The 2012 NBA Finals kick off Tuesday night in Oklahoma City in what promises to be an exciting matchup with a host of electric athletes. Much of the talk surrounding this series has focused on LeBron James and his quest for that elusive first championship, along with his impending duel with Kevin Durant for the “title” of best player in the NBA. From a team perspective, there’s also the question of whether this will be the start of a Miami Heat title streak, or whether OKC’s even younger core will take the reins and become the NBA’s alpha dog team during the next five years or more. years.
With the exception of the Heat and Celtics, there are too many blood rivals left in the NBA, teams that must meet annually in the playoffs for the ultimate prize, opponents who relish the chance to finish each other’s season. In the 1980s there were several such rivalries, one of the most notable being Magic Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers versus Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics.
Amazingly, either the Lakers or Celtics competed in every NBA Finals played during that decade, with LA capturing five titles and the Celtics three. They met in three memorable Finals (’84, ’85 and ’87), and if it wasn’t for the Houston Rockets (first with Moses and then with Sampson’s Twin Towers and the Dream), Moses and Doc’s Philadelphia 76ers, and the Bad Boy Pistons, Lakers and Celtics probably would have met before with everything on the line.
The first head-to-head battle of the 1980 Finals between Los Angeles and Boston occurred in the summer of 1984, and looking back at these teams’ collective rosters in hindsight, one sees some of the greatest of all time in the best moment of their careers. The Lakers came to the Garden that year with a team that included Magic (age 24), Bryon Scott (23), James Worthy (23), Michael Cooper (28) all nearing their prime, with veterans like Bob McAdoo (age 33). ), Jamaal Wilkes (31) and the eternal Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (37) who continue to play great basketball.
The Celtics responded with their world-first line of Bird (27, back still not crumbling), Kevin McHale (26) and Robert Parish (30), all in their prime, and guards and role players like Dennis Johnson ( 29). ), Danny Ainge (25), Cedric Maxwell (28), Scott Wedman (31) and Gerald Henderson (27), all contributing key points throughout. This clash of talent came together at just the right time, with each roster featuring their best players capable of playing at the highest level for years to come. This factor, of course, was paramount in making their subsequent clashes in 1985 and 1987 possible.
This brings us to heat and thunder. Miami brought together its “big 3” of LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to claim multiple championships and dominate the league landscape for the foreseeable future. They probably didn’t count on the Mavs having their unlikely streak last year, or LeBron fading under the bright lights when his team needed him to take over. He came back with a bang this season, and has the Heat within four games of capturing the first of many titles this unit is supposed to win in the years to come.
After all, LeBron has been in the NBA for what seems like forever, but he’s still only 27 years old and still evolving as a player. Considering the lack of skilled “bigs” currently in the game, Boshster (28) still has plenty of effective years left, while Wade (30) should be a top-tier player for a few more seasons depending on how he holds up. Body. Looking at the current state of the Eastern Conference, it’s no exaggeration to say that the Heat will be in the mix to return to the Finals for at least another three or four years.
OKC undoubtedly has the best young core in the game, and when it gets going, this team is pretty much unstoppable. Durant (23) is a scoring machine, Russell Westbrook (23) plays with a mixture of the speed of a young Allen Iverson and the power of a young Baron Davis, James Harden (22) is a smooth player who can throw anything shot he wants at any time, and Serge Ibaka (22) is a budding offensive player who also happens to be a monster on defense, crushing just about anything near the rim. You have to think that these players continue to improve and that this team will be the leader in the Western Conference as long as they stay together.
Will this year’s matchup be the first of many final meetings between these two clubs in years to come? Like the Lakers and Celtics of the ’80s, each team is set up with its best players in the prime of their careers (or in OKC’s case, a few years out of their prime), and if health Allows, each will have a great opportunity to return. at this exact point next season. We were all one KG knee injury away from seeing the Lakers and Celtics play each other in three straight Finals a few years ago, and with those two storied franchises now relegated to the background, it’s time the Heat and Thunders shine.