Revenge is also fine hot. Gregg Popovich must have thought of this while his players (all of them, from first to last) bombed the Miami Heat basket. It's fine even hot, also because if there's one thing San Antonio doesn't have on its side, it's the weather. Time to let it cool, that revenge, before serving it. Time to stop time and the hands, and the years that pass inexorably, for everyone.
The San Antonio Spurs beat Lebron James' Miami Heat in last year's re-run of the Finals and are NBA champions for the fifth time in their history. The fifth since the Popovich-Duncan partnership was formed in 1997, one of the most enduring and successful marriages in the history of American basketball.
The Mvp of the finals is the youngest of the black and silver troop: Kawhi Leonard, author of an amazing series on both sides of the field. Yesterday, 22 points and 10 rebounds for him, a living and winning symbol of the new wave Spurs, the new blood that brought San Antonio back to the throne of the NBA. The ranks of field commander of the troop will probably pass to him: Tim Duncan's paternal hug to his teammates, at the end of the game, has the flavor of a very sweet farewell, and even Manu Ginobili could say goodbye, closing with the fourth title Nba his amazing career.
It feels like the end of an era, the best possible. Even on the era of losers, the Miami Heat of the big three (four consecutive finals and two titles) could roll the credits: the streets of James, Bosh and Wade risk dividing, in what promises to be a long, hot summer , down in Miami.
Lebron tried until the end, trying to set an example for his team with a first quarter to rub his eyes (17 points and a suffocating mark on Parker). But, after attacking headlong, he turned back and saw that none of his men had followed him: not Wade, who seems increasingly headed down the road to a premature sunset, nor Chris Bosh, nor Ray Allen or Rashard Lewis.
The Heat just don't have enough, or maybe the others have too much. From the second quarter onwards, the score of the black and silver symphony picks up where it left off, from the two away matches in Miami that dug the decisive furrow between the teams. Leonard is impregnable, Duncan is encyclopedic, Ginobili is in flames, but when he lights up he sows panic. Patty Mills enrolls in the list of one night heroes and bombs the Heat basket without any mercy. There is room for Marco Belinelli, who scores the first victory of an NBA title for an Italian player with four points.
The end credits roll on the series, with Tim Duncan hugging everyone, in tears. Whatever happens, an era ended tonight.
