I’m reading Bill Simmons latest ESPN Page 2 article on a list of NBA what ifs, being mildly entertained, when I come to the following passage on What if Ron Artest hadn’t gone into the Palace crowd:
In the span of five minutes, everything went down the drain. And if you remember the shoddy ‘05 Finals when the Spurs beat the Pistons in seven, it’s right up there with the ‘94 Finals on the “Wait, Are We Sure These Were the Best Two Teams?” Scale.
A Finals that goes to game 7 is shoddy?? That was a highly competitive Finals that needed all of those seven games to decide the better team. Do I even need to defend a Detroit / San Antonio ‘05 Finals match? Did he mean to say 2007 when the Cavs had no business being on the same court as the Spurs? That was shoddy.
I’m not saying the Pacers wouldn’t have been a formidable opponent but they still would have had to go through the defending Champion Pistons. I believe the two best teams were in the Finals.
And 1994, that was another excellent 7 game series. I’ve never thought that the Knicks and Rockets weren’t the best two teams in the league that year.
Is it possible that Simmons, a noted Boston slappy, has a Detroit ax to grind?
March 12th, 2008 at 8:19 am
When you have a 7 game series, it shows that both teams are pretty even with one another. ‘05 finals was no exception. Imagine if the Pistons had pulled it out, back to back baby. And I believe we were way better than anybody in ‘06. We could have won 3 straight titles.
As for the ‘94 Finals, that was a good matchup. I’ve had different teams I liked and I was a Knicks fan during that time. I was rooting for them and always thought that that Hakeem block was indeed a goal tend.