Agreed , and like that both teams are kinda home grown. I do know that if Miami lets Joker initiate Denver’s offense from the top of the key, consistently, Miami is in trouble. He makes too many plays from there. The big guy is fun to watch. He’s made some no-look passes in the playoffs that a 7 FT guy just shouldn’t make. Looking forward to game 3.
I have always found sports very easy to watch, whether it's college football, NBA or NFL. I truly feel sorry for those who are having a difficult time adjusting, especially those who somehow can't manage to avoid NBA threads despite not following the NBA.
What's funny is this Miami team is the complete opposite of the flashy, Hollywood-esque Big 3 Era Heat Team from a decade ago. That team was great on the court and fun to watch, but a lot of people didn't care for Lebron and the glitz and glamour that came with him. This team is filled with underdog, undrafted overachievers with no egos...a ragtag squad of guys who have been doubted their entire careers. It's like a team filled with Rudy's. Jokic is flat out amazing to watch. They were reading the pre-draft scouting report on him during one of the games and the report said he lacked athleticism (which is true) which was a red flag, he's proven that fundamentals and basketball skill will always outweigh athleticism, look at all of the super athletic freaks who have insane vertical leaps that he embarrasses on a nightly basis. He reminds me of 90s foreign NBA big man Aryvydas Sabonis, with the passing of Magic Johnson and the nimble footwork of Hakeem Olajuwon.
In the perfect world, all sports would leave out the politics and all NBA threads created on the Internet would leave out the non-NBA fans. Unfortunately, the world ain't perfect.
I was a huge NBA fan for about 50 years until they got woke and political. Athletes should play the game. They make tons of money to entertain and most of us don't care at all about the personal beliefs. When they choose sides and demonize those who disagree, like some on this board, I tune out. To each his own, but there is still freedom of speech, though some would like to take that away as well.
I don't know what your rant has to do with the 2023 NBA Finals. Nobody on the Miami Heat or the Denver Nuggets has done any of what you described.
Meanwhile, back to the actual series. Does anyone think Malone went overboard in his postgame presser comments about his team’s lack of effort/ focus. I seldom pay much attention to anything from pressers, but his comments did get my attention.
Those comments were interesting. “Lack of effort” is something that’s usually addressed during the regular season when you’re on a mini-losing streak, not when you’re 3 games away from winning a championship. Malone is a great coach but he’s kind of been feeling himself in these playoffs with some of the comments he’s made. We’ll see how his team responds.
I don’t. I think he wanted to light a bonfire to get his team to play super-aggressive. Denver played poorly and the Heat played great in game 2. Heat need to beat the apex in every game to stand a chance.
If Denver plays their A+ game, they are the best team in the league. But Spo and the Heat have a way of keeping opponents off balance, and keeping them uncomfortable. I think Malone is trying to tell his team that if they can play their game, and not allow Miami to disrupt them at all, the Nuggets will win. This is probably the truth. But easier said than done when playing Spo and the Heat in a 7-game series. Oh, and the two Wildcats pictured with UD are Isiah Fox, who is guarding him, who was a promising freshman that year. Often played ahead of fellow big freshman Channing Frye, until Fox blew out his knee, and never felt comfortable on the floor again. Fox remained friends with Luke Walton, and has been an assistant coach in the NBA and now the G-league. Think he's found his niche in the G-league. The other player is Rick Anderson. Talk about a different time. Anderson was a senior in 2000/2001, but asked Lute Olson to redshirt that season because he knew he'd be 8th or 9th on the depth chart. But he'd likely start in 2001/02! Not sure what Anderson is up to these days, but last I heard he was coaching at the California JUCO level.
I stopped watching the NBA 30 years ago. It was great in its day when Julius Erving and Kareem and Bill Russell were the faces of the sport. But the league changed its personality and they lost me. The NFL used to be great but they changed too, and don’t watch a lot of that anymore either.
Dude, he didn’t go over to NBN saying he doesn’t watch the NBA, he responded to an NBA thread that was created on our football board. Do you see the difference? Here’s more irony for you: some of us on here stopped watching the NBA and the NFL because the players (and subsequently the league) decided to force their politics down everybody’s throats. So on this NBA thread on our football board, dude states that the league turned him off with their politics, and he gets chastised for inserting politics into the sport. Now isn’t that just a bit ironic?
Nobody “derailed” anything. You couldn’t tolerate his one post, called him an attention whore, and blew this up. All you had to do was ignore it and go on with your discussion.
And all the non-NBA fan had to do was ignore a thread about the NBA Finals. I think that would’ve been easier.
