NBA’s season is done… time for a rant.

So… first let me introduce myself – I’m withmalice (or just Don) from With Malice. I was really, really honored when asked to come & write for a day here… I mean, Pyle of List is really famous famous quite famous moderately well-known ‘n’ all!

So, for my first post here, it had better be with a bit of vitriol I guess… I mean ‘with malice’ (and balance it out for the soppy second post).

Where to begin? It seems the NBA is a target rich environment… so here we go!

For a season that promised & delivered so much… I was expecting a helluva lot better finish. We had:

• Dallas looking awesome throughout the year…
• Phoenix looking awesome throughout the year…
• San Antonio looking awesome for the second half of the year…
• Dirk tearing it up throughout the year, winning the MVP…
• Steve Nash having an ‘MVP-like’ year…
• Kobe going nuts (on court for 50+ 10 times!!!)…
• Memphis, Celtics & Milwaukee amazing us with how bad a team can intentionally be, and getting the top 3 chances to get top draft pick… (which really, really got me angry)
• Memphis, Celtics & Milwaukee being punished by the basketball gods by not getting a top 3 pick in the draft… (which – sorry Grizzlies/Celtics/Bucks fans – was one of my feelgood moments of the year)

All-in-all, a very, very exciting season!
Even the playoffs built us up… we had:

• Dallas getting badly beaten by the Golden State Warriors, who played an absolutely INSANE brand of basketball…
• Dirk Nowitzki absolutely TRASHING the fact that he won the MVP. One of those defining sports moments… you know, you’re in a bar somewhere, and someone says “Dirk Nowitzki, MVP…” and everyone shakes their heads. Really brings a community together.
• An absolutely FANTASTIC match-up with the boredom of the Spurs vs the high-octane Suns… only to have the deciding moment be Big Cheap Shot Rob Horry lay one on Steve (“shoulda-been-the-MVP”) Nash.
• When a San Antonio vs Detroit Final yawner seemed inevitable, it appeared that Lebron James WAS the ‘second coming’, the ‘Air Apparent’, ‘Heir Jordan’ (ok, ok… enough of that) – and he took the Eastern Conference Final by it’s short & curlies & absolutely won it…

Wow… I mean… with Lebron, surely Cleveland had a shooter’s chance? Well… nuh-uh… not if the San Antonio Spurs had anything to say about it.

And they did.

Boy, did they.

All the exciting things that happened as a prelude, led to this?

I don’t think I’ve seen an NBA team so thoroughly dominated in the Finals as Cleveland were against the Spurs. Sure, last two games were close… but who amongst us didn’t expect a sweep during the latter parts of game 3, and through to game 4? And the games were everything we expected San Antonio/Detroit to be… (perhaps a bit worse, because post the first two, I never really thought Cleveland were a chance) a total Sominex-fest. I honestly fell asleep during TWO games. That’s not to say the Spurs weren’t awesome – they were. They’re just not ‘awe-inspiring’.  Without a doubt, the most dominant team of the new millennium, just not a helluva lot of fun to watch.

I don’t know what’s to be done (re-seeding? Division re-building?)… and for that I apologize – I hate negative diatribes that never offer even a joke solution… but meh… after the Finals we just witnessed… watcha gonna do? Maybe change the Spur’s colors?

Tags: Big Shot Rob, by withmalice, Cavs, Kobe, Lakers, LeBron, playoffs, shameless pandering, Spurs, Suns