The NBA restart is due to kick off in just over a week and basketball is about to depart on an Orlando Adventure. They say everyone loves Disneyland and that may not be true but I sure love the NBA and I am hyped (so hyped I’m even planning a part 2!).
Theoretically sheltered from the United States’ world beating effort in the “Catching the most coronavirus” race, 24 teams of the world’s best athletes are set to compete for the highest prize in basketball: The NBA championship.
Not every team has a chance of winning. Not every team will make the playoffs. Not every team is even good! (sorry Wizards). But every team in this tournament has a story and in the Orlando Adventure I will attempt to tell those stories.
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Los Angeles. For generations it has been a Lakers town. Home to one of the most storied and successful basketball franchises of all time. Home to Jerry West, Magic Johnson, Kobe, Shaq and a bunch of other guys who were pretty good at the whole basketball thing.
This year they are really good. They sit atop the Western Conference led by two of the top 5 players in the league in LeBron James and Anthony Davis. LeBron even at age 35 continues to put up ridiculous numbers and seems determined to add to his case for the greatest player of all time. Anthony Davis, who used the ultimate cheat code of growing a foot taller once already knowing how to play basketball is perhaps the most skilled forward in the game. The team even plays defense this year!
After that, well I guess they have Kyle Kuzma and the ‘White Mamba’ Alex Caruso. It’s not great but it doesn’t have to be. When you have LeBron and AD on your team you don’t actually need much more to have a decent shot at the title.
Standing against them are the Clippers. For their entire existence they have been known as that other team that plays in LA. Sometimes they have been good, sometimes they have been bad but no one really cared because they weren’t the Lakers.
Most people in LA probably still don’t care about them but they do care about Kawhi Leonard.
Kawhi may not know how to laugh properly or have a soul but he sure knows how to win. Last year he made Joel Embiid cry, locked down Giannis and single-handedly carried the Toronto Raptors to a title. He is a two time Finals MVP, a reigning champion and one of the best two way players on the planet. Oh, not to mention the last time he went toe to toe with LeBron in the NBA Finals HE WON!
If there is anyone in the league LeBron loses sleep to at night it's probably Leonard. The Clippers are his team and with the talent they have (Paul George and lots of players better than Kuzma or Caruso) they’re at least as good as the Lakers. They are tough, skilled and are looking to write their own legacy.
The stage is set for an epic Battle of Los Angeles and I for one can’t wait for it to begin.
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