Opinion: This NBA Finals will be remembered for soap operas off the court
OAKLAND, Calif. – One surreal event after another has defined the 2019 NBA Finals.
In a normal Finals, we would be talking about the final minutes of Game 5 – the 10 consecutive points scored by Kawhi Leonard in a two-minute span late in the fourth quarter to put Toronto ahead 103-97. Seemed like game over.
In a normal Finals, we would be talking about Klay Thompson’s two 3-pointers and Steph Curry’s 3 to win the game.
And we’d be talking about all the ancillary plays that had an impact on the game: Nick Nurse’s timeout decisions; Draymond Green’s and Golden State’s defense on Kyle Lowry and the Raptors on the final possession; and, according to the NBA’s Last Two-Minute report, DeMarcus Cousins should’ve been called for a shooting foul with Golden State up 106-103 and 49 seconds remaining.
The Finals MVP-like performances from Leonard and Curry and the road team winning so many games have been overshadowed by other story lines.
This is not a normal Finals.
Heading into Game 6 between Toronto and Golden State and I’m not sure that the Lowry-Mark Stevens incident is among the top three strangest things that have happened. Toronto had a 3-1 series lead, and that wasn’t the most stunning aspect of the Finals, either.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr earlier in the series addressed an injury update saying, “I've decided I'm not sharing because it's just gone haywire.”
Haywire. Yes, things have gone haywire, running the emotional gamut in Game 5 alone, from Kevin Durant’s celebrated and awaited return to the Finals to his crushing Achilles injury to the callous Raptors fans cheering Durant’s injury to Bob Myers emotional defense of Durant to the anger and bittersweet emotions roiling through both locker rooms.
That was just Game 5, and the aftermath of Durant’s injury has the NBA world trying to figure out what this means for Durant, the Warriors and the rest of the league. You have to reconcile how rotten this is for Durant and the Finals with the fascinating ripple effect.
There’s been other off-the-court antics, too.
You have Raptors fans heckling the entire Curry family – a fan was arrested for a vulgar comment on live TV about Curry’s wife, Ayesha, and Curry’s parents, Dell and Sonya, were heckled in Toronto. A Raptors fun sucker punched a Warriors fan in Toronto.
Drake pulled a piece of lint from Curry’s hair during a game and trash-talked Draymond Green after the Raptors won Game 1. The wife of Warriors owner Joe Lacob caused a social media stir when she leaned over Beyoncé to talk to Jay-Z in Game 3. Even NBA commissioner Adam Silver was aware of that imbroglio.
I’m not sure that’s what former commissioner David Stern had in mind when he trumpeted the unscripted drama.
In some ways, it’s not surprising. The NBA has a celebrity culture, is immersed in social media and the proximity of fans to the playing surface creates a unique environment. Those are some of the things that make the NBA great and compelling.
So yes, the Finals have been surreal and will be remembered just as much for the things that happened off the court as on the court If you’ve paid close attention, what happened on the court has been worth your time, too.
Follow Paste BN Sports columnist Jeff Zillgitt on Twitter @JeffZillgitt