It’s in playoffs where stars are really made
Like presidents and rock stars, they have achieved elite, one-name status. There’s Shaq, LeBron, Kobe and Dirk, not to mention Duncan, Nash, Wade and Artest.
Quite possibly, no sport puts its star players on display better than the NBA does with its playoffs. The league’s popularity hit its zenith at a time when Magic and Bird, Michael and Isiah were hoisting championship trophies in champagne-soaked celebrations.
The playoff chase begins today, and the league’s brightest stars will be on center stage over the weekend.
LeBron James, so often compared to Michael Jordan, is headed into the playoffs for the first time in his already-brilliant career. Kobe Bryant has his Los Angeles Lakers back in the postseason again after a one-year absence, trying to prove a singular star can will greatness out of a mediocre team.
Also, Miami center Shaquille O’Neal is hoping to make another deep march into the playoffs and back into title contention along with Detroit and San Antonio.
The stars are out again for the NBA, and they know that all eyes are on them.
“People follow what you did during the regular season, but it’s what you do in the playoffs that matter because everything is so magnified,” said Washington’s Gilbert Arenas, one of the game’s rising stars and the NBA’s fourth-leading scorer (29.3 ppg.) this season. “The cameras are on you now. The critics are watching. This is when you step up your game.”
If the playoffs hold to the regular season’s form, the ensembles could outshine the solo artists. Detroit and San Antonio have been the best teams, racking up 64 and 63 victories, respectively. If the playoffs take the same shape, the postseason could end the same way it did last season.
If the Pistons and Spurs meet again, it would be the 12th time in NBA history that the same two teams have played in the NBA Finals two consecutive seasons.
Fans also have been waiting to see James and his Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs since he entered the NBA three seasons ago. Just 21, James put together one of the finest all-around seasons in the modern era, making sure the Cavaliers made it to the playoffs where they face Washington.
Eyes also will be affixed on Bryant as he and his Lakers try to upset the fun-and-gun Phoenix Suns. Bryant, the league’s top scorer, averaged the most points in the NBA (35.4) in 18 seasons.
As for O’Neal’s bid to make it back to the finals for a fifth time? Former NBA star Charles Barkley, now a TNT analyst, thinks he’s in for another disappointment.
“(Miami) can’t beat Detroit,” Barkley said. “They’re not athletic enough and they have trouble guarding athletic people, guards especially.”
Notes
Miami Heat coach Pat Riley will be with his team for Game 1 of the Miami’s Eastern Conference quarterfinal today, despite the death of his 96-year-old mother, Mary. … The Charlotte Bobcats won a tiebreaker with the Atlanta Hawks, giving them a slightly better chance of landing the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. Charlotte and Atlanta tied for the league’s third-worst record. The top three picks in the June draft will be determined by the lottery. The remaining teams in the lottery will make picks 4-14 in reverse order of the final standings. Portland had the league’s worst record and has the best chance of winning the lottery. The New York Knicks were second, but they have traded their first-round pick to Chicago.