With certain exceptions, this has not been a good year for the established ruling order in sports. New sheriffs are popping up all over the place, some with the barest of portfolios. This may be tough on sports bettors but not necessarily for those who tire of the same teams winning.
As the week began, for instance, did anyone foresee the National Hockey League champion coming from Missouri or the National Basketball Association titleist from Canada? Is the sports world in any way diminished that the Boston Bruins did not win their second Stanley Cup of the decade or the Golden State Warriors their fourth NBA jug?
The St. Louis Blues and the Toronto Raptors brought off their first-time championship runs like old pros, both clinching titles on the road. St. Louis overcame its opponent's home-ice advantage for a 4-1 victory in the first Game Seven in Boston since the Celtics beat the Lakers in the 1984 NBA Finals. Toronto, quite impressively, ended the season with a 4-0 record in Oakland, Calif., after a 114-110 Game Six triumph on closing night at Oracle Arena.
In terms of maintaining competitive balance in the big four sports, the Blues and the Raptors were right on time. St. Louis prevented Boston from celebrating three world titles simultaneously following October 2018's World Series title by the Red Sox and February's Super Bowl win by the still-dynastic Patriots. Toronto, playing in June for the first time, may not have ended but certainly interrupted Golden State's dynasty as the Warriors sought their third-straight Larry O'Brien Trophy and fourth in five years.
Instead, with Golden State losing one key player after another to injury, Toronto took the "Larry O'B.," as finals MVP Kawhi Leonard called it, north of the border. (Not overlooking that O'Brien served as NBA commissioner, but pro basketball's most precious silverware is named after the former national chairman of the Democratic Party, whose office in Washington's Watergate Hotel was infamously burgled by White House operatives on this weekend 47 years ago?)
Golden State limped to the finish without two-time finals MVP Kevin Durant (Achilles tendon) and Klay Thompson, the latter scoring 30 points in Game Six before hurting a knee. With Draymond Green hoping to avoid a seventh playoff technical foul, carrying with it a one-game suspension, the Warriors faced the prospect of playing Game Seven on the road without three of their starting five.
Credit Golden State for displaying "championship DNA," as ABC sportscaster Mark Jackson (a former NBA player and coach) called it, throughout the playoffs, rarely with their dream team intact. Game Six, after all, came down to Stephen Curry launching a deep jumper off a sideline screen. That's usually like leaving a pool game on Willie Mosconi's cue or giving Tom Brady time for a comeback.
Except this time, with Golden State down by a point, Curry missed. And, the Warriors didn't get the ball back until the Raptors, with three free throws (one after Golden State called an excess time-out), were in championship mode. Kudos to Toronto, bringing the city its first world championship in a major sport since the Blue Jays in baseball in 1993 -- and without one lottery pick on the roster. Making their acquaintance proved a highlight of these NBA playoffs.
Someone on Twitter asked if this makes the Raptors the Country House of the NBA. Invoking the name of last month's Kentucky Derby winner through a rival's disqualification may have been this guy's way of saying that the Raptors' title should come with an asterisk. Toronto doesn't deserve an asterisk any more than Roger Maris after breaking Babe Ruth's single-season home run record with 61 in 1961. Endless seasons, as we have said more than once, provide endless possibilities.
At the risk of stretching the point, Arkansas' baseball team need not apologize if it wins the College World Series just because top-ranked UCLA and one or two other traditional powerhouses isn't playing. As for the Razorbacks' chances in Omaha, Neb., four CWS appearances in eight years says all you need to know about Dave Van Horn's program. A year after reaching the best-of-three finals, the Hogs truly may develop championship DNA over the next two weeks. Hold the victory party on Dickson Street and let me know when.
Sports on 06/15/2019