“This doesn’t feel real” – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
What a Finals! Even if the ending was anticlimactic. Get well soon, Tyrese. Congratulations, Oklahoma City. Shoutout to the Seattle SuperSonics.
Next year, I think I’m going to write a prose poem in the immediate aftermath of each game. At the end of the series, I’ll post those. I didn’t think of this idea until the middle of game 6, though. I was smoking a joint in my building’s parking lot, not watching Game 6 because my Sling TV billing cycle was renewing that very day, and I was convinced the Thunder were gonna dump a million pounds of crude oil on the Pacers (or whatever bullies do in Oklahoma City). Why pay $70+ for one game? Also I was leaving for tour the next day. Also Tyrese Haliburton was already hurt.
The Pacers didn’t roll over, though, so I watched Game 7 over some Manhattan pizza in my brother’s apartment. Yes, the game was cooked when Tyrese went down, seven minutes in. But the team still played their asses off. Indiana led at halftime. T.J. McConnell scored a million points in the third. Honestly, with four minutes left in the fourth? My friends and I were still saying “don’t count out the Pacers” (shoutout Area Man Pat Nolan). That’s emblematic of the series. Let’s celebrate that incredible basketball.
Part one – The Teams Played Hard Basketball
Good NIGHT, this was some good basketball. You like wild comebacks? You like defensive pressure? You like FULL COURT defensive pressure? You like incredible shot-making? You like big-to-big passing? You like small forwards built like linebackers? This was the series for you. Let’s celebrate Lu Dort.
Okay now let’s celebrate Aaron Nesmith, aka the small forward AN, who was just okay this finals and downright awful in Game 7, but forever earned a place in my heart for his biceps and shoulder muscles. I mean, for what he did to my beloved Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Anyway, the real battle of this finals was Andrew Nembhard trying to shut down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The shooting guard AN absolutely lived in SGA’s shorts from one end of the court to the other. He also found time to hit a few back-breaking 29-footers.
How OKC overcame this was with Jalen Williams becoming New Scottie Pippen. This is an observation I made after watching JDub wreak havoc on defense, get a ton of points on run outs (often after he poked the ball away from some poor bastard stupid enough to dribble around him), and drive relentlessly to the hoop looking for dunks. I also made this observation before Scottie himself made it to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, so—hire me, ESPN.
Having a guy who can defend the rim and alter shots on one end while being able to stretch the floor on the other is a luxury, and Chet “R Kelly Reading Level” Holmgren acquitted himself well. Alex Caruso, a 6’5” two guard, after being the guy who shut down 7-foot Nikola Jokic in round two, shut down 6’10” Pascal Siakam. The big-to-big passing between Chet Gotta Sign Xs and Isaiah Hartenstein was awesome. Aaron Wiggins and Cason Wallace hit threes and defended. Kenrich Williams gave the Thunder some good minutes!
They needed everything, too. The trendy pick was Thunder in five. That was my prediction, with the throw-in that Indy would win Game 1. Indy won Game 1, plus two others. Game 7 was close until the fourth quarter. This Pacers team felt like a team of destiny, with some of history’s wildest comebacks on their playoff resumé. It wasn’t enough, but this team deserves songs sung about them. Unfortunately for the farmboys, we must say congratulations to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Part Two – Were The Players Cool?
Pascal Siakam is very cool. Lu Dort is cool. Jalen Williams is New Scottie Pippen. SGA is New Penny Hardaway. Obi Toppin is New JaVale McGee and therefore very cool. Both ANs are cool. Chet Holmgren is proudly illiterate and therefore uncool. Myles Turner gets credit for being in trade rumors his whole life yet remaining a Pacer. Isaiah Hartenstein is as cool as German basketball players get. Benedict Mathurin is very cool. Alex Caruso is very cool, even if white fans who like Alex Caruso are the absolute dregs of society1. Aaron Wiggins is cool. Ben Sheppard has a 70s mustache. TJ McConnell is cool if he’s on your team, otherwise, it’s about how much grace yinz are willing to give Pittsburgh dirtbags. James Johnson is cool. I like Cason Wallace, my dear friend Tommy Beanbags does not, it’s impossible to tell who’s right.
Tyrese Haliburton will never be cool, but this is as cruel as injuries get. I came around to liking him this playoffs. It was a gutsy move, playing after Game 5. NBA dot com articles were saying that he’d be out 1-2 weeks if this was the regular season. But he played hurt. A Sharp Endless Need teaches us about sacrificing your future for your present, but idk if Halli has read it. His reward was the nastiest injury a basketball player can suffer. Get well soon, Tyrese. The league is, in fact, more fun with you in it.
Part Three – Where Are We, Historically, After This Finals?
The only thing I still listen to that vile union-buster Bill Simmons for is basketball history. He has done the homework, and he cares about history, and I think that’s important. I haven’t listened to any post-finals podcasts or anything like that before writing this, though—I’ve been driving through New England and reading poems in Maine. So here’s my unfiltered, uninfluenced thoughts.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the second coming of Penny Hardaway, had an incredible year. MVP, scoring champion, Finals MVP. He’s a 6’6” scoring point guard with good defensive acumen, a beautiful midrange game, and legit three point range. Shea Serrano says he’s the best player in the world, I’m not sure I agree. While this Thunder team and this Pacers team have been on the come up for a minute (remember the Pacers pushing the Lakers in the very first NBA Cup game? I do), neither of them felt like the kind of established juggernauts we’re used to seeing in the Finals. Does this series mark the beginning of that changing? It wasn’t easy to take Steph-Klay-Draymond seriously before 2015, and look where we are now.
The narrative this year was transition. LeBron and Steph and Kawhi and Jimmy Butler hung around and were real threats to go deep in the playoffs, until the playoffs started. Kevin Durant, of course, had a wasted season. Nikola Jokic did his best to make sure it wasn’t a wasted season, but the Denver Nuggets franchise almost wanted it to be a wasted season. Like Kofie, I’m not too interested in or concerned with “face of the NBA” conversations. In fact, I think those conversations are racist dog whistles. But dudes like SGA, Ant Edwards, Jalen Brunson, and Luka have some opportunities to make legends of themselves.
I’ve thought for a year or so now that we’re in a second 1970s for the NBA. Different teams are winning championships every year, there’s no dynasty right now. The existential threat in the 70s was the ABA. Today, it’s probably private equity or the Trump administration destroying the whole world. The New Labor Thing in the 70s was emerging free agency (shoutout Oscar Robertson). The New Labor Thing now is the second apron of the salary cap, effectively a hard cap. I don’t like learning about salary cap stuff, so suffice to say: I like how wide-open the league is right now, but dynasties ARE fun, and I miss them a little.
Anyway, that’s enough. Finals good. Basketball good. Onto the W, where no one this year can even dream of unseating the Liberty, but there are fun teams all over that league, too.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris
- I once sat next to a white woman a Bulls game who very clearly had money on Alex Caruso scoring 10 points. She kept calling him “Alex” and “Alex honey” and saying “just six more points,” as in, “just six more points, Alex, honey, you can do this.” It was excruciating. Alex deserves his second ring just for that. ↩︎