For all the lovers of the most spectacular basketball in the world, the wait is finally over, last night the season of NBA phenomena started and, after the long preseason, we started to get serious.
The first ball was raised just after midnight Italian and saw Cleveland and Washington face off, 94-84 the final result for the Cavs, but the highlight of this opening night came an hour later when the defending champions of the Miami Heat hosted the great rivals of the Boston Celtics, in a challenge with a particular flavor especially for the 37-year-old Ray Allen, who moved to Miami in the summer after not agreeing to sign a renewal with Boston, a team with which he has been was the absolute protagonist forming the Big Three with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett and helping to restore the title in 2008 to the most successful franchise in the league, but which had not been since 1986. The shirt change of the best three-point shooter in NBA history aroused much clamor precisely for the fact that he went to the other side of the fence, in the same team that has challenged several times in recent years when their paths crossed in the playoffs, such as in the hard-fought conference final last year, at the end won 4-3 by the Heat. The reason for his decision (in addition to trying to win another title by playing in the team with the strongest card) would have arisen from disagreements with his former partner Rajon Rondo, but the player does not seem to have left in the best way not only with him since Garnett even declared that he had immediately deleted his number from the address book, for his part Allen reiterated how the Celtics are now the past and that he is more focused than ever on his present in Florida.
From words he moved on to the field, in fact with his 19 points he contributed to the victory of his new team 120 to 107 over his former green-and-white teammates, who at the sound of the final siren didn't even look at him and returned running to the locker room. Miami was in front from the beginning and firmly managed the whole match making the decisive stretch in the third quarter, before rejecting a comeback attempt by Boston in the final, triggered by the Brazilian Barbosa protagonist of an incredible last period in which he scored all of his 16 points. For the Heat, solid performance from its big three: James, still sore in his ankle, finished with 26 points, Wade was the best scorer with 29 and crossed the 15000-point mark in his career, while Bosh contributed 19 points, also worth mentioning is Rashard Lewis' good debut in the Heat jersey (10 points). For the Celtics, on the other hand, the best was Pierce, who demonstrated with his 23 points that he will be the team leader again this year and if there is a hard time in Miami he will certainly not back down, helped from the genius of Rajon Rondo, 20 points last night.
Before the start of the match, the ritual of handing over the rings to the players who triumphed last June took place and the banner celebrating the victory of the title was hoisted on the ceiling of the AmericanAirlinese Arena, the second for Miami after that of 2006. the ceremony, however, coach Spoelstra's players were not distracted and wanted to complete their evening by not risking repeating what happened in the first game after the delivery of the rings six years ago, when they were badly defeated by Chicago 108 to 66 (although only Dwayne Wade and Udonis Haslem are left of that lineup today).
The Heat are still the big favorites for the final victory, their roster has remained almost unchanged and, as mentioned, they have added Allen to their super trio James-Wade-Bosh (with the latter who will play with the arrival of the former Celtics steadily from the center). LeBron James, named MVP three times in the last four seasons, after last year's success has finally removed the weight of being defined as a non-winner and now, at almost 28 years old, he seems to have reached such strength and maturity that will take him certainly to win still other titles and presumably not a few, he, "the Chosen One", in the meantime limited himself to saying that he wanted to become the best ever. In the east, behind Miami it is difficult to elect a real antagonist that stands out from the others, but we can speak of a group of excellent teams that will be able to grow and have their say during the season.
Obviously, the Boston Celtics themselves cannot be ignored, coach Doc Rivers will once again rely on the inspiration of Rondo and the "old men" Pierce and Garnett, who this year will have the task of brooding a group of young talents, one above all the former Ohio State star Jared Sullinger, dropped to the twenty-first pick of the last draft due to his slightly short height and slightly battered back, but who in recent months has already shown the his enormous talent. The expert Jason Terry arrived from Dallas to occupy the piece vacated by Allen's farewell. The Chicago Bulls may still have the most complete and most tested roster, the team that has had the best record in the last two regular seasons and that two years ago came one step away from returning to play in the finals, but which until February will be able to count on its star Derrick Rose (MVP 2011), still recovering after the operation this summer on the cruciate knee ligament broken during the first round of the playoffs against Philadelphia, an episode that compromised the continuation of the Bulls' journey in the following rounds. The surprise, or rather the confirmation after the good last season, could be the Indiana Pacers, a team that without too many proclamations has managed to create a nice solid group of excellent players and who get many centimeters under the basket, among which Roy Hibbert, Danny Granger and Paul George.
And then there is a lot of curiosity about the New York challenge between the Knicks and the newcomers Brooklyn Nets, who moved from New Jersey and whose owners also include the famous rapper Jay-Z. As for the former, whose fate is linked to the plays of Carmelo Anthony and Stoudemire, one has the feeling that at least for this year the external media circus will still have the upper hand on the results on the pitch, without forgetting that the roster has lost that Jeremy Lin who suddenly exploded in the second half of last season driving all the Big Apple fans crazy with his Linsanity, but who signed a $ 25,1 million contract with Houston in the summer, a figure that New York has not was able to tie having already closed an important deal with Portland to bring back Felton, the point guard who will take Lin's place, a boy who has indeed been able to put in a series of crazy games (which started against the Nets) but who has yet to confirm everything its value. Around the newcomers, however, there is great enthusiasm, the player to rely on is certainly Deron Williams, who has declared that playing in New York is something special, and the owner Mikhail Prokhrov has promised the conquest of the ring in three years later, in the meantime the first derby is scheduled for Thursday night in the futuristic Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
In the west, the third and final game of this opening night of the 2012-2013 season was played in the night, between the eagerly awaited Los Angeles Lakers and the Dallas Mavericks. The yellow-purples were defeated 99-91 on their own parquet and if we consider the preseason games this was the ninth consecutive misstep for Bryant and his companions, nothing tragic, but a bad negative streak to stop as soon as possible. In front of excellent fans of the caliber of singers Katy Perry and Adam Levine, soccer players David Beckham and Robbie Keane and boxer Floyd Mayweather (just to name a few), who didn't want to miss the first fight at the Staples Center, the big favorites of this year to challenge Miami they surrendered to the Texans without Dirk Nowitzki, still struggling with knee problems, and who are now distant relatives of the group that became champions only two years ago. For Dallas a good team performance with six players in double figures (best scorer Collison with 17 points), while for Los Angeles to record 45 points for the award-winning company Bryant-Gasol, as well as 19 points for Dwight Howard and 7 for Steve Nash , the two big market hits this summer.
The Lakers, according to the vast majority of insiders, this year are identified as those who will contend for the title against the Miami Heat to the end, as Bryant and Gasol (who in recent seasons have too often found themselves fighting alone) have joined one of the strongest point guards of the last twenty years, a football-loving Canadian elf who at 38 is still in splendid shape and who with his intelligence would excel in any other practicable sport, namely Steve Nash, and the best defender and strongest center in recent years, or Superman Dwight Howard, snatched from the Orlando Magic and for which Andrew Bynum was sacrificed, diverted to Philadelphia. With the addition of Metta World Peace they form an extraordinary quintet that on paper should be perfect, with perhaps the best players in the league for each position, so this could really be the right year for Kobe to reach the sixth ring like Michael Jordan.
However, there is no shortage of rivals in the west, starting with those Oklahoma City Thunder finalists in June who came out defeated mainly due to their lack of experience. The Thunder are certainly the most athletic and exciting team in the tournament and this year too they are showing up with the clear intention of going all the way and trying to win their first historic title. They will try to do it again counting on their group of young champions, led by the two phenomena who respond to the names of Kevin Durant (best scorer of the last three seasons) and Russell Westbrook, but this time they will have to do without James Harden, the best sixth man last year and key element of the game of the Thunder, spent only a few days ago in Houston because Oklahoma was unable to renew his contract expiring next summer. For Scott Brooks' team it is a serious loss, even if two interesting players like Martin and Lamb have arrived in exchange, while for Barba now at the Rockets it is a question of proving to be a star and not just a strong supporting actor.
This year we will have to pay even more attention to the Los Angeles Clippers of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, who have strengthened the bench and can count on elements such as Caron Butler, Chauncey Billups and Lamar Odom, who fortunately seems to have set aside his TV engagements in which he'd been pulled into by his partner (one of the super socialite Kardashian sisters) and which saw him more time on reality TV than on the field. Odom returns to Los Angeles, but changing sides, no longer that of the Lakers where he played for many years, but choosing the other team in the city, the one that has always been considered the unlucky and perennially losing side, but which perhaps has decided that The time has come to change history.
To complete the picture in the west, we must not forget the immortal San Antonio Spurs of the Duncan-Parker-Ginobili trio, who already started a renewal process last year that saw the young Kawhi Leonard emerge in a big way, as well as the Minnesota Timberwolves , who however will still have to wait for their two most important players still out due to their respective injuries, namely the star Kevin Love and the young Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio, but who can count on the return to the NBA of Brandon Roy and the Russian Kirilenko. Finally, pay attention to the ambitious Denver Nuggets, continuously improving year after year, a team with great offensive skills and a fast pace that with the purchase of a man like Andre Iguodala from Philadelphia has made a further leap in quality, also and above all from the point of defensive view.
Speaking of young promises, the most eagerly awaited new face is that of Anthony Davis, first overall pick of last June's draft, born March 11, 1993 and already on the bulletin board an NCAA title with Kentucky and an Olympic gold obtained in London when he was summoned among the great. It is said that he could become the new Kevin Garnett and the bet is already on his double-double (points and rebounds) average and on his presence in the first defensive quintet of the year, for the moment he has already become the idol of New Orleans , formation that also took the young Austin Rivers, the son of the coach of Boston Doc. Other new talents that already this year could impose themselves on the general public are, among others, point guard Damian Lilliard in Portland, guard Bradley Beal in Washington and the Andre Drummond Center in Detroit.
This which has just begun will also be the last complete season under commissioner David Stern, who announced his retirement from February 2014, XNUMX, on the thirtieth anniversary of his appointment, when he will leave the place to his current deputy Adam Silver. The seventy-year-old number one in the league has always been a controversial character with a very strong personality, not loved by many, but it is recognized by all that he was the commissioner who made the NBA movement make the leap in quality, making it rich and glamorous and giving it international visibility, going beyond the US borders and also expanding into Canada. David Stern will forever remain as the most important NBA commissioner, the one who has contributed to making the history of this sport, also thanks to the presence over the years of champions and personalities such as Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan. Obviously, in these thirty years there have been problems of various kinds and moments of difficulty, such as the four lockouts that were made, the last one just a year ago, when the season was almost halved and it was only possible to start playing at the end of December .
Fortunately for the players and for all the fans, this risk was not taken this year, the tournament started on time and will reserve 82 regular season games for each team, practically one every three days, a continuous show that only the NBA can offer. Already tonight, in fact, another nine games will be staged and it will be like this until the playoffs in May, it's just a pity that in this beginning people like Rose, Love, Stoudemire, Nowitzki, Rubio, Billups are away from the fields due to various injuries, but the season, as mentioned, is very long and they will certainly have time to make up for everyone!
