if you happen to be fans of the San Antonio Spurs or Boston Celtics. Either way Father Time remains the most overlooked, least analyzed, scrutinized or scouted player in the 2012 NBA Playoffs.

The Heat were for all intents and purposes the most logical choice for pre-season NBA Champions. And after a quick 2-0 start to the Eastern Conference Finals, Miami has been blindsided by a Boston team that has lathered their joints with enough WD 40 to remind all of us why they don’t hand trophies out before the season begins.

And while Oklahoma City continues to churn out posterizing dunks at an unprecedented rate, San Antonio remains Watty Piper’s original Little Engine that Could, busy plodding along on a journey towards The Finals. Both series are a lesson in life. There is something to be said for experience.

The Media would have us believe that OKC is a newborn infant ready to shed their diapers and claim a title while San Antonio is the toothless grizzled relic of yesteryear huddling behind their bedroom door as the Grim Reaper’s scythe is reaching in for them.

In a league built on young superstars and athletic role players the NBA finds itself at war with itself. And while this is a great recipe for producers of Keeping up with the Kardashians or Jersey Shore, it doesn’t compute in David Stern’s world. The NBA brands itself as fresh, young and exciting. The Spurs and Celtics are none of these.

And yet there they are again. Those darned fundamentals. The Spurs and their screens, the Celtics and their stifling team defense. The Big Fundamental and his unstoppable 17 foot bank shot and Rajon Rondo and his- well OK maybe we need to leave Rondo out of any discussion that involves fundamental basketball.

So you’re a 25 year veteran of accounting and some hotshot kid comes in fresh out of the Kelley School of Business. The stuffed shirt who signs your paychecks starts suggesting you might be able to learn a few things from Billy with the spiked hair. Whether it’s an out of town seminar he arranges for the two of you to attend together or something far less subtle, like an email that reads “Hey, you could learn a few things from Billy”, either way you feel slighted. So you find a new resolve. A rediscovered determination that carries you from the water cooler to the vending machine in record time.

This is another X factor currently propelling both the Spurs and Celtics. Her name is disrespect and she is both bold and beautiful. All season long every talking head in the NBA, every basketball magazine cover, every SportsCenter lead-in and every kid aged 10-19 (including Billy with the Spiked Hair) has done nothing but talk about Miami and Oklahoma City.

And suddenly there they are. Two former champions. Two groups feeling disrespected and boasting more playoff experience than half the other teams in the league combined. The NBA has long sold fans on rivalries. The Lakers and Celtics. The Bulls versus the Bad Boys. Tim Donaghy versus the Federal Government. Who knew the new rivalry would take such an old approach?

It may be true what they say “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, but in this case it’s rapidly becoming clear these old dogs don’t need any.

© 2012 Eric Walker Williams