maybe this year's green bay superbowl win but before the playoffs i already foresaw it. i even posted in facebook that greenbay's quarterback protection was so good they can easily outscore any team any given sunday. every snap i always had a feeling they will get a big play because of the time the quarterback had to throw the football. with dallas i really thought they will be clobbered by portland, but they won, then i thought they will be clobbered by lakers, instead they swept the lakers, then most experts and analysts said that the age of dallas won't be able to match the speed and talent of okc. that's 3 amazing upsets. but 4th one? against 3 superstar talents? if it was a movie i would laugh because it's too unrealistic. but it actually happened in real life.
especially the way they knocked out the big favorites - early in the series there was a pivotal game where they were down late in the game which made their opponent confident and then all of a sudden they did a miraculous comeback that probably sucked the life out of their opponent and their opponent never recovered. what's even more unbelievable is they did this to 3 overwhelmingly favored teams to win the championship.
also the way they won it was through pure shooting - they had a disadvantage in athleticism and speed and disadvantage in talent and moves. what blew my mind was when they would pass the ball to terry or dirk for a 3 point during a fast break even in 2-1 situations. when you do that you are basically shouting to the world "we suck and our only chance of winning is shooting open shots any chance we have". everytime dallas is open it's like "holy crap this is our only chance to score so i better take this shot". for miami, lakers and okc it was like "i'm open, but why shoot when i should be able to just drive past these old geezers".
and then there was the coaching style of coach carlyle. it gave me one of those personal vindication moments. i used to play basketball leagues and one of my strategy was try to identify the weak shooters of the opponent and tell my teammates to leave them open or let them shoot. but of course it's unorthodox and my teammates will shrug me off because it's not normal and the bible of basketball is to never leave your man open. it always frustrated me that my teammates won't listen to what i thought was an effective strategy. but i kept noticing that dallas defense late in the game was always to let their opponent who is having a poor shooting night shoot the ball - leave them open and hope they will miss. this strategy is a gamble but if your defense has mismatch disadvantages it could be your best hope for a stop. also i did not hear any tv and radio analyst notice and mention this strategy. maybe only unorthodox dudes like me can notice unorthodox ways :-) thank god for golf where i don't have to deal with narrow minded teammates who can't think outside the box. that is why sometimes i traumatize opponents when i kick their butt in golf because it's hard to believe i can even play with my unorthordox awkward looking swing - i was invited to play in my father's golf club in palm springs and in our flight was a pga pro and i beat him by more than 5 strokes. at the end of the game it was so obvious he was in shock my father had to talk to him to try to make him feel better.
pure shooting alone can probably win you a game or 2 but 4 series with best of 7? never happened in the history of basketball.
then the main scorers were old losers most of their careers - dirk always losing in the 1st round and experts saying he is too soft to win a ring, jkid - very poor shooting most of his career, barea - 5'10 hispanic then there is jet's tatoo of the trophy before the season even started - very very gutsy and borderline stupid. then there is the 2006 huge upset they got from the same miami team - a rematch 5 years later and they win.
the giants superbowl win over the patriots was just as miraculous but it was just a single game and there was not much drama in the other playoff games. it is much harder to pull off an upset in basketball because it is a 7 game series so it's much much harder for an underdog to sneak in an upset. i also have to mention the manning brothers story did make that superbowl win more special. imagine you come in to the league where your brother is already a superstar and people call you "payton's brother" and then you win a superbowl so now they call payton "eli's brother". hehehe.
tom brady's first ring also comes close but the team did not really have so many stories of upsets and negative criticsm before that.
also john ellway of denver broncos comes close (3 superbowl losses before), but before the playoffs they were the #1 team already, they were so dominant in the regular season, the same with steve young and the 49'ers. they were already the overwhelming favorites that season.
then there's dirk's 39 straight free throws. that's unbelievable. that's not human. but here is what really blows my mind - he did it twice !!! holy cow !!! and here's the most amazing part - this was during critical games where if he missed just 3 they would not be champions (They only won by 2 points in that game).
maybe the detroit pistons win over kobe-shaq lakers comes close but detroit was young and fast, and not much history of upsets and criticism.
michael jordan's first ring also comes close but jordan was already a demi-god when he won his first ring and also no history of upsets and criticism.
and dallas is the the only team i know in history of sports with an owner (mark cuban) who is so enthusiastic and so passionate about his team to the point that he was ridiculed and insulted many times - (e.g. donald trump calling him a loser on national tv). this made the victory even sweeter and more special.
dirk is the only player to lead a team to a championship and was a nobody for the first few years in the league - he was just a bench warmer - not even second string. he looked like one of those 7 footers who would just sit on the bench a few games then disappear and end up playing in europe or japan. a player has never really gone from that to that.
i've always loved cuban's character - of all the clowning and colorful acts he was criticized for, i always knew he was a class act. this was evident when he let the original owner receive and hoist the trophy. during my 30+ years as a sports fan mark cuban is the only owner of a major sports team i know of who has been insulted and ridiculed publicly and win in the end without having to have a kobe/shaq or lebron/wade/bosh players - makes the victory more special.
i can easily relate to dirk's unorthodox but effective ways. he is a 7 footer so he should not be shooting 3 points or fade away jumpers right?
(for more of my knowledge bombs, click the "ian's knowledge bombs" banner at the top of this article and choose any article in the table of contents that piques your interest)
No comments:
Post a Comment