Editor’s Note:This will conclude our Series of the Week feature for the 2013 postseason. Many thanks for reading Games of the Week and Series of the Week this year.
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When one sits down and watches the 2007 NBA Finals — the first time a team lead by LeBron James faced the San Antonio Spurs (most of which is available in its full, grainy glory on YouTube) — they are immediately struck by how different the NBA seems, even a mere six years after the fact. Everything about the proceedings seem to resemble a rudimentary version of modernity; a child’s conception of what 21st century basketball was supposed to look like. Though ABC/ESPN had possessed TV rights for the NBA for a few years, the announcing crew of Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson seems to lack fluidity and grace. Van Gundy seems more scripted and less sure-footed, and Breen fills many extended silences. It’s easy to recognize that ABC’s broadcasting has become much better now that Breen and Van Gundy have become more familiar with each other, and Van Gundy realized that being curmudgeonly produces better ratings. It’s noticeable enough to be humorous, and to be thankful that things have changed, largely for the better.
But what’s really striking are the teams themselves, playing each other for a chance at the Larry O’Brien trophy. On the one hand, we have the San Antonio Spurs, who at that point in 2007 were reaching the end their run as championship contenders as an old, slow, and defensively dominant team. Current starters Tim Duncan and Tony Parker were joined by thirty-somethings Michael Finley, Fabricio Oberto and Bruce Bowen, while their bench, headlined by current sixth man/All-Star Manu Ginobili, also featured the talents of Robert Horry, Jacque Vaughn and Brent Barry. They trotted out a middle-of-the-road offense, but mowed through teams with a stifling defense, as well as a core group of veterans that had, despite their advanced ages (except for Tony Parker, who at the time was a precocious 24 year old), managed to play together for four straight seasons, and knew each other quite well. The Cleveland Cavaliers, meanwhile, resembled a reunion tour of guys whose presence in the league — let alone the NBA finals — today make us do a double take, six years after the fact. The starting lineup for the Cavs featured franchise favorite Zydrunas Ilgauskas, finally experiencing glory after a career filled with rebuilding years and chronic foot injuries. However, he’s flanked by Drew Gooden, Sasha Pavlovic and Boobie Gibson, starting for an injured Larry Hughes. And, of course, there’s LeBron James, younger, fresher, slightly more green, wearing the number #23, bathed bizarrely in wine and gold.
Now, in retrospect, we can look at what occurred in that Finals series — a 4-0 sweep for the San Antonio Spurs — and contextualize it quite easily. At the time, the Spurs were the number one overall seed, and had essentially waltzed their way through the playoffs. Their most trying series was a six-gamer against the Phoenix Suns in the second round. Both Nuggets and the Jazz rolled over in five games. As such, the 4-0 sweep ended up being the least difficult series for the Spurs. The Cavs, meanwhile, seemed to be another unfortunate entry in a long line of teams representing the lesser Eastern Conference of the 2000s. Though the 2004 Pistons and 2008 Celtics stood as worthy exceptions to the general rule, the 2007 Cavs joined the Pacers, 76ers and Nets as the team that represented the East because someone had to in the end. The vast majority of the players on that Cavs team looked overmatched and under-prepared for a team like the Spurs, who appeared to be operating at roughly 85% energy-output against Cleveland (and can you blame them? It was their easiest series yet). Some runner-ups became memorable (the 2012 Thunder, 2010 Celtics, 2008 Lakers, and to a certain extent, the 2002 and 2003 Nets come to mind), but these Cavs did not join their ranks. That year was a good one for the Cavs; they managed to catch the Pistons in decline, and got a Finals appearance in before the Celtics put together their Big Three. But they ran into a great Spurs team –certainly not the first Eastern opponent to run into a dominant team from San Antonio — and that was that.
So, with the absence of a stationary team to really look back at, and admire how far they’ve come in their personal and professional development, can we contextualize ourselves as observers and fans, and assess how far we’ve come, as well? Can we, as fans and observers, become the heart of the narrative instead? It’s interesting: 2007 feels like both a short and long time ago, in both real years and NBA years. The 2007 NBA season stands out in my mind for one reason: the We Believe playoff run, and the Warriors return to national prominence. After the Warriors were eliminated, I stopped watching the playoffs, content to spend my last days of college killing as many brain cells as humanly possible. In fact, I think the first time I saw a game from the 2007 NBA Finals was yesterday, when I started digging around on YouTube to start researching this missive. I make no apologies; none whatsoever. I saw no reason to care deeply about the Spurs in 2007; a team that I loved but one that I had already seen win multiple championships. The Duncan-Parker-Ginobili core had been together for five seasons, and I had had my fill of Michael Finley and Robert Horry. Similarly, I didn’t take note of LeBron’s first appearance in the NBA Finals. After they beat the Pistons in the Conference finals (a series I did watch a few games of, including LeBron’s transcendent Game 5 performance), I remember being surprised by how quickly LeBron had reached the NBA finals. But I also knew the East was weak. And when the Cavs failed to make a mark, and LeBron had a poor first Finals series, it didn’t bother me much. I assumed that LeBron would be back to the Finals someday.
2013, of course, is much different than 2007. Certainly there are some parallels in my interest in the playoffs in 2013 after another memorable Warriors playoff run, but more has changed than remained the same. Since LeBron last faced the Spurs, he has risen to the unbelievable rank of unchallenged best player in the world. He has undergone multiple transformations, from beloved, to reviled, to vaunted, to nigh on untouchable. He has changed jerseys and jersey numbers, given birth to children and moved from his home state. He has also lost a lot of hair, and worn bigger headbands in an effort to hide this fact (much to our delight). As he has changed, the East changed drastically as well, as the Celtics and Magic kept the Cavs at bay for three straight years (and the Celtics picked up a Championship in the process), before LeBron had enough in Cleveland and took an all-purpose phrase to South Beach. Meanwhile. the Spurs changed their winning philosophy from stifling defense anchored around Duncan to a quicker offense based more on ball movement around the perimeter, and not without fits and starts. Though they experienced consistent regular season success, their fortunes in the postseason were uneven, and they went home early a number of times. 2013 marks the first time the Spurs have been back to the Finals since 2007. But now they look fully stocked, with a slimmer, more efficient Tim Duncan standing tall on defense while familar faces Parker and Manu, as well as relative newcomers Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, unload their clips from the outside. Everyone is older, wiser, more experienced, more weathered.
And perhaps that’s what’s so strangely calming about this series: the times have changed, but in many comforting ways, remain strangely the same. Though LeBron barely resembles the nervous 21 year-old who didn’t hit his first shot in the 2007 NBA finals until 3 minutes into the third quarter of Game One, it is still he on the biggest basketball stage on the planet, playing in his fourth June classic. Though the Spurs now feature two players who have less than five years of NBA experience combined, and play much faster, exciting basketball than any of us could have imagined back in 2007, they are still the Spurs, nailing every defensive rotation and supporting each other in way that only Gregg Popovich could design. And perhaps if we think about ourselves, we’ve stayed true to what really matters. I’m far removed from nearly every aspect of college, and have lived in two different states (and one other country) since 2007. Yet here I am, still watching ball. For all my efforts to grow and change, to better myself in different ways, I’m still watching the NBA; every single minute I can.
It’s hard to find a catchy narrative to drive analysis about this series. LeBron’s legacy has been long settled, and people are slowly (and sadly) becoming more interested in what his plans are for the summer of 2014 than they are about his plans to earn his second straight ring with the Heat. The Spurs have refused to subject themselves to drama in any way over the last two decades, and that hasn’t changed in the last few weeks. Russell Westbrook’s injury derailed the Thunder – the only team that appears to have had a chance to challenge the Spurs — and the Grizzlies looked about as helpless as the 2007 Cavs against San Antonio. Indeed, we do not have any evidence to say that this isn’t the way things should have gone this year; where the best teams, with the best players, playing their best basketball at just the right time, earned the right to play each other for a championship. And given that both coaches rested their stars during their two regular season games (much to David Stern’s displeasure), we don’t even have meaningful film to look at in order to predict what, exactly, is going to happen. What more is there to say? What else is there to do but watch? It’s what I’ve done — what we’ve all done — since we first became aware that they played basketball on television, and that some of the teams were just too brilliant across the board for a canned narrative about good versus evil, checkbook teams versus homegrown teams, overachievers versus underachievers, or whatever. Sometimes, it’s just too good to talk about. You just look, listen, and smile, and enjoy the show.
So maybe the narrative, instead, should be how we view ourselves, and how we balance our ever changing natures and our desire to stay fixed, stable, steady. As fans and as humans, like the Spurs and the Heat, we have aged as gracefully as we possibly could, while still remembering what got us to wherever we are in the first place. For others, all they can do is watch, look, listen. And for us? All we can do — should do, really — is look in the mirror and do our very best to smile back, everyday.
And above all else, enjoy the show.
