Summer has come to a close. Early morning traffic jams are back. School registration and classes are just around the corner. All these can only mean one thing...
It's the NBA FINALS baby!!!
June has always been that unusual time of the year when I get up early in the morning and spend a good part of 2 hours watching the best NBA teams from the East and West play in a best of 7 series to determine who gets the Larry O'Brien trophy, and the right to be called World Champions.
(a title that has become debatable given the recent debacles of Team USA)
For some reason, I've always associated the NBA Finals with the occurrences mentioned above. While the connections are coincidental, it does manage to bring back a lot of old memories.
It was the 1991 Finals. The LA Lakers led by Magic Johnson (on his last full season before being diagnosed with AIDS) were going up against the upstart Chicago Bulls led by scoring phenom Michael Jordan. As a Lakers fan then (as I still am now), I was disappointed with the Bulls victory. In hindsight, however, I am glad to have been able to watch this series as it marked the beginning of the Jordan era and the first of 6 trophies for the 90's Chicago Dynasty.
This was also the first NBA Finals series I got to see "live" on tv. One has to understand that in those days (pre-cable), NBA games in the Philippines were featured on this show hosted by Quinito Henson. The catch though was that these games were already several weeks/months old by the time they were shown. It was only in the early 90's that local stations began beaming the games live. Previous to this, my connection to the world of basketball was limited to local leagues and the PBA. By the time the series was over the NBA had itself a new ten year old fan.
In high school I took advantage of living in a dorm inside the PSHS campus. This allowed me to rush back every class break or during lunch, usually in time to catch the closing minutes of the fourth quarter. It was here in 1998 that I got to see Jordan's "last shot", the one that enabled the Bulls to win over the Utah Jazz and clinch championship #6, the last of that era.
(of course Jordan "unretired" again a few years later, but that's another story)
The flexibility of college schedules made watching the Finals series a bit easier. Aside from the fact that I seldom scheduled my classes in the morning, priorities dictated that those which did coincide with the coverage just had to take a back seat for next 2-3 weeks. Fortunately, in UP, the first few weeks of class are spent making introductions, distributing classcards, and discussing the course syllabus. This is assuming that the professor comes to class at all. Needless to say, I never really missed much. And oh, the new-look Lakers led by Shaq and Kobe did win a Grand Slam along the way.
Even law school, where the skeds are fixed and the load is definitely tougher, has not been spared from my skewed priorities. I was pleasantly surprised to find out, though, that I was not alone. I remember last year's series when almost every guy in the block missed the morning class. As we started trickling back past lunch those who were present during the morning began to question our mass absence. Our initial attempts to feign some sort of illness proved to be unconvincing. The real reason for the absences was eventually revealed when we began our individual post-game analysis of the Spurs-Pistons series.
This year, watching the series has been made possible by my sked which conveniently places all my classes in the afternoon. Finals newcomers Miami and Dallas will be playing to win the first championship for their respective franchises. Already, Dallas has drawn first blood by winning Game 1. I predict a long series ending in 6 or 7 games. For sentimental reasons I favor the Heat to win.
(it's the first time I've sided with a East team in quite a while)
They just have more of that Laker connection, with Pat Riley (coach of the Showtime Lakers), Shaq, and Payton. Besides, I feel that it's time for Alonzo Mourning to win a ring. It would be a brilliant end to a great career and an inspiring comeback story. It is also fitting that he should win it with the team that made him its franchise player for almost a decade.
In the future I plan to watch the NBA Finals in the flesh. It's actually on my Before-I-Die-To-Do list. =)
Of course, it would be great if I could also do it as a commentator/sportscaster. (another thing on my to-do list) Now if only someone from the NBA or Solar Sports comes across my blog... =)
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