Sunday, June 1, 2014

Gregory Crawford On Basketball For June 1st, 2014

By Gregory Crawford----TV, Print and Radio Analyst  twitter @wchoops @crawssportsbiz

The NBA Finals----I really hope you will get a chance to watch this year's NBA Finals, which start Thursday in San Antonio. Of course there will be other NBA Finals like this one, but rest assured not many and here is why.

1. The teams competing, Miami and San Antonio both have first ballot hall of fame coaches--- coaching their teams in Erik Spoelstra and Gregg Popovich. Adding to that both of these coaches are probably the best coaches in all of basketball right now, end of story.

2. If you watch this series, you also will obviously see the greatest player in the game today without question in LeBron James. To take it a step further James will probably become the game's greatest player ever when he ends his career. He basically has no flaws in his game and is without question a better defensive player than either Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson, the two greatest players of all time to precede him for now.

On the subject of LeBron James, let's get over not liking him. Why so many people do not like James is a mystery to me, a real mystery. Does he not stay out of trouble both on the floor and off the floor, in this age of many troublemakers in athletics. At the same time, I urge you to check out the history of James and how many people he helps in life, but always tries to stay under the radar.

3. On the floor at the same time in this Final series will be five automatic hall of famers as players. James, Dwayne Wade, Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker. That of course will make seven involved in the game at the same time throwing in both coaches.

Yes and since I missed on only one series in my picks so far in the NBA playoffs, how does this sound for drama? I am going with a three-peat, the Miami Heat win in 7 games, of which two of the games will be in overtime.

The Lakers---It still is the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the premier franchises in all of sports, who if sold today would garner a price close to $3 billion, yes $3 billion. But as of right now, the town belongs to the Los Angeles Clippers, with the team being sold to Steve Ballmer for $2 billion and gaining all the attention, as well as the plain fact, the Clippers appear for a few years to be the better of the two teams far and away.

It is also apparent that the Lakers are struggling in finding a basketball coach. Also obvious is the fact that most coaches do not wish to take on a rebuilding job in the NBA. They all saw what happened to Mike Brown in Cleveland, the destruction of the Detroit Pistons and how it wore out Rick Adelman in Minnesota. No where in the iconic history of the Lakers has it taken them this long to find a coach and stabilize the franchise.

With all that said, it still is the Los Angeles Lakers.

IBL Basketball----If you are reading this on the day it was written, June 1st and you are in the Portland, Oregon area, you should plan to attend the IBL game tonight in Portland, between arch rivals Portland and Vancouver. The game will be played at 5:00 p.m. at Eastmoreland Courts, which is just on the south side of world famous Eastmoreland Golf Course, off of Tacoma St. It really is some terrific basketball.

More of Gregory Crawford:

http://crawfordsgolfdaily.blogspot.com

Every Sunday night at 9:30 pm PDT, The Portland Metro Small College Hoops Show, to listen tonight http://tobtr.com/s/6400607


1 comment:

  1. Well, we split on the finals, Greg. You got your Heat and I got my Spurs. I see you select the Heat in 7 but I'm going with the Spurs in 6. It should be a great series, no matter what the outcome! Then... the long Summer of b-ball withdrawal.

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