AFTER watching the shock troopers of Golden State Warriors outplay the core of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ core on the first two games of the 2016 NBA Championship Finals, the temptation to declare the 7-game series good as over is inviting.
Not Stephen Curry, not Klay Thompson and not Draymond Greene, the Dubs’ undisputed triumvirate broke the close game apart around the 3rd quarter.
Livingston, Barbosa and Iguodala seized the moment and led the Warriors to the first win in Game 1. Green shone in Game 2.
With the mention of the “not, not and not” phraseology, I am reminded of Lebron James’ failed promise to the Heat Nation - not 1, not 2, not 3 titles when he was introduced with fanfare.
At the end of his four-year contract, he bolted out of Miami and moved back to Ohio after only two championship rings in four finals’ appearances. Pat Riley’s dynasty dreams were crushed. And so was mine.
We all know that Cleveland with its prodigal son returning, still fell short of the glory it desired. Golden State ended its title drought behind the MVP performance of the Kid – not the Jason (now coach of the Milwaukee Bucks). Last year, Cleveland chased Stephen Curry and the Warriors but the Cavaliers panted most of the way. GSW took its first championship by winning four games impressively in only six of the scheduled seven games. After forty years of toiling in mediocrity and finding the right combination to cure its roster woes, Kerr and Curry led the Golden State basketball franchise to victory.
Incidentally, forty years is truly a long time. Biblically, it is the same number of years the people of Israel ate manna in the desert before they embarked to the Promise Land. Can you imagine eating sayote and none else everyday for forty years? The thought of the seeing the same plate serving the same meal for three meals a day for forty years is unbearable. The experience I believe is no different from falling short of your set goal everyday for forty years.
Christian numerologists opine that the number 40 is significant. Forty represents a period of divine testing. The great flood during the prophet Noah’s time lasted for forty days and forty nights. The prophet Moses ate no food or drink for the same period. In another instance, the Jewish Messiah was tested by the devil in the wilderness for forty days also. The Divine can speak thru numbers.
Yet if we read the holy writ, the story of suffering that develops an attitude of dependence and perseverance within ends with a beautiful note. Ultimately, the grace which sustained in the hardest of times is the same grace which will lead us out of the suffering on the way to the fulfillment of one’s destiny. And with that, I think you’ll know which team this column is clearly rooting for.
Will the Golden State Warriors win the second game of the best of seven championship series against the Cavs? Will Curry frustrate Lebron’s high dreams for Cleveland?
Setting aside the stars on the rosters of both sides and the match ups, I will write but then please read; and I will say but then please listen - Tyron Lue is just Tyron Lue but Steve Kerr is not just Steve Kerr. Having written and said that (did you hear?) - I will take the team with a championship pedigreed athlete and coach (in one person) most of the time. You see, winning (just in case you have not figured it out yet) belongs to winners. “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not a singular act but a habit.” Aristotle, the philosopher wrote that. Not me, not Shaq, not you.