Clean Sweep

By Justin Albers
Basketballss132002@yahoo.com
CLEVELAND- That’s it, it’s all over. What was thought to be a fairy tale journey finishes with an unexpected ending.
It was supposed to be the year. The year that the name “mistake by the lake” no longer applied to Cleveland. The year LeBron needed to define his career. The year that everyone will remember. Not so. With San Antonio’s victory on Thursday night, we now have the makings of a new dynasty that will be talked about forever.
First of all, give it up for the Cavs. They had an outstanding season with an overachieving team. This NBA Finals series allowed us to learn so much about their team that is important for the future. We learned that LeBron James is a man way beyond his years who will be a great leader for many years to come. We learned that Mike Brown is a promising young coach who always gets the most out of his players. But we also learned the Anderson Varejao is not a shooter and that “Boobie” Gibson is better coming off the bench then playing as a starter. Now, before I criticize Andy, I have to give him a whole lot of credit. His low post defense against Tim Duncan was second to none. He worked his butt off on both ends of the floor to make up for that shot at the end of Game 3. But how can the guy say “I would have done the same thing if I was given another chance. I had the open lane and I took it.” I won’t even comment on that, I think it pretty much speaks for itself.
There was one major player that really killed the Cavs in this series, and they are paying him. Larry Hughes. Hughes was part of the reason Cleveland made it to the NBA Finals, and he was forced to sit the final two games of this series. Even when he did play in Games 1&2, he was hurting and ineffective. When the Cavs really made their big run late in the regular season it was because Hughes moved to the point guard spot and was playing great basketball. I’m not saying that Cleveland had any chance of winning this series, but if Hughes was in the lineup, we would surely be talking about a Game 5 on Sunday.
Now onto the Spurs. All the talk on ABC and ESPN lately has surrounded the one big question “Is this team a dynasty?” Let me give you a simple answer: Yes. Four championships in the last nine years. A record of 355-137 over the last six seasons; with 57 wins being the worst season. It is simply unbelievable. People tend to forget about the Spurs because, quite frankly, they are a boring team to watch. They go out on the floor and take care of business without doing anything fancy. They have a superstar in Tim Duncan who never does anything wrong. He is the epitome of what America should want from a superstar, but people like conflict and personality and they don’t get that from Duncan. And if you think this team is done, you’re in for quite a surprise. Duncan is only 31 years old, Tony Parker and Manu Ginoboli are signed until 2010-11, and Gregg Popovich has remaining years on his contract. The Spurs could very easily win two more championships with this roster before it is all said and done. Watch out Michael, your unreachable six NBA titles might be surpassed if San Antonio has anything to say about it.