The 2018-19 NBA season kicks off with many new features and unknowns, but in the meantime with two certainties. The first is that after four seasons in a row marked by the duopoly Golden State Warriors – Cleveland Cavaliers (the only case in the history of a final repeated four consecutive times), this year we can safely rule out yet another anniversary. If the Warriors, further strengthened by the purchase of DeMarcus Cousins, on paper one of the strongest centers in the league, can certainly aspire to the fourth title in five years, the Cavaliers could even struggle to qualify for the playoffs. The reason lies precisely in the second certainty of the NBA championship that starts tonight: all the lights are on new adventure of LeBron James, who left his Cavs to land for the first time in his career in the Western Conference (historically considered higher level than the Eastern, where Akron's Predestined dominated by hitting 8 finals in the last 8 seasons with Miami and Cleveland) to wear the glorious yellow-purple Los Angeles Lakers jersey.
James' move to California was the coup of the century: certainly for him, as he has signed a 4 year contract is will earn him $1 per second ($154 million net over the four-year period), but also for the Lakers, who fell into disgrace after the farewell of Kobe Bryant and eager to get back competitive as quickly as possible, thanks to the managerial direction of the former star Magic Johnson and the technical and charismatic one of the highest paid basketball player in the history of the maximum world basketball championship. LeBron will lead a patrol of emerging youngsters, who will hardly achieve important results from the first year, but who will in the meantime be able to regain access to the playoffs and then grow over the years, to who knows give The King the fourth ring of his career. The young Ball, Kuzma, Ingram will be joined by other veterans such as Rondo and Stephenson, while the starting center is the former Warriors and reigning NBA champion Javale McGee.
Apart from the attention inevitably paid to the Lakers, the one that starts tonight with two big matches (GS Warriors-Oklahoma City Thunder and Philadelphia 76ers-Boston Celtics) is a balanced NBA, with two obligatory favorites for the final in early June: on the one hand the San Francisco Bay team, favorite for the final victory and to lengthen a cycle that is increasingly reminiscent of that of the Chicago Bulls of the 90s; on the other, the Boston Celtics, who are recovering stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward and can count on one of the best coaches in the league, the brilliant young Brad Stevens. In the West, on paper, the Houston Rockets will certainly have their say, one step away from the final last year and further strengthened by the arrival of the eternal incomplete Carmelo Anthony. With him, James Harden and Chris Paul, there will be plenty of offensive solutions.
Also keep an eye on the Utah Jazz, Danilo Gallinari's Clippers, the Spurs orphaned by Ginobili, Parker and Leonard and restarting from DeRozan, and the Dallas Mavericks themselves, indicated as the possible surprise after the arrival of European star Luka Doncic. In the East the Philadelphia 76ers will try to annoy the Celtics (immediately the direct confrontation), a revelation team from last season, in which the other Italian, Marco Belinelli, had managed to find space as a protagonist, returned to San Antonio where however he could also play a starting shirt, taking advantage of the air of renewal and various injuries. Not to be underestimated, always in the East, Toronto, which can play the Kawhi Leonard card, the Indiana Pacers and the New York Knicks.
The championship also opens with a mourning, deeply felt especially in the parts of Portland: Paul Allen died on Monday 15 October, co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975 and patron of the Trail Blazers franchise for 30 years, which led to playing two NBA finals, in 1990 and 1992, as well as regularly qualifying for the playoffs (23 times out of 30). Allen, who died at 65 from a recurrence of lymphoma that he had already defeated in 2009, had a great passion for sport, which went beyond basketball: he was also the owner of the Seattle Seahawks football team, NFL champion in 2013.
