NBA Finals 2023: Denver Nuggets Winning Championship Is Better For Basketball Than LA Lakers Lifting Larry O'Brien Trophy
Denver Nuggets Nikola Jokic juggled to hold the NBA Finals 2023 Most Valuable Player (MVP) trophy, presented by National Basketball Association (NBA) Commissioner Adam Silver, as her daughter in his arms was getting all his attention. After the Nuggets closed out Game 5 against Miami Heat, 94-89, sweeping the series 4-1, it was evident that with stats like Jokic, there was no other player who can be named the holder of the Bill Russell Trophy (NBA Finals MVP).
One may not be familiar with the Nuggets or Jokic as much as one may have heard of the Los Angeles Lakers or LeBron James despite not following the NBA or basketball in general. As Mile High City collect their first NBA title in 47 years, it is to be understood that a win by the dynamic pairing of Jokic and Jamal Murray is not just good for the city of Denver but also for basketball globally.
A thing to note is that American athletes are known to dominate the basketball sphere. With multiple Olympic medals and being host to the best pro basketball league, NBA, it has been a natural course where American players and franchises in popular cities or states like New York, California, and Texas have been dominant always.
LeBron And Lakers — Storied Franchise And Generational Player
LeBron James-led Los Angeles Lakers defeated the 2022 NBA champions Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference semi-finals this year, setting up a Western Conference Finals (WCF) match-up with Denver Nuggets. NBA analysts said that Denver led by two times league MVP Nikola Jokic is not an even match for the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals (WCF).
Favouritism comes from the passion for following the sport of basketball. NBA analysts and pundits often debate if LeBron is the GOAT (greatest of all time), and once you have a stellar resume like him you are always the favourite.
Even the Lakers as a franchise have more acceptance in the league with 17 NBA titles to their name and the last one coming as recent as 2020 with LeBron at the core. Once they cleared the hurdle of the Warriors, being pitted against the Nuggets seemed an easy task.
Despite trailing the WCF series, the Lakers were considered to have a fair shot of winning it all. It irked the Nuggets' coach Michael Malone so much that he came out all guns blazing after Game 2.
“A lot of our guys, to be honest, they may not admit this, you win Game 1 of the playoffs and all everybody talked about was the Lakers... Let’s be honest. The national narrative was, ‘Hey, the Lakers are fine. They’re down 1-0 but they figured something out. No one talked about how Nikola just had a historic performance. He’s got 13 (playoff) triple-doubles now, third all-time. What he’s doing is just incredible, but the narrative wasn’t about the Nuggets. The narrative wasn’t about Nikola. The narrative was about the Lakers and their adjustments,” Malone said in the press conference after leading the series 2-0 against LA Lakers. The Nuggets eventually ended up sweeping the Lakers 4-0.
As Denver have now bagged the championship title, the league-wide shoutout will be that star players can be honed on franchises that have been in trophy drought for long or markets which are not too popular.
Changing Narrative, Global NBA
The Serbian and Canadian dynamic duo, now the faces of the NBA lifting the Larry O'Brien Trophy, are also going to push for the global change that NBA has been missing.
The last foreign player to be truly the face of the NBA was the German player Dirk Nowitzki after he led Dallas Mavericks to the NBA trophy in 2011. While the Nigerian-born Hakeem Olajuwon won NBA championships with Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995, his legacy is sandwiched between one of the most famous names ever in basketball — Michael Jordan.
Serb Nikola Jokic is putting up historical stat lines, with two regular season MVP trophies and now an NBA Finals MVP trophy and an NBA championship to his name, the narrative should move away from historic franchises like the Lakers, Celtics and others being NBA favourite and lesser known teams getting global recognition.
The narrative will also move to players who are not American, as the dominance by foreign players is coming to fruition now.
The NBA world eagerly awaits French player Victor Wembanyama to be recruited soon in the league while Slovenian Luka Doncic, Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo or Cameroon-born Joel Embiid are already considered franchise players and forces to reckon with. With two foreign players, Jokic and Murray, now winning the NBA championships, the sport of basketball will become global.
Not just from the perspective of the NBA being broadcast in multiple nations but players from different countries leaving their mark and becoming the face of the NBA.
[Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs, and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal.]
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