Picture of you will, the NBA championship as a lovely lady in the prime of her youth and beauty, ready to tie the knot with a fixed altar date.
She was engaged to be married to her current fiancé, the Los Angeles Lakers who had promised to be her man on the appointed date and time.
However, he went away on vacation and while surfing in Siargao Island, broke his leg. He sent her a cryptic text saying he couldn’t make it, breaking her heart in the process.
She was crestfallen, but she couldn’t wait for him and was forced to look elsewhere while she nursed her broken heart.
ADMIRERS. Because her beauty was legendary and rivaled that of Helen of Troy who could launch a thousand ships, she was not short of admirers.
The most prominent among them was the New Jersey Nets who seemed to be at the forefront of the race.
He was always the best-dressed and drove flashy cars. He was filthy rich, had the body of a Greek god and was well-connected. He had a reputation too of having bedded some of the most coveted damsels in town. He seemed like a dream. Almost too perfect, that is.
Not too far behind was the Los Angeles Clippers. He was dark, handsome and mysterious. He drove a convertible around L.A. and loved Jazz. She was intrigued by him and secretly hoped it would be him.
There were others too, the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns. They weren’t too bad either, they were fine and acceptable. She adored them, but the afore-mentioned duo were the most vocal of their intentions and pronouncements.
Everybody seemed to agree as the date neared that it would narrow down to a choice between the formidable duo.
ABSENCE. The problem was they were both too inconsistent. When her boss gave her a dressing down for missed appointment, she sent a distressed text message to the Nets but he was in some high-profile meeting and could not make it. The next day he sent her flowers and chocolates but also his regrets as he could not join her.
She loved the company of the Clippers, but at times he was moody and brooding. A slight nudge in the wrong direction made him mope for days. She could not understand him.
Unsurprisingly, they both disappeared as the date neared. And so, she had to choose between the Bucks and Suns and in the end she picked the best one for her, the Bucks.
He wasn’t the most dashing and the most handsome. But he was the most consistent.
When the Nets sent her a bottle of pink champagne for her birthday, sans his presence, guess who was there to drink it with her? When the Clippers sent her a flaky message that upset her, guess who was there to lend a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on?
And so in the end, it all boiled down to consistency and availability. Sometimes its not about the talent or the pedigree. It can all come down to durability and persistency. We have a saying in Filipino for that, which is “Dinaan sa sipag”
And that, my dear Last Rounders, is how our NBA 2021 love story went.
LAST ROUND. It’s on Reno J. Bacolod Jr who recently celebrated his birthday. Cheers!