A long time ago, I heard from some dumb dunce that the great moments in sports are when you don't know what's going to happen next, and the truly transcendant moments are when you thought you knew, but you truly had no idea. Watching Jordan carve in the 90s was like that - you didn't know what was going to happen, you thought you had seen it all, and then POW! Something brand new. Nobody cares much for the predictable, that's why we all got tired of seeing the Lakers winning a few years ago... they were doing it the same damn way every time. Oh gee, can Shaq score in the post? Oh, Kobe's really good too? Where's the fun?
Anyway, if I were a gambling man - and I am - I would put a good amount of money on our Cavaliers to take this one.
We've entered into that fun place, that "Golden State is playing on borrowed time" place where it is possible for us to soon find ourselves entering the glory land. I have a vague sense of the world completely switching gears following game 5 in Detroit, something fundamentally changing about the NBA that I won't be able to explain just yet. As with any major shift, it's improper to evaluate it right away, because it could turn out to be nothing. LeBron could very easily go back to being just a very good basketball player in the Finals, in which case the Cavs are going to LOSE LOSE LOSE.
But there's potential now. We've seen it. Things could happen.
Every team has a superstar now, that's just the way it goes. As such, usually the superstars can negate each other. "Dirk is going to be hard to contain, but what about Steve Nash???" This is different. This is the old rhetorical questions... "What if you just can't stop LeBron?" Duncan will get his (by the way, isn't that his career in a nutshell? "Duncan will get his" He always brings it. Like KG. But with a better organization and smarter owners) but the Cavs possess the super wild card.
Nobody can predict what is going to happen. It's nearly impossible. Saying that the Spurs will grind out a series win seems to be the consensus for the "safe" pick. But it's not safe. Cleveland is at 3-1 odds right now, and that's a huge surprise. I think they should be much lower, considering San Antonio has been favored to take this whole thing since knocking Phoenix off. But now bookies aren't so sure. And who can blame them? Watching LeBron seems to give everyone fits, including his own fans.
It has been an absolutely fantastic playoff run this year, and it's not letting up anytime soon. First there was Golden State, and when that faded there was SA-Phoenix, what with all the punching and shoving. Out east there was a young child named James, who decided to score every time he touched the ball. Now we've got the possibility for one of the best finals of all time.
It's there. That potential. And we're walking into it with smiles on our faces.
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