by It could not have been scripted better. The first ever NBA Finals in Las Vegas on Saturday night: new star Tyrese Haliburton and his Cinderella story for the Indiana Pacers team against the face of the League, fighting-father-time-with-a-machete LeBron James and a. Los Angeles Lakers physically imposed. The new and exciting v the iconic and tenured. Frenetic and kinetic v gritty and tough. Perfect balance, something for everyone. The teams in the final stage of the NBA’s pre-season competition were the “thing that went right” in an increasingly long list of favorable breaks for Adam Silver and Co. as they try to slog the to make regular seasons between October and December. a bit more interesting.
Related: LeBron James was named MVP as the Lakers downed the Pacers to win the inaugural NBA Cup
As the NBA’s expanded universe descended on Vegas over the weekend, it was in a culture clash, as a rodeo convention hit the city at the same time as the league’s arrival on The Strip. Middle-aged people in cowboy hats, arm in arm with bleach blondes in bedazzled denim, dominated Vegas, and almost every bar and casino was blaring country music to accommodate them. But as evidenced by the number of Kobe Bryant jerseys among them, and the noise levels at the arena for the Cup final, there were also plenty of basketball fans (especially the Lakers crowd): the city, after all, is only . four hours drive from LA. And there was excitement in the arena – and the expanded footprint of the event at nearby MGM Park – that can only be described as the thrill of attending something brand new.
It was a great case for the league that the two teams that seemed to take the playoffs the most seriously – both entered Saturday with identical 6-0 records – made it to the finals. There’s a long-standing sports cliche, which is usually quite unfounded, that the team that wants it more succeeds, but in this case, it seems to have shaken out that way. Haliburton told fellow NBA player Paul George on his podcast recently that he is “just tired of losing”, and that winning the tournament would be the No. 1 achievement. 1 in his career, over his All-Star selection. And Lakers coach Darvin Ham told reporters that James made it clear to his team that this trophy was worth fighting for in the early days of the tournament.
But even the teams that didn’t touch them that long provided some of the most exciting NBA regular-season games ever seen in November and December. Going into the experiment, there was skepticism throughout the league, and among the fans, too, that a tournament created out of thin air and hatched in the middle of the NBA season could inspire the players and become something serious. . But as it turns out, professional athletes are very competitive, a trait that has only raised the stakes. The games were a great success and those suspicions were unfounded, it turned out.
Not everything went smoothly. First, there were the polarizing special courts to make it clear which games were included in the tournament and which were ho-hum regular season contests. But some of the courts were an assault on the eyes (looking at you, Chicago Bulls), and many weren’t ideal backdrops for tracing a basketball course. There was also controversy surrounding the differential connection of group play (Silver said in his pregame press conference Saturday night that he plans to address those concerns). And on a more somber note, a mass shooting at nearby UNLV killed three people and injured another on Wednesday, just a day before the tournament began. A moment of silence was held before both semifinals on Thursday, and James used his opening press conference to express frustration at the lack of movement on gun laws to resolve the American issue.
It was fitting, on many levels, that James was the player to lift the MVP trophy after the Lakers beat the Pacers in the finals. He put in some of the most impressive performances of the competition, getting clear for all the games, including in the stage group. But after that, for most of his 21-year NBA tenure and counting, he was the face of the league, its most high-profile ambassador. He obviously doesn’t take that role lightly, and he knew as well as anyone what the NBA could mean to have a more active audience early in the season, especially on the horizon. the negotiations for a potentially lucrative new deal on television rights.
For all Adam Silver’s faults as a commissioner (and his recent penchant for questionable comments on television shows hosted by the sleeve), he wasn’t afraid to take big swings. Most of those swings were met with a healthy amount of back pressure, and a few have gone on to become bona fide hits.
His latest gambit, the in-season tournament, did everything he set out to do and then some: sign big stars (like James, Anthony Davis, and semifinalists Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard), bring new ones to a larger audience. (The weekend doubled as Haliburton’s coming-out party, and marked only his third and fourth nationally televised games), add some excitement to what has been a quiet offseason, and, even, watch as which official NBA games go in Vegas, which is a long time. rumored to be the home of the future expansion team. After an undisputed first rodeo, it’s a Vegas bet that this tournament is here to stay.
