June 10, 2019: One Last Gasp

I didn’t watch the whole game; the Cubs were on.  But I was keeping an eye on the score, hoping to see the end of the Warriors.  That’s what this is going to be right?  When they lose?  I think it’s more a “when” than an “if”, but I’ve been wrong before.  The win in Toronto in Game 5 was gutty as hell, but to me, it certainly felt like one last gasp for the dynasty.

Many think this is the start of a comeback; it very well could be, but losing Durant was huge.  Yet, who thought he’d even play in this series anyways?  Saving himself for the big pay day… not wanting to risk it… focusing on himself over his team.  Yeah, well, he threw all that out the window in Game 5, came back, and now looks like he tore his Achilles; welp, there goes that.  Ton of people are praising him now, and calling for all people who bashed him to apologize.  Look, injuries happen OK… we know a little bit about that in Chicago.  Derrick Rose ring a bell to anyone?  At the time of that first ACL injury, the Bulls were up big against the Sixers in Game 1 of the first round.  He shouldn’t have been out there.  Why was he still on the court up double digits?  The game was over.  Yeah, well he was, and it happened.  But, it would have happened the next time, or the next time… it was only a matter of time before this happened right?  It would have been nice to get 1 title before his knee gave out, but the injury was going to happen sooner than later anyways, even if he was pulled out.  I’m not a doctor, but I tend to believe that.

Sure, the Durant situation is different in a lot of ways.  He’s already got his rings after Mr. Hero himself joined the 73 win Warriors team to create a super team that was unbeatable in today’s NBA.  This is the NBA Finals we’re talking about, not the first round of the playoffs.  You cannot take that for granted; you have to take a shot at getting that ring while you have it, because nothing is guaranteed.  So he took the shot, and this happened; it sucks, but it is what it is. I wish Derrick would have taken the shot coming back the following year in the playoffs… yes, the Bulls did get one more shot at it, but it didn’t happen. Here’s the other thing: KD is going to be fine. First of all, he is fine, with enough money to feed his family for life. Secondly, you don’t think somebody will still give him the super max deal he’s looking for? Even if he has to sit out half a year? I know, it’s the achilles, but he still has good years left. This isn’t like when Kobe blew out his achilles and the Lakers still donated 25M per year to him. Dumb move by the Lakers, but for everything Kobe did for the Lakers, why not? I wish the Bulls would have given MJ and crew a blank check after the 1998 title…

Getting off track a bit… back to these Finals. The Warriors have used their last life up. Sure, they still have bullets in the holster, and won’t go down without a fight, but Game 6 should be the game where the Raptors are crowned. In fact, if sports betting were already legal in Illinois, I’d take that 3.5 points and ride Toronto all day long. But I’ve lost plenty of bets before too… let’s see what happens.