Will this NBA championship really be the most challenging to win ever?

4 years ago

It is moving closer, this restarted NBA season that will be – depending who you listen to – the most competitive, least competitive, toughest, easiest, quietest, most controversial and most argumentative campaign that we’ve ever seen, even before it has gotten underway again.

No one can quite agree on what the significance of winning a championship will be under the NBA’s reimagined rules, as 22 teams descend upon Orlando to strive for a title with no one but themselves in attendance.

There are still bumps in the road, with nine more players having tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday and the Los Angeles Clippers having shut their facility after a confirmed case in their traveling party. But when basketball does resume, it will be a thankful end to a pause that began in March and seemed truly endless at times.

Assuming that everything goes to plan for commissioner Adam Silver and his crew, a champion will be crowned some time in October, hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy and being enshrined forever as one of the league’s elite teams.

And that is where opinion starts to diverge the most, with some lines of thought suggesting that this title would somehow be less important than one collected on normal circumstances.

The asterisk, that most malodorous of punctuation marks when it comes to sports, has been mentioned more than once.

On the flip side is this combined voice coming strongly from the ranks of players making their way to Central Florida, as there is belief that this title might actually mean more than normal, given the obstacles the victorious team will have had to overcome.

“I think whoever wins should (have an) asterisk next (to) it,” Houston Rockets guard Austin Rivers told Bleacher Report. “But only for it being one of the toughest championships ever won. Asking guys to take 3-4 months off, then come back and find chemistry, then play during a pandemic, while players are fighting for (Black Lives Matter).

“There’s a lot going on right now. Crazy times and a lot of worry. And during these times, players are leaving families to go live in a locked down bubble. For all these reasons and more, I think it will be one of the tougher championships ever won.”

All-Star Game captain Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks agreed. “I feel like this is going to be the toughest championship you could ever win, because the circumstances are really, really tough right now.”

Some will never see it that way. For many, the NBA Finals is supposed to look a certain way, and there is no way to replicate that given the current situation.

“The truth is this will be by far the easiest championship ever there was to win,” FOX Sports’ Skip Bayless said on Undisputed. “These players do not have to travel to a single game. There is no air travel. There are no coast-to-coast flights, no time zone changes. You’ll have everything set up in your own room. You’re not in solitary confinement. You’re in Disney World heaven.”

Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal also weighed in during the NBA’s hiatus, going so far as to say that this season will come with such an asterisk that the season should be canceled: “To try and come back now and do a rush playoffs as a player? Any team that wins this year, there’s an asterisk. They’re not going to get the respect.”

It is insufferably boring to be the fence sitter in the middle of any argument, but that’s right where I find myself here. Yes, there is no travel. Moreover, the rest conferred by the past few months could do certain teams like LeBron’s Lakers a world of good. But whoever wins it all won’t have been resting on their days off while others have been trekking all over the country. It is an even playing field.

And while the champion won’t have had to triumph on the road, they don’t get home-court advantage and all that entails, either.

Now the players will have to raise themselves without the typical atmosphere they have been accustomed to their entire careers not once, but probably around 30 times, should a team make the Finals. Again, it is the same for everyone, but the requirement to get motivated feels like an appropriate challenge of willpower that will reward the mentally toughest and most resilient.

Will it be the toughest title ever, though? That remains to be seen, with so many questions still ahead. It will be difficult, to be sure, but we won’t know how those unique circumstances stack up until the players are in the middle of it. And we certainly won’t know how hard a path a team will have to take on the court to a ring this year.

The challenges are varied and complex. The title will be different – but more than worthy to stand alongside those historical champions that prevailed in the past.

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