The End of the 2009 NBA Season
I honestly don't know how I feel about this NBA season.
On the one hand, I'm happy, because it was a good season without a ton of scandals or tanking.
On the other, the continued horrendous officiating showed that the promised improvement to the league's ills are still a long ways away.
On the one hand, the level of overall competition was better, with the East being more competitive and even a couple of the really bad teams (like OKC) were still very entertaining.
On the other, watching teams either position themselves for the summer of 2010 or shed money due to the economy was depressing, and definitely hurt the game.
On the one hand, the Mavs finally won a playoff series since David Stern decided that they would not win the 2006 NBA title, and played well in the second round.
On the other, it was painfully obvious that the Mavs are no longer the contender that they once were.
On the one hand, we got an exciting picture of the future of the NBA, as Lebron led the Cavs to the best record in the league.
On the other, we saw that the bad guys sometimes do win as Kobe and Phil won the titles that propelled them into an even higher elite level.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
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Once again, the Orlando Magic proved that three point shooting teams live by the three, and die by the three. I knew the Magic would beat the Cavs in the second quarter of Game 3, after Cleveland had jumped out to another 20 point lead--but then Rafer Alston got hot. By the time he banked in a three as the shot clock expired to cut the lead to ten with a few minutes left before the half, I just knew. "If shots like that are going in," I thought, "it's over. They're hot enough now that the Magic are going to take this series."
"And there is no way they are going to win the next one."
Sure enough, I was right. Orlando shot an ungodly 47% from the three point line against the Cavs, and buried them. In fairness to Stan Van Gundy, they probably wouldn't have stayed hot enough to beat the Lakers anyway--three point shooting teams just don't work that way. But SVG killed any chance of that happening when he decided to play Jameer Nelson. The Magic/Lakers series was over before it began; one thing a coach should never do is screw up his team's momentum, and he did precisely that by turning away from his currently hot emotional leader (Alston) and replacing him with his wildly overrated and undersized point who hadn't played in over three months. This killed Alston's momentum, which in turn killed the team's momentum. Frankly, I'm surprised the Magic were as competitive as they were. And no, I cannot believe that I just wrote an entire paragraph naming Rafer Alston as the key to the NBA Finals. But that's the thing with momentum and three point teams: you never know what exactly is going to make them tick.
This led to two things: Kobe getting his fourth ring and--most important--first title post-Shaq, and Phil Jackson becoming the coach with the most rings in NBA history.
I won't go into Kobe. Anyone who reads this knows my dislike of him. I'll proudly admit that I wanted him to go down frustrated, and not being able to win a title on his own. Oh well. The thing that really frustrates me is the double whammy of Kobe winning and Phil getting number 10.
Does anyone like Phil Jackson? Oh sure, everyone respects him. He can be very funny at times. But does anyone really like him? Is it a coincidence that statistically the best coach in the history of the NBA only has one Coach of the Year award?
Look, Phil Jackson is not a bad coach. He's not an average coach. And I give him full credit for being able to manage players possibly better than anyone in the history of the league. That being said, however, I subscribe to the theory of "show me a title where you don't have three of the top ten players in league history playing for you". It's not Phil's fault that he's played with great players...it's just that, yes, it is easier to win with Michael & Scottie and Shaq & Kobe. You SHOULD win with that.
So when you add the smarmy, smarter than everyone zen attitude he always has, and add the way he fairly openly insulted Red Auberach at the end of his life because Phil liked his coach with the Knicks better than Red, then no, I'm not a big Phil Jackson fan, and hoped that he would end his career without passing Auberach as the coach with the most rings.
I think that's why, in the end, I'm disappointed in this season. Phil likes to say that the Spurs first title doesn't count because of the strike-shortened season. I feel like two people who don't deserve the extra validation got their careers validated because teams were too afraid/cheap to make the moves they normally would to improve during a season, and because a stereotypical three point shooting team got hot against the team that should have won and then cooled off against the team that did win.
Oh well. It is what it is.
Congrats to the Lakers on winning the 2009 NBA championship.
On the one hand, I'm happy, because it was a good season without a ton of scandals or tanking.
On the other, the continued horrendous officiating showed that the promised improvement to the league's ills are still a long ways away.
On the one hand, the level of overall competition was better, with the East being more competitive and even a couple of the really bad teams (like OKC) were still very entertaining.
On the other, watching teams either position themselves for the summer of 2010 or shed money due to the economy was depressing, and definitely hurt the game.
On the one hand, the Mavs finally won a playoff series since David Stern decided that they would not win the 2006 NBA title, and played well in the second round.
On the other, it was painfully obvious that the Mavs are no longer the contender that they once were.
On the one hand, we got an exciting picture of the future of the NBA, as Lebron led the Cavs to the best record in the league.
On the other, we saw that the bad guys sometimes do win as Kobe and Phil won the titles that propelled them into an even higher elite level.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once again, the Orlando Magic proved that three point shooting teams live by the three, and die by the three. I knew the Magic would beat the Cavs in the second quarter of Game 3, after Cleveland had jumped out to another 20 point lead--but then Rafer Alston got hot. By the time he banked in a three as the shot clock expired to cut the lead to ten with a few minutes left before the half, I just knew. "If shots like that are going in," I thought, "it's over. They're hot enough now that the Magic are going to take this series."
"And there is no way they are going to win the next one."
Sure enough, I was right. Orlando shot an ungodly 47% from the three point line against the Cavs, and buried them. In fairness to Stan Van Gundy, they probably wouldn't have stayed hot enough to beat the Lakers anyway--three point shooting teams just don't work that way. But SVG killed any chance of that happening when he decided to play Jameer Nelson. The Magic/Lakers series was over before it began; one thing a coach should never do is screw up his team's momentum, and he did precisely that by turning away from his currently hot emotional leader (Alston) and replacing him with his wildly overrated and undersized point who hadn't played in over three months. This killed Alston's momentum, which in turn killed the team's momentum. Frankly, I'm surprised the Magic were as competitive as they were. And no, I cannot believe that I just wrote an entire paragraph naming Rafer Alston as the key to the NBA Finals. But that's the thing with momentum and three point teams: you never know what exactly is going to make them tick.
This led to two things: Kobe getting his fourth ring and--most important--first title post-Shaq, and Phil Jackson becoming the coach with the most rings in NBA history.
I won't go into Kobe. Anyone who reads this knows my dislike of him. I'll proudly admit that I wanted him to go down frustrated, and not being able to win a title on his own. Oh well. The thing that really frustrates me is the double whammy of Kobe winning and Phil getting number 10.
Does anyone like Phil Jackson? Oh sure, everyone respects him. He can be very funny at times. But does anyone really like him? Is it a coincidence that statistically the best coach in the history of the NBA only has one Coach of the Year award?
Look, Phil Jackson is not a bad coach. He's not an average coach. And I give him full credit for being able to manage players possibly better than anyone in the history of the league. That being said, however, I subscribe to the theory of "show me a title where you don't have three of the top ten players in league history playing for you". It's not Phil's fault that he's played with great players...it's just that, yes, it is easier to win with Michael & Scottie and Shaq & Kobe. You SHOULD win with that.
So when you add the smarmy, smarter than everyone zen attitude he always has, and add the way he fairly openly insulted Red Auberach at the end of his life because Phil liked his coach with the Knicks better than Red, then no, I'm not a big Phil Jackson fan, and hoped that he would end his career without passing Auberach as the coach with the most rings.
I think that's why, in the end, I'm disappointed in this season. Phil likes to say that the Spurs first title doesn't count because of the strike-shortened season. I feel like two people who don't deserve the extra validation got their careers validated because teams were too afraid/cheap to make the moves they normally would to improve during a season, and because a stereotypical three point shooting team got hot against the team that should have won and then cooled off against the team that did win.
Oh well. It is what it is.
Congrats to the Lakers on winning the 2009 NBA championship.
Labels: NBA
posted by Michael Pondrom at 6:38 PM
1 Comments:
yaaaaaayyyyy
-john.
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