Draymond Green Chris Webbered a time out 😆

Refs do an amazing job to dampen these climactic moments.

Raptors have the best witch doctor in the NBA.

yep not to take anything away from the Raptors, but I feel cheated from a fully contested series

That was amazing. Incredible scenes in TO!

What an exciting few games, too!

i feel so dead inside right now. i cant believe this happened. i still fucking love the NBA, but goddamn this was a really tough sports year for me

Shit final. Don't like GSW but I wanted them to lose at full strenght, not like this.

And yeah, Durant out for the year now Klay done his knee. Shit times for them.

KingslandBarge wrote:

yep not to take anything away from the Raptors, but I feel cheated from a fully contested series

Shouldn't see it that way. These things happen every year and you can argue every which way about how teams aren't  evenly matched etc. CP3 injury last year. No kyrie/love the first time around etc. Fuck the warriors. They even got Cousins on top of everyone they already had. 
Full credit to the raptors with the load management on kawhi. 
He is simply phenomenal btw. Single handedly stopped the one hitherto unstoppable player in the league in Giannis after 2 games down. Was phenomenal against lebron too during that finals, then helped stop this 3peat/dynasty and all that legend from forming...they beat gsw 3 straight games in the playoffs. Unthinkable. Same with 3peat in miami against the big 3.

Gotta say, I feel like there's a big injury coming for lebron. So many years playing late into the playoffs...physical freak.

hubie brown really voted vanvleet as finals MVP, lmao

arsedoc md wrote:

And damn! MJ did threepeats twice over.

And the last team to do a three peat is....

Yea alright whatever.

Is there a potential international frictional event brewing with if raptors don't visit the white house and then go meet up trudeau?

I think your prediction is spot on. Trump will toss his toys, being a man baby. But back to Jordan. I still can’t beliece the kids disrespect him with comparisons. To take down those tough Knicks and Pacers teams, stop Karl Malone, win sick. Do all that in 2 three-peats? It’s just incredible to consider. Just dominant.

Claudius wrote:

I think your prediction is spot on. Trump will toss his toys, being a man baby.   But back to Jordan. I still can’t beliece the kids disrespect him with comparisons. To take down those tough Knicks and Pacers teams, stop Karl Malone, win sick. Do all that in 2 three-peats? It’s just incredible to consider. Just dominant.

honestly, the game is so different now than it was 20 years ago. i dont think it makes sense to compare players across eras. like, the bill russell celtics would get slaughtered by a lot of 2019 teams. it was a different game, different baseline for performance, different level of competition. even just going back to jordan's era, the rules were different, officiating was different, etc.

Obviously the game is played under slightly different parameters. It was more physical and more isolation ball. I’m not comparing that. Given the parameters within which he operated, Jordan really dominated in a way that these guys today just aren’t doing.
But even then, it wasn’t such a wildly different game. It’s not like we didn’t have the 3 point shot and dunks

Never been happier for an athlete than I am for Kyle. He’s not the most talented player running around but there aren’t many I’d choose over him. Never puts himself above the team and gets shat on every single season. He embodies everything right with the franchise over the last 5-6 years and although Kawhi is best Raptor of all time, Lowry is undoubtedly our greatest. Hope to see his number retired once he hangs it up.

Closing out the series with 26, 7 and 10 is nothing less than he deserves. That should shut up the clowns who only ever look at boxscores when deciding how well he has played.

mdgoonah41 wrote:

biggest asterisk in NBA finals history.

“I apologize for us being healthy, I apologize for us playing who was in front of us. I apologize for all the accolades we received as a team and individually. I’m very, truly sorry, and we’ll rectify that situation this year,”

Kawhi Leonard is the best basketball player in the game right now. Silent assassin.

Presumptuous obviously but Jordan could have and may be would have won 8 consecutive championships if he did not take a break to play baseball for the best part of 2 seasons.

He probably needed it to refresh, get away from his off court issues. But it also gave him the chance to go away and redefine his game as his body slowed down. He came back a more formidable post presence, a far cry from the cheetah of the 80s. Had a number 45 jersey as a kid.

Yeah obviously, one of the biggest personal or collective challenges is motivation. Which is why defending titles or sustained success over consecutive years / seasons is so rare and hard.

Coming back to today though, real credit to the Raptors. Lebron must be feeling a little daft for leaving the East. He won’t build a contender in the West.
It’s a pity an Achilles takes 4-6 months. Would’ve been nice to see the Knickerbockers make a run at Durant and Irving to build a nucleus but Irving is allegedly leaning toward Rocnation as an agent and the Nets a a team.

Well with Durant and Klay Thompson being out for a year GSW are pretty much out of the equation, so LeBron will defo be a contender as long as the Lakers get Davis and other complimentary pieces, which apparently is what they're planning on doing. Although with their circus management it's easy to see how they would muck it all up again.

Congrats Lakers, lebron and Bryant....hope you get some proper shooters.

arsedoc md wrote:

Congrats Lakers, lebron and Bryant....hope you get some proper shooters.

Did i read they gave up 3 future 1st round picks? They basically have to win next year while bron still some legs left

Gazza M wrote:

Did i read they gave up 3 future 1st round picks? They basically have to win next year while bron still some legs left

Yeah, the goal is to win in the short term, but it's not a 1 year window. 

As for the picks, the pick that is coveted by the Pelicans is this year's #4 pick. Apparently, they are shopping it around at this moment. The picks in 2021 and 2023 are projected to be less valuable picks if things go well. 

They still have the cap space to chase another superstar player (Kawhi, Kyrie, Kemba, Butler, etc.), so that should be fun. 

If jimmy or kemba go there, its a wrap

Wow. That SI article was on point. Paul is the Mino Raiola of the NBA, and at such a young age.
Kyrie should swallow his pride and give Lebron a call. It’s time to win rings. If they have 3 players of that caliber it’s effectively Miami 2.0.