{"id":4072,"date":"2017-01-31T15:04:01","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T21:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=4072"},"modified":"2017-07-08T12:05:40","modified_gmt":"2017-07-08T17:05:40","slug":"okc-and-others-can-forget-about-winning-the-nba-finals-for-the-foreseeable-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=4072","title":{"rendered":"OKC and others can forget about winning the NBA Finals for the foreseeable future…."},"content":{"rendered":"

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If you are a true blue fan of your favorite National Basketball Association team, do you think the franchise you follow has any chance to win a Title this year or in fact, in the near future?\u00a0\u00a0 If your team occupies the Bay area of San Francisco\/Oakland, your answer would be, without question, not only yes, but hell yes.\u00a0 And taken that the best basketball player on earth plays out of his home city of Cleveland, Cavs fans would also have a strong say that with James, it is always a possibility that you will be in the NBA Finals and play for a championship.\u00a0\u00a0Let us not\u00a0forgetting the perineal\u00a0contenders and many times champs in San Antonio.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lead by the best coach and organization in the Association, you will never give quarter to any team that might be better but the thinking that the Spurs can still pull it off, year in and year out, is always in your psyche.<\/p>\n

The NBA is unlike other major league sports, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and the National Hockey League.\u00a0\u00a0Of the four major leagues, except for the NBA, a franchise can win a championship, or at least play for one, without\u00a0structure and player interference holding them back.\u00a0 The way the NBA does it business with the\u00a0players wanting titles with little\u00a0regard to anyone but themselves,\u00a0\u00a0the\u00a0majority of teams will never see a Finals championship banner hung in their gym.<\/p>\n

In the Association, if your franchise does not have at least two, and most often three, super stars on its roster, you can always forget about winning the\u00a0title.\u00a0 It just will not happen.\u00a0 And with the collective bargaining agreement between league and players, the imbalance in teams will continue to excluded all but a handful of teams each year to win the NBA title.\u00a0 And that handful of teams, as has been the past custom of the Association, will continue with the stars dictating the winners and the large group of losers.<\/p>\n

Golden State is the prohibited favorite to win in 2017.\u00a0 The will win it, unless the injury bug takes down at least one, and possibility two of the group of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and one significant role player currently on the roster.\u00a0 Bank on it. The title is going back to the Bay.<\/p>\n

Superstar LeBron James understands the situation he is in with the Cavs.\u00a0 He is not going to win a title this year with\u00a0his current playmates.\u00a0 The adding of Kyle Korver, a basic give away by the Atlanta Hawks to strengthen the Cleveland team, approved by the league to bolster them, is not the answer.\u00a0 Another possible\u00a0give away to the Cavs, in the name of Carmelo Anthony, from New York, will probably take place.\u00a0 If Carmelo does not go to Cleveland, he will don the Clippers uniform, trying to give them a chance to get to the Western Finals.\u00a0 No matter, this is Golden State’s year, and if the core of Kevin and Stephen stay together, we can see the next years as a coming dynasty in the likes of the Boston Celtics of the past.<\/p>\n

When the Association allowed Kevin Durant to go to Golden State they told the fans in the other cities of the Association we “will” have a marque team on the west coast, and they can be the poster child of the sport.\u00a0 San Antonio can not keep pace with the fire power of the Warriors.\u00a0 And as LeBron ages, the league will go from three team dominance to just one.\u00a0 And for all you folks in places like Salt Lake City, Denver, Portland, and yes, Oklahoma City, do not even think about going to a Finals.\u00a0 You are not ever winning a title.\u00a0 And if you are blessed with a great\u00a0general manager, and you build through the draft, that\u00a0is not going to get you where you want either.\u00a0 The players decide where\u00a0to play and when they are allowed to gang up and form super teams, it is those super teams that will win.\u00a0\u00a0LeBron made his super team in Miami and Cleveland, and now with Kevin in Golden\u00a0State, he has put his lot with a super team where he can win\u00a0not just one championship, but many.<\/p>\n

As a fan in a city that has no realistic\u00a0chance to ever win a title, you have to enjoy the game for other reasons.\u00a0 If you are lucky to have one super player (until he bolts to a super team-most will), enjoy that player while he is in your\u00a0town.\u00a0 If\u00a0you follow a team\u00a0building a\u00a0powerhouse, or\u00a0on the cusp of getting into the Conference Finals, enjoy the process, but understand it is just for that, and not for winning it all.\u00a0\u00a0Some\u00a0teams are just not going to win one.\u00a0 Minnesota, enjoy your young stars\u00a0now. In a few years they will be in Chicago, LA, or maybe Miami.\u00a0 Oklahoma City fans, you had the closest run at winning, and your team was almost there.\u00a0 Forget about it happening again, at least in the next ten years.\u00a0 With your fine General Manager Sam Presti, the franchise is not the next coming of the San Antonio Spurs, but the continuation of the Utah Jazz under Jerry Sloan.\u00a0 Twenty-three years of winning, twenty playoff teams,\u00a0but no titles.<\/p>\n

Presti will not mortgage the future for one year, one superstar, and then\u00a0see the Thunder disintegrate into the air the following season.\u00a0 Why should he? Golden State is your man right now.\u00a0 And after your superstar (s) depart for another city, you will be left with not a better team from the one you have now but one that would be looking at the lottery.\u00a0\u00a0Mr. Presti would also depart from\u00a0OKC, fired.<\/p>\n

Since 1980, thirty-six seasons of the NBA, there have been eleven cities winning titles.\u00a0 Right now, the trend says Golden State for the for seeable future, with San Antonio and Cleveland following.\u00a0 The breakdown it telling.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers-10; Chicago Bulls-6; San Antonio-5; Boston Celtics-4; Miami Heat-3; Detroit Pistons-3; Houston Rockets-2.<\/p>\n

Golden State, Cleveland, Dallas and Philadelphia\u00a0 one each.<\/p>\n

In the history of the league, twelve current members have never been to an NBA Finals, and are no closer today in getting there than on day one of their existence.<\/p>\n

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This big three not good enough to win a title?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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    If you are a true blue fan of your favorite National Basketball Association…<\/p>\n

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