The Best Of The NBA
The 2019 NBA Finals showcases the best this league has to offer
International personalities. Diversity. Inclusivity. Small school players with big dreams. Tech driven. Joy influenced. Determination to improve. Individualistic self-expression. Power of a team. Heart of a champion. Heart of a country. This year’s NBA Finals showcases the best that the NBA has to offer. And more importantly, the best of what the NBA and WNBA has evolved itself into: progressive world-leading sports leagues.
The web of story lines and life lines could best be exemplified by former U.S. President Barack Obama sitting next to the NBA commissioner, Adam Silver. Both men taking in the intensity of game two’s action from Toronto, where the Raptors were caged up by the Golden State Warriors comeback victory to even the best-of-seven series at a game apiece. The Warriors, already one of basketball’s greatest historical teams, put another line-item on their championship resume with a 34-point 3rd quarter explosion while overcoming injuries to starters Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson throughout the game. Toronto’s gritty-yet-smooth style of play evaporated like the mists of Niagara Falls while Golden State turned it up to 11 to end the first and start the second half. Amplified offense and defense sparked a 24-1 run, and another trademark 3rd quarter outburst has them headed back to California after a much-desired road win in The North.
Obama and Silver were joining forces to promote the NBA’s newest global initiative, Basketball Africa League (BAL). Africa’s newest (and best-funded) professional basketball league is a collaboration between the NBA and FIBA (International Basketball Federation). The BAL will start in 2020 with 12 teams and it aims to further expand and develop economic, social, and media opportunities centered around basketball. And it can’t come at a better time. The world feels smaller and smaller every year technology advances and communication and travel become easier. This is a great time of inclusivity in our world. A great time to celebrate our samenesses while respecting our differences. The NBA understands this and is positioning themselves to be a global leader in inclusivity. And not just in the world of sports but because sports are an integral part of our world, the result is inclusivity in everyday life.
Basketball, like soccer, has the ingredients for a global game. Minimal equipment required, just a ball and a hoop. No formal playing court necessary. Simple objective, put the ball in the basket and prevent opponents from doing so. Free-flowing game action. Space for self-expression and individuality. Multiple international professional leagues for global access. Basketball is a little bit behind soccer in terms of the volume of global professional leagues, but this latest development of the BAL (Basketball Africa League) is a large step to ensure access to professional leagues for more international players. With more professional leagues comes more professional paychecks. With more professional paychecks comes the opportunity for financial support and stability. With financial support and stability, a person can make living in this world a lot smoother for themselves, their children, their family, their community, their country. Opportunities beget more opportunities.
The NBA’s overseas development camp and outreach campaign, Basketball Without Borders, is the reason the Raptor’s Pascal Siakam (Cameroon) is playing in the NBA Finals with then-camp-counselor, Serge Ibaka (Dem. Rep. of Congo/Spain). Siakam attended a Basketball Without Borders camp in South Africa in 2012, where NBA players Ibaka and Luol Deng (South Sudan) were camp counselors. Pascal was more interested in soccer than basketball at the time, but something inside him changed at that camp, where he could see first-hand the people who rose up out of similar situations to his own, and he then set his goal to make it to the NBA. At the start of this year’s NBA regular season, there were a record 24 former Basketball Without Borders attendees on opening day rosters. Expect that number to only go up in future years as the Basketball Africa League expands opportunities to the great continent of Africa.
Inclusivity is not limited to a global scale in this series. You can find its cohesive haze in the air inside the Warrior’s locker rooms. Head coach Steve Kerr creates an inclusive, inviting atmosphere for his clubhouse to compliment his four foundational coaching philosophies: joy, competitiveness, mindfulness, and compassion. During halftime he holds a brief coaches meeting while players check their phones and whatever ritual they do at halftime. After that he does a tape review of positive plays from the first half, lets assistant coaches give their insights, then opens the floor up to his players by saying, “What do you guys have for us? What do you see?”. As much as shoe contracts, service time, and salaries have their way in arranging a pecking order amongst teams, the Warriors continually shuffle the deck by promoting leadership to everyone. Inclusivity. It’s this open forum and self-empowerment that continually has any Warrior coming off the bench making big contributions in big moments. Whether it’s Kevin or Kevon. Inclusivity. A powerful theme in this series.
Inclusivity is why 108 NBA players were born outside the United Sates from 42 different countries. Diversity is why the Raptors Serge Ibaka speaks Spanish to teammate Marc Gasol (Spain) and French to Pascal Siakam. On the hardwood no less. Si. Oui. It’s fitting that this happens in Canada’s international hotspot of Toronto.
“Here we are today with very much a global sport, one of the most popular sports in the world, and 25 percent of the NBA is comprised of players who were born outside the United States," Commissioner Silver said. "Symbolically, having our first finals outside the United States maybe has a big impact on countries that follow the NBA but don't have teams…This clearly is a marker of sorts... that will, I think, be a milestone."
The Toronto Raptors are a prime example of the new NBA. On top of the progressive culture they embody, the organization also reflects their city’s values for diversity, hard work, opportunity, toughness, and classic style. They are owned by the local cartel Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which also owns the Toronto Maple Leafs (NHL), Toronto FC (MLS), Toronto Argonauts (CFL) and all their arenas and facilities. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment has been a Northern sports force since Conn Smythe started it in 1931, and remains rooted deeper than a maple tree as a Canadian fixture. The Raptors team president is former NBA Executive of the Year, Masai Ujiri (Nigieria). Their head coach Nick Nurse has coached overseas for 11 years before coming back to the States. His coaching staff includes Patrick Mutombo (Dem. Rep. of Congo. No relation to Dikembe, I checked) and Sergio Scariolo (Italy). The team is devoid of any North American ‘blue-chip’ talent that you would normally find in an NBA Finals squad, and instead is full of players who have improved immensely to make themselves into NBA stars and starters. Players like Kawahi Leonard, Kyle Lowry, Siakam, Danny Green, Fred VanFleet. The roster’s international spice-kit also includes Jeremey Lin (Tawain/China), Chris Boucher (Canada) and O.G. Anunoby (England).
"That's what the NBA's about," Siakam said. "It's about opportunities and guys coming from different places and all coming to compete at this level."
The Golden State Warriors reflect their Silicon Valley and California homeland and values much the same way the Raptors echo Toronto’s. The Warriors are owned by a group that is headed by Joe Lacob and Peter Gruber. Lacob was a venture capitalist in the tech and biotech worlds, and previously owned a minority stake of the Boston Celtics, before buying the Warriors in 2010. He is now the organization’s Chairman and head of day-to-day operations. He has brought the new business-tech model to the Golden State Warriors, which is statistically driven and focuses on analytics-based decision making. Tech is seemingly winning the business world right now, and it’s no surprise the Warriors winning ways mirror that. Where Lacob is techy, Gruber is Hollywood. Peter Gruber is the chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment, a movie and television production company. Gruber also co-owns the Los Angeles Dodgers, the newly formed Los Angeles Football Club (LA FC), and has interests in the eSports world. The intersection of tech, media, star-power, and entertainment is all rolled into one package with the Golden State Warriors. The roster is full of blue-chip prospects and NBA pedigree. Their analytics and value-based player evaluations continually show great returns in the draft, as the core of this Warriors team was selected that way. Great drafting allows them financial maneuverability to go after All-Star free agents like DeMarcus Cousins and Kevin Durant. This Golden State ride didn’t really get rolling until it found its perfect bus driver in Steve Kerr, however. Kerr’s heart, smarts, playing career, front office experience, and time in the broadcasting table made him the right person to cohesively put all these top shelf ingredients together. This team epitomizes modern California success.
As much as each team is a cultural reflection of their respective regions, the Bay Area and Golden Horseshoe, they embody many similarities that the modern-day NBA has evolved into. Both locations are progressive hubs for finance, technology, international business, world class universities, mobility, young professionals, arts, food, music and everything in between. They call these types of cities ‘global cities’ for they are nexus points in the greater global network of human existence. Places were people from all walks of life, backgrounds, races, genders, faiths, cultures come together to share the energy of living this modern human lifestyle. Are the people in the Bay Area and Greater Toronto inspired to share life’s energy with the same grace and freedom like the Warriors and Raptors share the basketball? If so, the NBA is profoundly in step with the expansive possibilities for an inspired future. This inspiration grows with each part of the world that the NBA and WNBA touches. When the teams become a mirror for all the positive values that their regions represent, you get a special team. When the league becomes a mirror for a brighter future it’s fans believe in, that’s when truly inspired entertainment showcases its magic. And that’s why this year’s NBA Finals reflect the continued evolution of the league and the greater world too. It’s NBA Finals time. Que up the John Tesh.