NBA Finals: Who will win it???

[VAMPIR]

San Antonio Spurs or Cleveland Cavaliers???

[VAMPIR]

And who will be named NBA Finals MVP?

My vote for Tim Duncan, 4th time.

[VAMPIR]

Spurs done good job. Bravo MVP Duncan! That's basketball!
''KING'', ''NEW JORDAN'' LeApe James has seen that NBA finals are whole different storry than it is bouncing in front of cameras...:D

[ActionAlert]

You seem to be lonely here, so let me add my comments. A team full of overpaid brain-deficient missing link types will win and then go git some white girls and some cognac.

[Osmium14]

Cleveland is my favorite team to win. Lebron James is too good.

[VAMPIR]

Cleveland is my favorite team to win. Lebron James is too good.
Yes, kid is good, but only referees can give him trophy... He hasn't reached champion level yet. No comparison with MJ. Not even with Kobe. Not better than many stars in NBA, at all.

[ActionAlert]

http://www.resist.com/CARTOON%20GALLERY/NIGGERS/nig_image74.jpg
...I imagine I can expect more negative rep.:D

[VAMPIR]

Why? Pic is good. Anyway, it represents exactly what my favorite player Tim Duncan is not: stuped yard ape who can't writte or read, but jumps good...

[VAMPIR]

OK, it is 3:0 for Spurs, so they are one win away from Larry O'Brien trophy. Congrats Pop. (His roots are from my country, Montenegro :google: )


P.S.
Who for Gods sake voted for Cavs!?! :D:p:D

[VAMPIR]

Well, tonite sweep is ready...
http://www.geocities.com/usakeeper87/witnessstand.jpg

[Empress Cheesatine]

OK, it is 3:0 for Spurs, so they are one win away from Larry O'Brien trophy. Congrats Pop. (His roots are from my country, Montenegro :google: )


P.S.
Who for Gods sake voted for Cavs!?! :D:p:D

Damn... Even in Montenegro they're fixated on America's bouncing apes? :(

[VAMPIR]

Damn... Even in Montenegro they're fixated on America's bouncing apes? :(
I am so surprised that people here the best league of basketball constantly comparing with bouncing apes... I can understand that many white people don't like black people, that many true basketball fans don't like selfish commercial-shoesellers, neither do I (that is the reason I'm Spurs fan - there are no bouncing apes in that team), that many people have no interest in this sport, but if it is so, don't comment it.
I like this sport so much, and if you watched only one game of this series, you could conclude that true basketball team has won over the commercial group. Why? Because they played beautifull sport of basketball, in its very best way: unselfish, smart and with defense...

Congrats SPURS!!!

[VAMPIR]

LeBrick got LeSwept...:rofl:

[Keystone]

I am so surprised that people here the best league of basketball constantly comparing with bouncing apes... I can understand that many white people don't like black people, that many true basketball fans don't like selfish commercial-shoesellers, neither do I (that is the reason I'm Spurs fan - there are no bouncing apes in that team),
Basketball has become a nigger thug sport here, Cernobog. Not many folk care about it. Sorry, but that's the way it is.

[VAMPIR]

This is the reason why I like Duncan and Spurs...
There’s a reason you don’t see a picture running next to this column. If I were writing about Dwyane Wade, I’d have plenty of photos from the pages of Dime to choose from. Same goes for Kobe, KG, A.I., T-Mac, LeBron and pretty much any other superstar you can think of who has put it down since Dime debuted in ‘02.

Except for Tim Duncan. Search our archives, and you won’t find TD’s face. Because for whatever reason, the best post player of this generation — maybe the best all-time at his position — has never gotten enough ink over here.

As the lone Duncan supporter in the office, I’m also the only one who thinks that is absolutely crazy. I’ve pitched Duncan for the cover multiple times and been shot down every time. The man has three championship rings, three Finals MVPs, two regular season MVPs, nine All-NBA first team nods and seven All-Defensive first team nods, and he can’t get any love.

Don’t get it mistaken, though, because it’s definitely not just a Dime thing. Every sports media outlet not named the San Antonio Express-News has been sh*tting on Tim Duncan for years. And it’s funny that all of a sudden, as he leads the Spurs to their fourth NBA Finals appearance of his 10-year career, now everyone is coming through with appreciative “Isn’t Tim Duncan great?” columns.

But because he’s not like Shawn Marion — a slept-on superstar who makes no secret that it bothers him when he doesn’t get his just due — I can’t say I feel sorry for Tim Duncan. He’s already wealthy (set to make $61 million over the next three years), popular (an All-Star starter almost every year) and has mastered his craft. I just don’t understand why his name/face draws groans from hoop fans.

Let’s address the Boring Argument. Anyone who’s watched the NBA over the last decade has seen the Spurs play plenty of times. They pass the ball, they move and cut, they make their shots, they start fast breaks (credit Parker and Ginobili) and they play a lot of exciting games that go down to the wire. What’s boring about that? Meanwhile, all Duncan does is show more moves than Dean Malenko in the post, never fails to make some great passes every game, blocks a handful of shots and — more often than not — come out a winner. Is he boring because he doesn’t yell after the dunks or look away on the passes or swat shots into the third row? Excitement does have a certain undefinable element, but someone should be able to tell me where TD falls short, and no one’s been able to do it so far.

But what gets me more than “Duncan is boring” is when people don’t give him proper respect as a ballplayer. It was right before the tip of Spurs/Nuggets Game 4 when I sent out the e-mail: “Get ready to watch the best post player in the game do his thing in about 15 minutes.” The reply: “Do you really think that? Honestly?”

Actually, yeah, I do. Who can you say is better at the four/five position than Duncan right now?

Dwight Howard, Big Ben, Camby and Okafor don’t have the offense. Curry, Gasol, Z-Bo and Boozer don’t have the defense. Dirk, Memo and Rasheed spend so much time on the perimeter, they can barely be called post players. Chris Bosh and Al Jefferson need to put in a few more years. Big Z hurts his team with that molasses-like “speed.” chris webber hasn’t been Chris Webber since Sacramento. Yao and J.O. can’t stay healthy, and haven’t won anything even when they are healthy.

So that leaves four candidates: Shaq, Amare, Brand and Garnett.

Shaq has more rings (check back at the end of June, though) and in his prime was a bigger force. But at this moment, you’d be crazy to take him over Duncan. Amare is known to gives Tim the business when they play head-to-head and Brand’s consistent 20-10 stat lines mirror Duncan’s, but neither has won anything, and Duncan plays better D than both of them.

That leaves only Garnett.

Duncan and KG’s numbers are pretty much the same every year: around 22 points, 11 boards, five assists and two blocks a game, so that’s a wash. Defensively, Duncan has more All-Defensive first team nods than KG (seven to six), albeit in a shorter career (KG was drafted two years before TD).

KG is more outwardly emotional, but you can’t question Duncan’s passion for the game. He played 80 games on a bad foot last season, and the only reason he didn’t sit down for a week or two is because the Spurs were fighting with Dallas for the division crown and Duncan didn’t want to let his team fall into a hole. That’s a warrior.

So if you were building a team to win now and not later, the two areas where you’d separate Garnett and Duncan are durability and crunch-time ability.

Garnett wins the first category, as TD has been more banged-up than KG over his career.

But when it comes to delivering in the clutch, Duncan is obviously better because he’s a proven winner. When you want to settle arguments like “Who’s the best?” at anything, you have to begin by looking at accomplishments and overall success. When people argue that Michael Jordan is the greatest of all-time, what’s the first number out of their mouth? Six, as in six rings. When Bill Russell is offered as a counter-argument, what’s the logic? Eleven, as in 11 rings. Arguing Duncan vs. Garnett, Tim has the edge by far; his team goes to the playoffs every year and usually goes far. True, he’s had better supporting casts and coaches than Garnett, but it’s not Duncan’s fault that Kevin McHale sucks at his job.

Consider this: In seven postseason games where his teams have faced elimination, Duncan’s numbers are almost across the board better than his career numbers: 24.5 points, 12.7 rebounds, 3.0 blocks and 2.5 assists per. That’s clutch. And for those who get on Tim about free throws, he’s shot 76 percent from the stripe in those games. In ‘02, Duncan absolutely destroyed the Lakers for 34 points and 25 boards in an elimination game, and last year he gave Dallas 41 points, 15 boards, six dimes and three blocks in Game 7, hitting 17-of-23 at the line.

And in the three games where San Antonio has clinched its championships, Duncan’s numbers look like this:

‘05 vs. Detroit: 25 pts, 11 rebs, 3 asts, 2 blks.
‘03 vs. New Jersey: 21 pts, 20 rebs, 10 asts, 8 blks.
‘99 vs. New York: 31 pts, 9 rebs, 2 asts, 1 blk.

Look at that ‘03 line again. Who else in the League today can do that?

Garnett is one. But as much as I love him as a player and like him as a person, just doesn’t compare to TD when it comes to clutch. KG has had one memorable playoff game you could look at and say “Now THAT was clutch”; in the ‘04 playoffs when he put up 32 points, 21 boards, four steals and five blocks in a second-round Game 7 win over the Kings. He’s had other big playoff games — like when he gave the Blazers a 23-13-10 triple-double in the ‘00 first round — but you can’t hold KG’s resume of first-round exits up to Duncan’s three rings.

I’m won’t sit here and say Tim Duncan lights up a room like Magic Johnson or brings the can’t-turn-away menace of Mike Tyson. In the no-attention-span-having way our society works, he doesn’t generate that kind of excitement. But if you really consider yourself a basketball fan, you have to like what Duncan has been doing for the last decade-plus, dating back to Wake Forest. Otherwise you’re just a hater.

And a few weeks from now, when Duncan is holding up another NBA championship trophy in one hand and another Finals MVP trophy in the other, maybe then we’ll revisit that cover-story discussion.