Cleveland’s pain continues, but Oakland shows title- worthiness
The Warriors didn’t leave Cleveland in ruins. As a sports town, it was already wrecked. At 1: 30 a. m. Wednesday, the northeast Ohio air balmy and still, I made the 20- minute walk to my hotel through a quiet downtown. As far as one could tell, there had been no shootings, bonfires or overturned cars in Cavaliers territory.
What the Warriors did — all season — was earn grudging admiration in their travels. There was no turmoil in the immediate vicinity of Quicken Loans Arena because a storm had blown through, a tempest of basketball in its purest form, cleansing all hostility and skepticism in its path.
From a Cleveland standpoint, Game 6’ s final moments were difficult to watch. The Cavs were surging and flailing in equal measure, and it seemed very much over at the 1: 50 mark when Stephen Curry sailed in for an uncontested layup against a beaten- down defense, giving the Warriors a 98- 85 lead. There was a timeout. And absurdity ensued.
The Cavs’ marketing people, utterly clueless in the NBA’s ghastly tradition, busted out “Hang On Sloopy,” a bubble gum- variety hit from the ’ 60s, over the sound system.
Sloopy lives in a very bad part of town And everybody, yeah, tries to put my Sloopy down
What was this, a singalong? No major titles in this town since the 1964 Browns, but let’s all get down with the McCoys? And bring your dancin’ shoes?
The crowd’s response was largely none at all. Heaven knows these people have felt robbed, cheated and downright unlucky over the decades, but as the curtain fell on the Finals around midnight, the Warriors had delivered a message written in stone since Christmas: They’re the best. And gracious, do they honor the sport.
Some final thoughts on the series:
In the near future, we won’t be able to say this, and media outlets insist upon playing it straight, but let’s just call it like it is: The Oakland Warriors. A fabulous, classy world championship for the Oakland Warriors.
They didn’t get the full measure of an opponent’s starting point guard in the postseason, thanks to the injuries to Jrue Holiday, Mike Conley, Patrick Beverley and Kyrie Irving, not to mention the glaring absence of Cleveland forward Kevin Love. Credit Steve Kerr for saying “this would have been a different series with Kyrie and Kevin Love. The injuries they suffered were just too much.”
Still, there’s no luck involved if you’ve survived a 103- game grind. The league’s history of significant playoff injuries features Bill Russell, Billy Cunningham, John Havlicek, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Willis Reed and many others. It’s the NBA. Things happen. There has yet to be a tarnished title.
The final scorecard on Curry against Matthew Dellavedova, based on points registered over the last two games: Curry, 62- 6.
In Mark Jackson’s last stand, the Warriors gave the Clippers a sevengame challenge without Andrew Bogut. “If we’d only had him,” went the reasoning, “things would have been different.” A year later, a healthy and ready- to- rumble Bogut didn’t play a second in Games 5 or 6, and David Lee was a bigger differencemaker in the series. Amazing.
Charles Barkley, welcome to the new- age NBA. Get with the times by next season, and that’s an order.
As a resident of Phoenix, Barkley should know that Kerr stole a few pages from the Suns’ offensive scheme under head coach Mike D’Antoni in the 2000s — a style now likely to spread through pockets of the league. As assistant Alvin Gentry said during the Warriors’ celebration, “Tell Mike D’Antoni he’s vindicated. We just kicked everyone’s ass playing the way everybody complained about.”
Akron Beacon- Journal writer Jason Lloyd was among the voters who listed LeBron James No. 1 on his MVP ballot for the season, sliding Curry down to third. But he had no problem voting for Andre Iguodala as MVP of the Finals, explaining, “It’s hard to justify voting for someone when his team lost three consecutive games.”
Like clockwork, in the interview room, James ventured into inappropriate self- obsession once again. “I’m almost starting to be like, I’d rather not even make the playoffs than lose in the Finals,” said LeBron, now 2- 4 on the big stage. Surely that went over well with the likes of DeMarcus Cousins, Greg Monroe and Ricky Rubio, who have yet to get a taste of the postseason.
Scenes for the time capsule: Curry sitting alone with the championship trophy in the locker room, cradling it like a newborn child ... Harrison Barnes, a lifetime abstainer, taking his first- ever swig of alcohol as the Champagne flowed ... Curry musing that “it makes you want to work even harder and experience this again.” ... And the joyous staredown between Curry and Green on court, giddy with the magnitude of their achievement and yelling “What!” at each other.
What, indeed. Forget why. Ignore how. The Oakland Warriors’ fan base now worships at the temple of What.