Cleveland (USA): A new season brings new hopes. In the NBA, however, the 2016-17 season could well mean more of the same as Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors appear primed to renew their Finals rivalry for the third year in succession. Although a basket hasn’t been buried in the brand new season in which every team has to play 82 matches before the Conference play-off, there is an air of inevitability about a Cavaliers-Warriors trilogy.
In a recent meeting of NBA general managers, 97 per cent predicted that the Cavs and the Warriors would meet for the ultimate prize yet again. But only 31 per cent backed Cleveland for an encore. Inspired by the redoubtable LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers mounted a stirring comeback from 1-3 down in the Finals last season to dethrone the Warriors. No team had ever won the title from such a dire situation. Can James work the magic once more?
James shed copious tears after the triumph in June. He had to; Cleveland is, after all, his home and the city hadn’t won a title in basketball, baseball and American football since 1964. The title was a cathartic moment for the whole of Cleveland because it endured half a century of agony in addition to putting up with unflattering epithets including ‘tortured city’. No wonder more than a million Clevelanders let their hair down in the celebratory parade to welcome the champions home.
It was the city’s maiden NBA crown. The intriguing sub-plot of the forthcoming season could once again be the individual battle between James and Stephen Curry, the Warriors’ point guard with an outrageous shooting record. The magnetic presence of the two is important for the league because Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan, legends with contrasting personalities, bade goodbye to the NBA after the last season. What would a team sport be without the coruscating brilliance of individuals?
While the 32-year-old James all the credentials to end his career as the greatest all-round player in the history of the NBA, Curry’s shooting is simply otherworldly. The Warriors talisman, a two-time reigning NBA MVP, continues to expand the boundaries of excellence from outside the three-point line, as he scored a record 402 times last season. Along with Klay Thompson, another three-point monster, Curry can destroy teams without ever getting to the paint.
The Warriors have laid down the marker for the season by capturing Kevin Durant from Oklahoma City in a two-year deal worth $54.3 million. The 28-year-old small forward is like a nuclear arsenal to an already explosive team that set a regular season win record of 73-9 last year.
Durant, the 2014 NBA MVP and four-time scoring champion, isn’t only at the peak of his powers; he is also hungry having not won a championship ring. If he gets going right away, even the might of James may not be enough to stop the Warriors juggernaut.
The NBA is such a potent brand now that no one needs an expansion to know it’s the National Basketball Association. The Americans who grandiosely call the finals in baseball and their football the World Series and the Super Bowl respectively are decidedly understated about basketball, a universal sport. The NBA has a massive following in China and its next big untapped market is India where the game continues to suffer as a result of infighting in the national federation. But hope, as they say, springs eternal.
