||| WARRIORS ||| CAVALIERS ||| NBA ||| FINALS ||| 2017 ||| PART ||| 3 |||

LIKING SPORTS IN GENERAL IS NORMIE AND CORNY AND ESPN-TAKEY

also frankly had the cavs not blown game 3 this probably would have been the finals everyone was hoping for

LIKE THIS ENTIRE BOARD IS ENTIRELY YOUNG MEN SHIT TALKING ABOUT SPORTS HI WE ARE THE OPPRESSORS

xp

i think we can do better than "how can KD join the best team" takes

i can't, it's super lame and without precedent

clearly lebron going to the heat is a precedent!

ill always remember karl malone and gary payton joining the lakers lol

who won ? i feel asleep

fell*

lebron going to the heat was precedent, as was lebron leaving the heat and then engineering a trade for kevin love to join him w/ the cavs, tho that one gets overshadowed bcuz of the "all sins are forgiven so long as you go back home" thing

ill always remember karl malone and gary payton joining the lakers lol

― 龜, Tuesday, June 13, 2017 5:01 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol that was the best

i was rooting for the cavs more bc i like surprises, but barring a cavs win i wanted a competitive series. we may have had one w/the dubs vs spurs if dray hadn't promised a tesla to the first guy who took out leonard.

i'm hoping next season or the one after is better when it comes to the postseason but i suspect the warriors are going to wipe out the rest of the league. you never know though.

next year's finals shld just be the warriors against the eastern conference all star team

dubs in six

lebron going to the heat was precedent, as was lebron leaving the heat and then engineering a trade for kevin love to join him w/ the cavs, tho that one gets overshadowed bcuz of the "all sins are forgiven so long as you go back home" thing

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, June 13, 2017 12:05 PM (nine minutes ago)

exactly

durant's ring-chasing is obv not unprecedented and on a personal level i am happy for him, he seems like a good dude unlike spoiled nba brats curry and thompson (j/k really) but what makes it corny imo was less him joining a 73-win team and more that OKC was up 3-1 in the wcf and instead of resolving to beat them the following year he decided it was too much work

i feel that but also "i'm tired of playing w/ this other really awesome player who wants the ball all the time" is a tale about as old as ring chasing

missing out on warriors-thunder II is def tough. that was an incredible series.

also its the same franchise that wouldn't spend on harden after making it to the finals so what are ya gonna do

cavs were a dumpster fire franchise before he came back.

im not bad at kevin durant exercising his rights as a free agent. but joining a 73-win team that was minutes away from back-to-back titles with a reigning back-to-back mvp and two other all-stars is substantively different than the heat or cavs situations.

blame the salary cap imo

i do, it was a perfect storm situation for sure. it still sucks.

exactly, I don't think the Durant situation compares to other superteam situations, particularly not the ones Lebron was involved with

w/durant the supposed mercenary aspect puts people off, which was the exact same deal w/lebron and bosh going to the heat. i think the diff is that to anyone outside their fan base curry, green, & thompson aren't really a likable bunch of dudes. and after awhile it seemed like people stopped caring about painting the heat as villains, maybe bc inherently those guys were more likable?

none of these guys are as bad as derek fisher using his kid's illness as a way to hunt for fresh championships iirc.

xposted obv

i think it's still p incredible that kerr took a lackluster underperforming team and turned them into a 73 win behemoth without any major acquisitions, really. that's the underreported story in all this. i love that mark jackson has had to announce all three of their finals runs

yeah that warms my heart

w/durant the supposed mercenary aspect puts people off, which was the exact same deal w/lebron and bosh going to the heat.

eh maybe, the difference is that the Heat were likely a .500 team without Lebron and Bosh. it wasn't like they decided to join forces with the best team in the league (which was the Cavs, lol), much less a historically great one like last year's Warriors.

durant's ring-chasing is obv not unprecedented and on a personal level i am happy for him, he seems like a good dude unlike spoiled nba brats curry and thompson (j/k really) but what makes it corny imo was less him joining a 73-win team and more that OKC was up 3-1 in the wcf and instead of resolving to beat them the following year he decided it was too much work

― marcos, Tuesday, June 13, 2017 12:20 PM (seventeen minutes ago

i mean this is exactly the take i'm talking about lol. old-fashioned macho BS that i expect from stephen a smith, not ILH

there are decent reasons to hate the warriors (the flopping/complaining/faux-bad boy image, the whole making the league less fun thing) but attacking durant's move as some sort of moral weakness or failing is kind of lame

like can anyone honestly look at the way westbrook plays in the playoffs vs the way KD plays with the warriors and blame him for leaving that situation? why does he have to try the same thing every year for his entire career if the chances of it being successful are so low?

i dont blame kd for leaving! i wanted him to leave! to the celtics or spurs or someplace else besides the team that needed him least.

free agents typically want to go to good teams, i mean of course durant had that ring hunger so he'd want to go to the team that gave him the best chance at winning. the difference is really just about likability and i guess narrative, bc no one likes the OG warriors core trio and no one really was wishing and hoping to see these guys finally win another ring after last year's tragic setback.

also gonna have to all caps this one SPORTS ARE MACHO BS, MY DUDE

i liked the OG warriors team! until they were like "winning back to back chips is hard, lets get the 2nd best player in the world to make it not hard anymore" adn then it wasnt hard!

we can be above the sort of commentary that reinforces macho sports culture imo

i have to lol a little at the notion that im a macho sports dude

if only

sorry we've all seen the photo

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DB5akwXXUAUcX_M.jpg

also lol i said that on a personal level i am happy for KD and he seems like a good dude!

lmao xp

the heat had been a bit wayward after the 06 championship but wade had already dragged one team to a title and was still in his prime

easy to forget now but really up until lebron clearly like singlehandedly vanquished the thunder in the finals people were still saying that wade was going to be the driving force behind leading the heat to a title, that lebron needed him etc

the difference is really just about likability and i guess narrative, bc no one likes the OG warriors core trio and no one really was wishing and hoping to see these guys finally win another ring after last year's tragic setback.

― nomar, Tuesday, June 13, 2017 12:43 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

idk I think you can hold that view as a basketball fan who thinks (as I do) that the NBA playoffs are the single greatest event in pro sports. as much as I can appreciate watching what is probably the greatest team of all time it takes all the drama out of the playoffs and quite frankly I don't think "historically great team adds Kevin Durant" is a particularly great storyline

that said I don't think less of Durant for doing it, especially after they let Harden walk. I just think its a good argument for why judging players solely on how many rings they won is dumb. which y'all knew already.

i was trying to remember back to why people turned on the warriors and was it like... the owner is annoying and people started associating them w/ silicon valley?

easy to forget now but really up until lebron clearly like singlehandedly vanquished the thunder in the finals people were still saying that wade was going to be the driving force behind leading the heat to a title, that lebron needed him etc

lol that was pure Lebron hate for "The Decision", I don't see how anyone who watched that team regularly could have come to that conclusion

my favorite take during the finals was Stephen A saying that LeBron can't be considered the GOAT if the cavs were swept by the dubs...so i guess LeBron is now safely in the running for GOAT?

people were slandering lebron's game straight up