Heat or Mavericks
Some friends and acquaintances, even strangers, have been asking me who will win the recent NBA Championship Series.
They probably assume that I am an expert in predicting basketball tournament results because I write a sports column, used to coach varsity basketball, and played barangay ball a long time ago.
My usual answer is that my sentimental choice is Dallas, because I would like Jason Kidd to get an NBA Championship Ring before he fades into the sunset. I also root for the underdog, and definitely, Dallas is the underdog in this series, even with the phenomenal play of Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry, the only two remaining Mavericks from the team that fought the Heat, and lost in the 2006 Championship.
My logical favorite is the El Heat of Miami.
As an aside, some have been wondering why Miami puts El Heat in its playing jersey.
In a city where English is hardly spoken, you will not be surprised that the preferred language of choice is Español.
Back to my preference for Miami.
LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh is definitely a more potent combination than Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. The trio can easily produce more than one half of the points at any given game.
Rare would be a game where all three of them would be shut off by the opponents or by “malas.” And the Boston Celtics won an NBA Championship.
The real reason why I want Miami to win is Erik Spoelstra.
As all of us already know, he is the first Filipino, and Asian for that matter, to coach a major league professional sports team. Yes, Spoelstra is a Filipino and is proud for the whole world to know that he is.
Sort of reminds me that while my brothers and sisters and I were talking in Cebuano, my brother Herve asked our niece if she understood what we were talking about.
In answer, my niece Justine pointed at her mother, as if to say that it was my sister Libeth’s fault for not teaching them how to speak the dialect.
Very common among Fil-American families.
As I was winding up this column, the 2011 NBA saga ended in Miami with the Dallas prevailing in game 6 in a very convincing fashion.
In hindsight, the championship went to the better team, the better teamwork and the greater motivation.
The individual talents of LeBron, Wade and Bosh in the end were not enough to carry Miami past a well-oiled basketball machine called Dallas.
The Heat trio will have more chances in the years to follow, as youth is on their side, assuming they decide to stay together in Miami.
Kidd, Nowitzki, Terry and Marion may have had their last chance, and made it.
So as Evita Peron said, Don’t Cry for me Argentina as your El Heat will be back for another run for the NBA Championship.
The ending would have been perfect, except that when Jason Kidd was being interviewed how he felt for winning an NBA Championship after 18 years in the league, a Filipino sportscaster, not realizing the significance of the moment, could not shut his mouth up and made the interview inaudible by voicing over his own comments.
I wonder if the Philippine networks would be much better off by availing of the commentaries of the US television sportscasters. Well, as we all NBA fans feel at this time of the year, it’s a long wait for the opening of the 2012 season.
We are not deprived of good basketball however as the PBA Governor’s Cup is underway.
