The Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics just finished a great NBA Finals series that resulted in the Warriors winning in six convincing games. Instead of appreciating the great series we got to witness as basketball fans, it seems that many fans are only choosing to focus on "What if" scenarios that are being used to try and discredit the two teams that were in the finals. This is not something new for basketball, but rather something that has been going on for a while.
If anything, the Boston Celtics losing these finals demonstrates the most important thing to remember about sports, which is that anything can happen. In the first round, the Celtics played a Nets team that was not really a "team" led by Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. They swept the Nets and in the end, that series made them look a little bit better than they actually were. In the second round, they played against a Milwaukee team that was without its second best player in Khris Middleton. In the conference finals, they played a Miami Heat team that was rattled with injuries and the series still went seven games. That is to say, the Boston Celtics had some injury problems of their own throughout the playoffs, but still clearly had the advantage over the other team in every series they played in up until the finals. Even though the Celtics got all these breaks leading up to the finals, them losing the series even after being up 2-1 demonstrates how difficult it is to win in the NBA Playoffs.
The Warriors also definitely got some breaks on their road to the finals as they played a Nuggets team that was completely depending on Nikola Jokic and was without Jamal Murray. They also faced off against the Grizzlies who were giving them trouble until Ja Morant got injured. In the conference finals, they were simply a terrible matchup for Dallas and took the Mavs out in five games. Although the Warriors got breaks, it does not make their championship any less impressive. The Warriors, Bucks, Lakers, and Raptors are the last four NBA champions and all four of those teams got some breaks, but all four still had to overcome a tremendous amount of adversity on their title runs as well. Stop with the asterisks!
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