Everyone has correctly touted this as one of the best games of the year, maybe of the decade. They’re right, it was! I had to watch it two days after it happened (I was working the election, more on that soon). I already knew who won, who was transcendental, and so on. Normally I’d move on to the next game, but I tuned in for a few minutes and then watched the whole thing. It was still a great watch. Everything professional basketball should be.
Why?
- It featured the top players of the league. Not your Jalen Brunson, Jaylen Brown, Donovan Mitchell, Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Maxey, etc. The top three players in the NBA are obviously Wemby, SGA, and Jokic, whatever order you put them in. We had two of the top three players going at it.
- Wemby is just ridiculously entertaining to watch. One of my good friends who has steadily soured on the NBA is coming back just for Wemby. It’s not just his physical talents, as incredible as they are. It’s the sense that on any play you might see something that no other human being has ever done. Literally. It’s seeing every other player, star or not, completely rethink their strategy based on him. And his attitude. He is driven. In a good way. He gives a shit when others don’t. His attitude singl-handedly saved the All Star game. He is arrogant, but appropriately so. He doesn’t mind showing emotion. He isn’t fake humble. He thinks he’s the best and goes out to prove it every game. He doesn’t bitch and moan to refs, he doesn’t do cheap shots, he doesn’t flop – he just plays basketball every night. He’s ferocious.
- OKC is also very entertaining. I’m on record as not liking SGAs game, but damn, even when he’s bad he’s good. Where other players jab step or change speed in one step, SGA does it within the same step. I don’t know how he leans so much without taking a step, how do you guard it? I love Chet, I love Caruso, and watching the whole team play defense is a joy. Just running hard and going all out goes a long way.
- Both teams play different than other teams. It wasn’t an endless series of drive/kick/3-point attempts.
- Both teams trying all out.
- The game was close the whole way. You didn’t have to wait until the fourth quarter to see what was going to happen.
- Overtime! And overtime again!
- The home crowd was great. It was a sea of blue. OKC didn’t have to ask their fans to buy tickets. They yelled and supported the whole game.
- The in-arena noise was kept down. You could hear the fans cheering because they weren’t blaring all the stupid noises every other team does. This is an enormous pet peeve of mine, I give this feedback to the Hawks every year. When your team is good, you don’t need to cater to the 10-year olds. It was such a pleasure to watch basketball.
I dunno. What can you say. An epic game. I can’t wait for Game 2 tonight.