After seven months of grueling regular season and playoff action the NBA and NHL have finally reached their championship series. Both leagues’ defending champs are still alive and looking to flex their championship muscle again. NBA fans have suffered through a boring playoff season but are being rewarded with a third-straight matchup of the league’s best teams and an impressive collection of stars.
National Basketball Association (NBA)
The third time’s a charm. The NBA Finals are here at long last and nobody is surprised by the matchup. The series everyone predicted came true: the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers will face each other for the third straight year. The Warriors won the 2015 Finals matchup, and the Cavs returned the favor last season.
Source: Hustle Boss
How rare is a meeting of the same two teams in the finals for three straight years? Very…As in it’s never happened before in NBA history.
Richard Rothschild, a long time sports journalist, points out that not only has the feat not occurred in the NBA, it’s happened only once in each of the other three major US pro sports:
MLB: 1921-23 World Series, New York Giants and New York Yankees. The Giants won the first two seasons before the Yankees won the first of their record 27 Series titles.
NFL: 1952-54 NFL Championship Games (pre Super Bowl era), Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions. The luck ran out though as the Browns and Lions are the two oldest NFL franchises never to have played in a Super Bowl.
NHL: 1954-56 Stanley Cup Finals, Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens. After losing the first two seasons, Les Canadiens won the 1956 Cup, the first of a record five straight NHL titles. The Red Wings would not win another Stanley Cup until 1997.
The Finals features six of the NBA’s best players, highlighted by Cleveland’s four-time MVP LeBron James who is playing in his record seventh straight NBA Finals. He will go up against Golden State’s two-time MVP Steph Curry and key offseason acquisition, MVP Kevin Durant.
The series begin Thursday night on ABC.
National Hockey League NHL
The defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins were outplayed but won game one of the Stanley Cup Finals versus the Nashville Predators Monday night.
Will experience deliver a title? We’ll see. Going into the series, Pittsburgh’s superstar tandem of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have played in 142 and 143 playoff games, respectively. Contrast that to the Predators franchise, which is making its NHL Finals debut and has a grand total of 86 postseason games in its history.
Source: Sports Illustrated
Car Racing
In a Memorial Day weekend tradition, the Indianapolis 500 was run Sunday.
Ever hear of Takuma Sato? Neither had most racing fans. The 40-year-old Japanese driver took the lead over three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves and eked out a victory. How tight was the race? Sato won by the slimmest of margins – just 0.2011 of a second.
Tennis
Bonjour amateurs de tennis. The French Open began Sunday and there was already a major upset. In a rarity, Women’s #1 seed Angelique Kerber lost in the first round. With Kerber ousted and Serena Williams prego, the women’s field is wide open.
On the Men’s side, Great Britain’s Andy Murray is the top seed. Keep an eye on #2 seed and defending champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia and nine-time French Open winner, #4 seed Spaniard Rafael Nadal.
Golf
How the mighty have fallen. Legendary golfer Tiger Woods was arrested on DUI charges in Florida early Monday morning. Woods, 41, has won 14 Major titles but none since 2008. Tiger has had a rough time lately having had four back surgeries the past three years and having only played in three tournaments over the last couple years.
Major League Baseball (MLB)
So young and so talented…The best baseball player in a generation is 25-year-old Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout. The two-time American League MVP is among the leaders in all major statistics. That’s great but…his team is mediocre and likely won’t make the playoffs, and Trout hurt his hand over the weekend likely keeping him out for six to eight weeks.
Source: Gammons Daily
In the National league the MVP frontrunner is another young stud, Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper. The 24-year-old has an MVP under his belt and is leading the Nats to a runaway division lead. Harper got into a fight with the opposing pitcher during Monday’s game but cooler heads should prevail the rest of the season.
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