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Breaking the Mold: The NBA Finals Showcasing Diverse Paths to Success
This year the NBA Finals does not feature super teams or legacy defining clashes, but instead a matchup of two teams that have taken two very different paths to success
It is often said that the NBA is a league of stars, and to win in this league you need multiple stars on your team. With a few exceptions (1979 Seattle SuperSonics and 2004 Detroit Pistons), this is mostly true. But what it also suggests is that there is only one way to win and one way to reach the Finals. Since the year 2000, 39 of the possible 46 Finals participants were top 3 seeds in their conference.
It has been understood that lower seeds in the playoffs were there to show a possibility of success, but were ultimately good for one shocking first round upset or as a tune up for the truly great teams in the league. But this year’s Finals are different. In the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat we have a clash between two paths. There is the slow build of Denver that was the best team in the Western Conference all year, going up against a team that barely made it out of the play-in tournament in the Heat. In the grand scheme of things, this Finals shows the basketball-watching world that there is more than one way to find success in this league.
