Last night concluded one of the most entertaining NBA series in a couple years as Golden State became the first 8 seed in the history of the NBA to win a 7 game series.   And El Pres watched every minute of every game.     I guess that’s the benefit of being able to sleep kind of late because most of the games ended around 1:30 am EST.   Anyway, my guess is that I was the only person in Boston who was watching which is a shame.    I feel like people in Boston love to say that the NBA sucks.  But for all those people who bash the NBA around here, trust me when I say you have no idea what you’re talking about.  The NBA still has a great product and if the Celtics can get back into the mix, I guarantee that it will become just as hot a ticket as the Red Sox and Patriots. 

As for the Golden State upset, I was totally stunned by the result.   I had Dallas winning the Championship this year.   They’ve really been the best team in the league the past two seasons.  But for some reason they suck against Golden State.  And it wasn’t just in this series.   Golden State beats them almost every time they play.    I’ve really never seen anything like it where the best team in the league just can’t beat a middle of the road team for some reason.    Going into the series I kind of thought the fact that Dallas had struggled with Golden State was a fluke and I would have bet my house on the Mavs to win this in 5 games at the most.  But by game 4, I was convinced that Dallas had no shot at winning the series.    And what the hell happened to Dirk Nowitzki?    I was totally drinking the Dirk cool aide.   I’ve seen him play a million times and he’s virtually unstoppable almost all the time. Hell Cedric Maxwell said he thought Dirk was better than Larry Bird.    But you can throw all that out the window as Dirk did one of the great disappearing acts in the history of the NBA Playoffs.  That in itself was fascinating to watch.   Mix in a little Charles Barkley and his ongoing battle with the city of Oakland and it was truly great entertainment.  

 (As a side note, this series presented some of the easiest gambling opportunities of all time as Dallas was favored in every game this series even thought it was obvious they weren’t as good.)  

Double Side Note - Is that Larry Walker taunting Mark Cuban?