How The Finals remind us that the NBA is a superstar's league
With the unparalleled control and impact a single player can have on a basketball court compared to other team sports (thanks to both the amount of minutes players play and the amount of time the ball spends in their hands), the NBA has always been dubbed a star's league, and it most certainly is.
But as you scroll through the tiers of NBA teams, from pretenders to legitimate contenders, you're reminded that more than being just a star's league, the NBA is a superstar's league - one that belongs to the top 10 to 20 players or so.
Beyond even superstars, the NBA is a transcendent player's league, with the Association's history often shaped by the top two or three players in the league at any given time, and by only the absolute legends of the game.
Landing one of those top few players - one of the transcendent legends - virtually ensures title contention for the foreseeable future. Not having one of those few, or at the very least a top-10 to 20 superstar, usually ensures nothing more than mediocrity and fringe contention from time to time, at best.
With the Heat and Spurs marking the league's first Finals rematch since the Bulls and Jazz squared off in both 1997 and 1998, and with Miami appearing in a fourth straight Finals while San Antonio appears for the sixth time in 16 seasons, that reality is as apparent as ever.
This year marks the 20th consecutive Finals to feature at least one of LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal or Michael Jordan. Think about that for a second. For two decades - a fifth of a century, for crying out loud - at least one player from a group of only five has been playing for the game's greatest reward. That's something, and if you extend that sample further back, it's even more eye opening.
Add in the fact that between 1980 and 1995, in addition to Jordan, at least one of Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Larry Bird, Julius Erving, Hakeem Olajuwon or Isiah Thomas appeared in each Finals, and you realize that over a span of now 35 years, at least one player from a group of only 10 has played for a championship.
Throw in Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, and at least one player out of Wilt, Russell, Isiah, Hakeem, Dr. J, Bird, Kareem, Jordan, Shaq, Duncan, Kobe and LeBron has appeared in 54 of the last 58 Finals. The only Finals since 1957 to not include at least one of those 12 legends were the 1975, '76, '78 and '79 championship series.
The intention here isn't to bolster the reputations of those specific players in any historical debates or top-12 lists. After all, Magic Johnson, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson, just to name a few, all also appeared in Finals during that time. But the fact that you can tell the story of over a half-century's worth of NBA Finals through the lens of just 12 human beings is both awe inspiring and telling.
That's the NBA, and it's the NBA we've all come to know and love - Year after year, decade after decade, generation after generation.
Some feel that predictability diminishes the product and drives fans away. But given the league's popularity booms during the Lakers-and-Celtics-dominated '80s, the Bulls-dominated '90s, and now the current Heat-dominated era, the vast majority of the sports viewing public doesn't seem to mind. If anything, what sets the NBA apart is the intrigue of tuning in to see whether the king of the castle and his dominant regime can finally be toppled, like a modern day, reality version of Game of Thrones.
Those generation defining talents and teams are the league's bread and butter - the longstanding cast members who continuously serve up the gripping drama - and most wouldn't have it any other way.
The history of the entire league has been written by only a select few transcendent players, and every year, about 25 or so of the league's 30 teams spend every waking hour trying to figure out how and when to land the next one.
As Duncan's Spurs and James' Heat prepare for battle this week, we're once again reminded why.