NBA Season Conclusion

The story of the 2025-26 NBA season was the story of injuries, right up to the Finals.  Finally, two healthy teams faced each other.  Health is one of the usual deciding factors.  Another is momentum.  Both the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks had it in the playoffs, though the Knicks had it much more strongly.  But that to my mind wasn't the only deciding factor.

First let's review the pundits.  Nearly every day I see at least the headlines of the New York Times' outsourced sports bureau, the Athletic.  It has quickly become--at least arguably--a gold standard in sports coverage.  By the end of the regular season the Athletic named the consensus pick for NBA champion, which had been consistent throughout the year: the Oklahoma City Thunder.

When the Spurs beat the Thunder in seven games in the Western Conference Finals, and the Knicks pulverized the Cleveland Cavaliers in the East, the Athletic solemnly announced the consensus view that the NBA champions would now be the Spurs.

Now that the Knicks have won the Finals in five games, at least one writer for the Athletic is embarrassing himself by calling these Knicks the greatest sports team in New York history, and (though it would follow anyway) the greatest Knicks team, and Jalen Brunson as the greatest Knicks player in history.  Also that this victory was the greatest in history, and will be talked about in a hundred years.

Okay, so the Times is still a hometown newspaper, and everything that happens in New York is by definition the biggest and best and most important.  But let's start with the likelihood that the only thing people in a hundred years will remember about our time is that we knew we were destroying the livable climate and did it anyway. 

But as for greatness, there were a number of Yankees teams clearly better than these Knicks. Jalen Brunson is a talented player and he had a great Finals, but he probably isn't even in the top five of players who wore the Knicks uniform.  The 27 point comeback in the fourth game was special but in the age of the three point shot, not really all that remarkable.

Every playoff series, especially every Finals, is different, it's own world.  These Knicks deserve a lot of credit but they didn't create all the conditions that enabled their victory.  And it seems clear to me that the real difference maker in this series was Mike Brown, the Knicks' coach.

The Spurs have a generational star, a phenomenon of the time.  But they are a young team, without playoff experience.  They have a young coach in his first year, Mitch Johnson, who never played in the NBA and has no experience in NBA playoffs.  The Knicks coach Mike Brown had a checkered career as a head coach for the Lakers, Cavaliers and Kings, but was a chief assistant coach to Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors, and with the Warriors he experienced three Finals on the winning team.  He even experienced one with the Spurs, when he was an assistant there.

Mike Brown knows what winning the Finals takes, and Mitch Johnson did not.  The Spurs losing large leads in crucial games all but tells that story.  The Knicks did not face strong teams in the Eastern Conference playoffs, but somehow Brown got them ready for the real challenge.  The Knicks were well coached in situations.  And overall they stayed on an even keel, which seems partly due to the personalities of Brunson and Anunoby, for instance, but very likely also to Brown's coaching and demeanor.  

Why isn't it enough to celebrate the Knicks without this silliness?  We are so enamored with the now, except when--as is already happening--we are handicapping next season. 

And so, it's next year--with the draft and the free agents moves ready to tumble out of endless speculation into reality.

Is the Story of Sports the Story of Injuries?

 A lot has happened to the teams I follow in just a few weeks. The Pittsburgh Steelers were ignominiously defeated by the Houston Oilers in their wild card playoff game, and after 16 years at the helm, their Coach Mike Tomlin retired.  The subsequent hiring of veteran Mike McCarthy as head coach was controversial, as is the prospect of Aaron Rodgers returning as quarterback. Not exactly a youth movement.

The San Francisco 49ers won their wild card game by defeating the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, but were blown out in the divisional round by this year's eventual Super Bowl winner, the Seattle Seahawks. Another season of injuries, for one thing, finally caught up to them.

In the NBA, the Golden State Warriors were winning again when a season-ending injury to key player Jimmy Butler threw the season into disarray.  Steph Curry didn't play either for the last several games before the All-Star Game break due to lingering knee pain. 

 As the trade deadline loomed ahead, anticipation was high for a trade of unknown proportion to get Giannis from Milwaukee.  But he stayed put, and instead the Warriors traded Jonathan Kuminga (currently injured) and Buddy Hield to Atlanta for big man Porzingas, who is also dealing with illness and injury but is expected to play after the break.  It seems that these days the story of sports is the story of injuries.

The Dubs also sent Trayce Jackson-Davis to Toronto, where he immediately had the most productive game of his career. Two-way player Pat Spencer was hired for the full time Warriors roster, just after the most productive game he's had so far in his career.

With these changes the Warriors didn't exactly get younger, but they did free up rotation spots for their younger players, like Spencer and Santos.  Even without Curry and Butler, this team played some spirited games, and even scored the biggest fourth quarter comeback for a victory this season.

All of this change for the Warriors was accompanied by a public reappraisal of this season's possibilities--just get in the playoffs and maybe make some noise.  Nobody is saying it's a championship team, especially without Butler (he may miss the first half of next season as well.)  More change may be in the offing after the season, but the rest of the season will likely have an effect on what those changes are, including whether Coach Kerr will come back.  If Porzingas and Steph can stay healthy--a big if--how this new dynamic works or doesn't will probably say a lot about what happens.  

I'm not likely to follow the Steelers and 9ers all that closely through the off-season or even when their season begins,  but I like this Warriors team and how they play, so I'm going to savor the remaining games this spring.  I'm especially looking forward to something nobody talks about--the Golden State Warriors debut of Seth Curry. 

The Steelers Crap Game Win, and Anthony Davis, Seriously?

 Before the Pittsburgh Steelers host Houston in their first home playoff game in six years at whatever they are calling Heinz Field these days (and nobody in Pittsburgh will ever call it anything but Heinz Field), that Steelers-Ravens game--essentially a winner take all playoff game-- merits some comment before it fades into history.  

Some playoff games, like the Rams-Panthers Wild Card game, are contests of skillful big plays.  But the Steelers-Ravens game was a contest of decisive mishaps.  Despite subsequent praise, the game announcers didn't think Lamar Jackson had a very good game, and Aaron Rodgers was adequate, especially given a nearly non-existent pass rush. 

But the game was decided by goofs.  Jackson's two big touchdown throws were to receivers that were so wide open there was nobody else in the TV picture, especially between them and the goal line.  If they weren't nearly identical blown coverages, then they were defensive design malpractice.  Meanwhile, Rodgers threw what turned out to be the deciding touchdown pass to a receiver wide open because his defender slipped on the field.

Then after that touchdown, the kicker who hasn't missed an extra point for years, missed one.  That miss meant that Baltimore could win the game with a field goal.  Back on the bench, that kicker had to be contemplating the humiliation of spending the whole off-season as the villain.  

But even though the Ravens got great field position on the ensuing kick-off and marched fairly easily down the field to within pretty easy range for today's kickers, their rookie kicker missed it.  That unlikely miss made the Steelers the division champs and sent the Ravens home, probably contributing to the firing of Baltimore's long-time head coach days later.  Now the missed extra point is utterly forgotten, and that kid in Baltimore is going to have a long off-season. 

I don't mean to demean the efforts of players on either side.  Steelers-Ravens games are always hard fought. But some games look like battles of skill.  That one looked like it was settled by rolling the dice.

Meanwhile, the Golden State Warriors are being told over and over that they aren't going anywhere this year.   Nevertheless, with two of their veterans back from injury, they are winning a lot more than losing.   And Seth Curry's injury is to be reevaluated this month--they could use his shooting. 

But winter trade season is coming up fast, and Jonathan Kuminga is superglued to the bench.  He's said not to be pouting and playing hard in practices, but it does seem odd that the two times he was most likely to be in the lineup, he came up with a new injury. Could be coincidence.  

Still, it's a big mystery whether the Warriors can get a trade they like.  The sports savants suggest the trade market may not be advantageous until after the season.  So while some clamor for a big trade--and commentators like Bill Simmons hold forth from apparent ignorance--the Warriors may not make major moves.  Though I'd expect them to do something to make room on their roster for Pat Spencer full time. 

The trade rumor that puzzled me the most was the repeated suggestion that the Warriors wanted Anthony Davis.  Somehow I have more respect for the intelligence of the Warriors front office than to believe they seriously considered trading for another older and frequently injured player as Anthony "Street Clothes" Davis.  One recent story however said that Davis' latest injury, which ends his season, would kill that trade, if it had ever been a real possibility.  Really--as if Dallas wasn't a clear cautionary tale, especially if you want to keep your job.  Of course I don't know, but I'd be very surprised if the Dubs trading for him was anything but another Internet viral delusion.

Back to the NFL: in their playoff game, the San Francisco 49ers defeated the defending Super Bowl champs, the Philadelphia Eagles, despite losing yet another key player to injury, tight end George Kittle.  Unfortunately, their next game is against the favorite to win it all, the Seattle Seahawks.  But even if they lose that one, they'd come farther than most believed they could, which makes Kyle Shanahan a coach of the year candidate.

The Steelers play at home, but they face Houston's pass rush, and that is expected to be the key to the game.  But of course it will be something else.