Let’s move on from posts with references to horses with no names back to comments about heroes and opportunities as demonstrated in the 2016 NBA Finals.
The winner of the championship series between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers is determined by the first team to win four out of seven games.
The series started off looking like it would be rout because the Warriors destroyed the Cavaliers in several games and ran up a 3-1 advantage.
Typically the team that is down never recovers from that.
However a couple of things happened during this series that might have turned expectations for a Warriors win upside down.
Live And Learn
Draymond Green is one of the emotional leaders of the Warriors. He plays hard and is never afraid to mix it up.
A lot of teams want a player like that because they feed off of their energy and hustle.
The thing is the game isn’t all physical. You have to use your head as well as your heart and Draymond Green forgot or ignored that.
It led to his being suspended for a game and everything changed after that.
The Cavaliers capitalized on Green’s absence and won the next few games tying up the series at three games a piece.
Now you can argue and debate how much blame should be applied to Green and how much should be shared by his teammates.
Wins and losses are based upon a team effort, but some players have more influence than others.
All you have to do is look at the impact LeBron makes on his team to see the proof of that.
He never quit playing hard and pushing his team to keep trying, even when it looked like they were going to be blown out of the series.
A Life Lesson From The NBA Finals
I am not a Warriors or Cavaliers fan, I’ll always be a Lakers fan but I love the effort and refusal to give up.
That is a life lesson I have tried to impress upon my kids. I pointed out more than once how this proves you don’t give up and you play hard.
And I made sure to point out how Green’s suspension changed the momentum of the series.
It is possible that the Cavaliers might have rallied and come back without that, but it sure didn’t look like it would happen and now we’ll never know.
But we do know there is a relationship between all of these events and that is good enough for me.
Because this series helps me provide my children with proof that hard work can lead to good things.
It is not just a lesson about sports but something that you can apply to all aspects of our lives.
Working hard and playing hard is important but being a good teammate is important too. What we do impacts others.
We won’t know until Sunday night who is going to win the series. All we have now is is our personal prognostication.
If fortune smiles upon Green the Warriors will win and people will forget about the suspension, but if they don’t, well he’ll have to live the consequences of his behavior.
People may forgive him and call it a team effort, or they may not.
Bottom line is people remember how you make them feel and this is probably not going to give them warm and fuzzy feelings.
Based upon what I saw last night I am thinking Green might want to see if the hot air balloon in the picture above is available.
Might be a good time to take a long trip, time will tell.
Larry June 17, 2016 at 2:30 pm
I think you are over emphasizing Green’s importance in all this.
Either way, why this series? Couldn’t you have said that about many series/teams etc? It’s one of the great things about sports.
Joshua Wilner June 17, 2016 at 3:13 pm
I could have picked a different series but this just happened to be the on now. Since it had clear teaching moments in it I ran with it.
As for Green, well look at what happened before his suspension and what came after.
The cavs were on the ropes and then they weren’t.