I didn’t care about the rest of the play-offs after the Sixers and Nets were eliminated. Or at least I thought so.
When the teams for the NBA Finals became known I didn’t know who to root for. I didn’t care who was going to be a champion this year. At some point I decided to cheer for the Suns and they won the first 2 games, so I thought, “Okay… they gonna have it.”
Next I happened upon a video about Giannis, which revealed him as a humble individual. Then I did some research and was very surprised to learn how he lived his life prior to becoming an NBA player. He born in Greece to Nigerian immigrants and what was very surprising is that he didn’t have documents until 18 years old and was effectively stateless. That fact alone made me feel for him and relate in a way.
What really won me over was the fact that he had been raised in the Greek Orthodox Church. I don’t know whether he still practices Orthodox Christianity, I hope he does, and if so he could be a very good messenger of the Christ, especially for the young.
But going back to the series. First of all I have to outline that I’ve had very negative views on the NBA for a very long time, approximately since 2007 when Kevin Garnett went to the Boston Celtics. But it wasn’t that bad because Allen Iverson was still in the league however by that time he gotten traded to the Denver Nuggets and after that things just started getting worse for him. Anyway, that’s beside the point. Watching this series, especially game 6, gave me the 90s feel. The defense was on point. The teams struggled to score in the first 2 quarters. That was a feast for my eyes. Something that you can’t see that often in the modern NBA.
The teams didn’t represent big cities which is definitely a big advantage for the NBA as well as for the game of basketball in general.
