Cavs vs. Warriors may be inevitable
The story lines are as long as a Stephen Curry three-pointer.
With what might be a superteam out West in Golden State, a megastar in the Midwest in Cleveland’s LeBron James, multi-talented players all around the league, its global popularity at an all-time high, more revenue than ever and labor peace looming, the NBA might be in for a season that has the potential to be like no other the league has ever had.
And that means possibly
rivaling the Boston Celtics’ run in the 1960s, possibly even topping the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird rivalry of the 1980s and Michael Jordan’s run of the 1990s with the Chicago Bulls.
James is holding the NBA title in Cleveland and Kevin Durant has settled in Golden
State, so the NBA Finals could be headed for another Warriors-Cavaliers matchup again next June just as it’s been for the past two seasons.
But what a journey it should be getting there.
“I think there is a somewhat an inevitability of this Cleveland-Warriors meeting in the finals again, which can sometimes make you overlook how enjoyable the regular season can be if you love basketball,” ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy said. “So I think they’ll meet in the finals again, but that doesn’t make the regular season uninteresting to me.”
A summer spending spree created new contenders and enticing questions for a global audience that will begin being answered today when the new season opens in the places the last one ended.
The record-setting Warriors might be must-see TV again with Durant, the former scoring champ and league MVP, sharing shots with Curry, the current scoring champ and MVP.
James is on a Jordan-like run, looking for a seventh consecutive trip to the NBA Finals and hoping to build a dynasty where there was once despair.
Dwyane Wade and Dwight Howard went home — Wade to Chicago and Howard to Atlanta.
Derrick Rose left home, traded from the Chicago Bulls to the New York Knicks.
Former Commissioner David Stern used to say the NBA was in its golden age.
Under Adam Silver, it might be even shinier.
“There are a lot of chargedup players in this league,” Silver said. “There are a lot of teams, young teams in the development cycle, where I think they would even say realistically they’re unlikely to win the championship this season, but they’re on the road to winning a championship.”
Silver will hand out rings to James and the Cavaliers before their season opener against the new-look New York Knicks at 6:30 p.m., and Durant joins Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson in the expensive and explosive Warriors lineup later against San Antonio at 9:30 p.m.
Utah will also face Portland at 9 p.m. to round out a three-game, opening night.
But it’s the Warriors and the Cavaliers that are heavily favored to meet in the NBA Finals for the third consecutive year, a rivalry that could turn into something like the Celtics-Lakers, or before that of Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. But this is no two-team show. “It’s tough,” Green said. “But at the same time I’m almost certain that it’s a goal of (Cleveland’s) to get back to try to win a championship. With that being said, there’s a lot of great teams in this league. And they’re not saying we’re going to watch the Cavs and the Warriors in June.”
Like Russell Westbrook and Oklahoma City being defiant, not devastated by Durant’s departure the way the Cavs were when James bolted for Miami in 2010.
Or young stars like Karl-Anthony Towns growing up into the spotlight, now that Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett, titans for so long, have grown old and retired. And yet another batch of unmatched international talent, led by No. 1 pick Ben Simmons, an Australian whose debut will be delayed as he recovers from a foot injury.