For the second year in a row, the Cleveland Cavaliers will play the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. This time around, the NBA’s final postseason series has a little more meaning, particularly with some fans of the Chicago Bulls.
As Klay Thompson put it on Monday night after the Golden State Warriors won the Western Conference again and advanced to the NBA Finals, “Steph went into ‘human torch mode’.”
The two-time MVP (and the first unanimous MVP in league history) torched the Oklahoma City Thunder for 36 points on 7-of-12 shooting and the Warriors advanced to play LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals for the second straight postseason.
So, how does this affects the Chicago Bulls?
Well, let’s see here: it’s the guy that has eliminated the Bulls in four playoff series since the 2009-10 season against the guy who led his team to breaking the 1995-96 Bulls’ mark of 72 wins in one season.
Over time this year, the Warriors have rubbed fans the wrong way with their supreme amount of confidence and cockiness at times, while the Cavaliers (more specifically, LeBron James) have been a thorn in the Bulls’ side for years.
Fans have this weird tendency to feel the need to root for a team (or something) that they don’t usually do when their team isn’t involved. For me personally, I don’t care who wins and who loses. That goes for Bulls games, too.
Of course I’d like to see the Bulls have success.
But, I simply root for fun stories, good basketball and to provide a balanced opinion.
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That’s what I’m paid to do.
That’s simply what Bulls fans should do come Thursday night.
Your life will go on if LeBron James finally brings a title back to Cleveland. Your life will still go on if Stephen Curry wins a second consecutive title and helps Golden State complete the greatest season in NBA history.
Why should it matter who wins and who loses this series? If you’re still bitter over how the Bulls finished this season, that’s understandable because … well, they were terrible.
But, let’s face facts here.
Even if the Bulls backed their way into the playoffs, they weren’t beating Cleveland to begin with in the Eastern Conference’s 1-8 matchup. Look at what Cleveland did to the Detroit Pistons (who took the Bulls’ place as the No. 8 seed) and the Atlanta Hawks. The Bulls would have wanted no part of that (and their 3-1 mark against the Cavaliers this season wouldn’t have matter either).
If I had to guess for fans, losing to LeBron James for the fifth time in the last seven seasons would be more painful than watching another NBA Finals series with Cleveland and Golden State.
Whether you like watching both teams or you don’t, your fandom shouldn’t have anything to do with it. This series has been heading for a crash course since Christmas Day and it should be fun throughout.
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It’s not 1996.
Sit back and enjoy something for a change.