Latest news with #JerryWest
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Jerry West had no patience for NBA stars who constantly "bit--" at refs: "They start bit–-ing from the time they get into the league"
Jerry West had no patience for NBA stars who constantly "bit--" at refs: "They start bit–-ing from the time they get into the league" originally appeared on Basketball Network. Over the years, we've heard all kinds of takes from former players on what the modern NBA lacks: too soft, too friendly, too flashy, not enough defense, the list goes on. But when a guy like Jerry West, the man who saw it firsthand as a player, then relived it all again as a heck of an executive, gives his two cents, it holds tremendous value. And just before his passing, the man whose silhouette represents the league's logo made it clear there was one particular thing he couldn't stand about today's stars: the constant complaining, especially from the players who are just finding their footing in the big boys' league. "Basketball players… They have their own world they live in, because they watched, they learned from the older players. They learned one thing that I wish they wouldn't have — they start bit–-ing from the time they get into the league," West said during his recent appearance on the "JAXXON Podcast." "It is difficult to keep your concentration in the league. It's for the officials, I would throw anyone out of the game. If you don't respect me, how can I respect you?" the Logo added. West said exactly what he saw The legendary Hall of Famer didn't sugarcoat anything. This wasn't a grumpy old man ranting about how things were better back in his day. He just said it plainly as he saw things happen. Before there were private jets, luxury recovery rooms, and all the mind can imagine and the money can buy, there were trailblazers like Jerry. He wasn't just the legend of the game; he set the path for others to follow. And he expected the same focus and discipline from the generations that came after him. What West took issue with wasn't just the occasional reaction to a missed call. It was that same old boring thing where a player waves his hands, nagging and complaining. It's not just that it slows the game down or makes it less enjoyable to watch (and it sure does, whatever someone might say), but it diminishes the authority of the referee, and, in an instance, the whole Luka Doncic example There's no question the NBA has changed. And in many ways, for the better. The league is more global, more open-minded, and more player-empowered than ever before. But with that evolution come some unwanted things, like "bit—ing," as Mr. West mentioned. Even some of the brightest stars today aren't immune to those habits. Take Luka Doncic, for example, one of the most gifted players in the league who is now leading the same Purple and Gold West suited up for and being at the top of the MVP ladders for multiple campaigns in a row. But even with all that brilliance, he's become known for his constant back-and-forth dialogue with officials. His frustration with calls, or lack thereof, disrupts the game rhythm and often goes against his own team. And, most importantly, it's not the view to behold. And to be fair, West wasn't calling out names. He didn't have to; those in question know very well. The trend is widespread enough that even casual fans can see it. And it does take away from the beauty of the game. The respect should be one thing all the players should strive for, and it sure has to go both story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 15, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Walt Frazier, LeBron James and others who came up huge in Game 7 of NBA Finals
Nearly a decade passed between NBA Finals that went the distance. Sunday night's Game 7 between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers marked the first Finals to go seven games since 2016, when the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers finished off their historic series comeback against the Golden State Warriors. Advertisement Despite that drought, there is a long history of Game 7s in the NBA Finals. This year's Finals was the 20th to require seven games, a stretch that dates back to the early 1950s, when the Knicks lost back-to-back Game 7s in 1951 and 1952. That means there is no shortage of iconic Game 7 performances. Here are some of the best in the history of the NBA Finals. Bill Russell There are plenty of options to choose from with Russell, who famously went 5-0 with the Boston Celtics in Game 7s in the Finals (and 10-0 in Game 7s overall). But no statline was more gaudy than Russell's 30-point, 40-rebound eruption in 1962, when his Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, 110-107, in overtime. Advertisement The 40 rebounds remain a Finals Game 7 record. Russell also had 22 points and 35 rebounds in Game 7 in 1960, and 25 points and 32 rebounds in Game 7 in 1966. Jerry West Arguably the greatest Game 7 performance in NBA Finals history came in a losing effort. West had 42 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists in 1969, but his Lakers lost that grand finale, 108-106, to the Celtics. It was the first triple-double in Finals Game 7 history, and it remains the highest-scoring performance in a Finals Game 7. Walt Frazier It's known as the Willis Reed game, but Game 7 of the 1970 Finals went down as Frazier's finest moment. Advertisement Frazier scored 36 points on 12-of-17 shooting with seven rebounds and 19 assists to lead the Knicks to a 113-99 win over the Lakers — and the first championship in franchise history. The 19 assists remain a Finals Game 7 record. James Worthy The second triple-double in Finals Game 7 history also came courtesy of a Laker, with Worthy exploding for 36 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists in a 108-105 win over the Detroit Pistons in 1988. Magic Johnson had 19 points and 14 assists, while a 40-year-old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had four points and three rebounds. Worthy was named Finals MVP after his performance backed up coach Pat Riley's championship guarantee and made the Lakers the first team to repeat in nearly two decades. Kobe Bryant, Ron Artest and Pau Gasol Game 7 of the 2010 Finals wasn't the prettiest performance by Bryant, who shot just 6-of-24 from the field. Advertisement But his co-stars stepped up in that 83-79 win over the Celtics, with Artest scoring 20 points in 46 minutes, including a dagger 3-pointer with 1:01 remaining off of a pass from Bryant. Gasol added 19 points and 18 rebounds in 42 minutes. And despite his shooting struggles, Bryant found a way to affect the game. In addition to his timely assist to Artest, Bryant made 11 free throws, finished with a game-high 23 points and corralled 15 rebounds in 44 minutes. LeBron James The 2013 Finals are best remembered for Ray Allen's game-tying 3-pointer in the waning seconds of Game 6, which ultimately helped force a Game 7. Advertisement But it was James' Game 7 heroics that clinched the Miami Heat's second consecutive championship. James scored 37 points with 12 rebounds and four assists in a 95-88 win over the San Antonio Spurs to claim a title that largely validated his Heat superteam as an all-time great. James and Kyrie Irving And James would have more Game 7 magic in store. James' chase-down block on a fast-breaking Andre Iguodala kept the score tied with under two minutes left in his Cavaliers' eventual 93-89 win over the Warriors in 2016. That set the stage for Irving's game-winning stepback 3-pointer over Stephen Curry with 53.0 seconds remaining. James finished with 27 points, 11 rebound and 11 assists — the third triple-double in a Finals Game 7 — while Irving scored 26 points as Cleveland became the first team to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the Finals.
New York Times
22-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Ranking the 10 best NBA Finals Game 7s, from Willis Reed's return to LeBron's block
Game 7. It's the ultimate contest. Each NBA season is a firehose of 1,230 games. There have been 83 playoff games this year, with the Oklahoma City Thunder taking part in 21 and the Indiana Pacers in 22. This is it. There is no tomorrow. This one is for all the marb– OK, we'll abandon the hoary clichés. We know. You know. From that first practice in the fall to this game after the summer solstice, 30 teams work toward this goal. But now it's down to two (teams) and one (game) as a Game 7 represents the ultimate test of an eventual champion's strength, talent, will and grit. It's hard, real hard, to win one of these things. Advertisement Because of that, Game 7s are often tight affairs. Everyone is tense. Everyone is on edge. Everyone knows what's at stake. It's not hyperbole to say legends are born and legacies are built in a Game 7. There was no greater winner in basketball than Boston Celtics legend William Felton Russell, who played in 10 Game 7s in his career, including five in the finals. He never grabbed fewer than 21 rebounds in any one of them. His record? 10-0. Impeccable. Then there's Elgin Baylor and Jerry West, Los Angeles Lakers legends who were in four Game 7s … and lost them all. More than four decades later, when talking about the 1970 Game 7 loss to the New York Knicks, West's voice still shook with emotion when he talked about it. Sunday's Game 7 will be the 20th in NBA history with the first in 1951 and the last in 2016. Not every one of them was a classic, but a number of them were. Of those previous 19, we picked 10 of the best. On Sunday, for the 18,203 fans who will pack the Paycom Center and scream their lungs out, win or lose, they will be witnessing history. Some could accuse us of recency bias with this selection. And in a way, it'd be fair: Cavs-Warriors in 2016 was the most recent Game 7 in the NBA Finals. But that's not why this epic Game 7 tops the list. Not only was it the game itself, filled with exquisite tension and unforgettable moments late in the fourth quarter, but it was also everything that surrounded this game: the Warriors trying to cap a historic season, having won 73 regular-season games and trying to repeat; LeBron James trying to lead the Cavs to their first title and break that interminable Cleveland title drought; the Cavs having been down 3-1 in the series to force a Game 7. No team had a season like the Warriors. No team had ever come back from a 3-1 deficit in the finals. The result changed the course of NBA history. Advertisement Warriors forward Draymond Green had the game of his life with 32 points, 15 boards, nine assists on 11-of-15 shooting. But neither team shot well: the Cavs were 40.2 percent from the field and the Warriors shot 38.2. Because neither team could shoot or force turnovers (they combined for 21), the tension came from their proximity to each other. Neither team led by more than eight. There were 11 ties and a ridiculous 20 lead changes. The Warriors led by seven at halftime, but only one after three. In the fourth quarter, the teams exchanged the lead twice and were tied twice, including at 89 with 4:39 to go in the fourth quarter. Then, the scoring stopped. Time ticked away and with each missed shot, the tension grew: Cavs miss, Warriors miss, repeat as each team missed six shots. It was like watching Meadow trying to parallel park in 'The Sopranos' series finale. Finally, when it looked as if the Warriors were about to break the tie with 1:54 to go as Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala got ahead on a fast break, LeBron James made the play of his career: The Block. Fifty-seven seconds later, after LeBron and Steph exchanged misses, Kyrie Irving hit the biggest shot in Cavs' history: a 3-pointer from the right wing to break the tie and give Cleveland a lead it would never relinquish. The Cavs had their first title, Cleveland had its first championship since the 1964 Browns, and, in the summer, the Warriors would sign Kevin Durant, whose Thunder fell in seven games to the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals. Signing KD continued the superteam trend and helped the Warriors win the next two NBA titles in 2017 and '18. No Game 7 has ever been as seismic as this one. If Cavs-Warriors set the standards for modern legacies, Game 7 of the 1962 NBA Finals was a benchmark for the classic NBA. This one turned on an open 10-footer. Advertisement By 1962, the Celtics had established their dynasty, winning four of five titles, including the last three. The first of those three consecutive titles came in a sweep, the finals' first, at the expense of Elgin Baylor and the Minneapolis Lakers in 1959. In '62, the Lakers returned to the NBA's ultimate stage for the first time since that sweep and the first time representing Los Angeles. The Celtics' dominance over the NBA had been established, but their hold over the Lakers had not. L.A. had a 3-2 series lead, winning Games 2 and 5 in Boston Garden. But the Celtics humbled the Lakers by 14 in Game 6 in Los Angeles, sending the series back to Boston for Game 7. At the end of three quarters, the game was tied at 75. With the score tied at 100 and fewer than seven seconds left, the Lakers' Frank Selvy, who had hit two buckets to tie the game at 100, had an open shot on the baseline to give the Lakers the lead and potentially the title. Selvy's shot with three seconds to go looked good out of his hand, but it hit short and bounced off, sending the game into overtime. There, the Celtics took control and won their fourth consecutive NBA title. It was the first of three Game 7 losses for Baylor, who had 41 points, and West, who had 35, to the Celtics. Russell had 30 points and a finals record 40 rebounds. The only double-overtime Game 7 in finals history, this game was the beginning of the Celtics dynasty and a rivalry with the St. Louis Hawks, who faced the Celtics in four out of five NBA Finals. (We could get into how Red Auerbach fleeced the Hawks 11 ½ months earlier by trading for Bill Russell, adding another layer to the rivalry, but that's a whole 'nother article.) Boston's first NBA title didn't come easily. The Celtics took a 3-2 series lead before the Hawks won Game 6 96-94, their third two-point victory of the series. Advertisement The series returned to Boston for the Celtics' first Game 7 in franchise history. The Celtics took a six-point lead into the fourth quarter, but it took some late Russell heroics — a bucket and a block — to send the game to the first OT tied at 103. The game entered a second OT tied at 113. According to the Boston Globe, by the end of the game, there would be 38 lead changes and 20 ties. In the second OT, the Celtics clung to a two-point lead with one second left. Alex Hannum, the Hawks coach who had to put himself into the game because of his team's foul trouble, drew up a wild play in a desperate attempt to force a third OT. Taking the ball out under the Celtics' hoop, Hannum launched a 94-foot pass off the backboard into the hands of Bob Pettit, who had 39 points and 19 rebounds. The stunned Celtics watched as Pettit corralled the carom and put up a shot as time expired. The ball bounced off the rim and the C's were champions for the first time. Rookie Tommy Heinsohn led the Celtics with 37 points and 23 rebounds before fouling out in the second overtime. If the internet/social media had existed during this game, it would have broken into a million pieces. This game had a little bit of everything. By 1968, the Lakers had lost six times, once in Minneapolis and five times in Los Angeles, to the Celtics in the finals, and twice in seven games (1962 and 1966). The Lakers had enough. In July 1968, Los Angeles acquired the game's greatest force — Wilt Chamberlain, who led the league in rebounds and assists the previous season — and combined him with Baylor and West: the NBA's first superteam. After dispatching the Hawks and Warriors, the Lakers were in the finals again against an aging Celtics dynasty that had finished fourth in the Eastern Division. Advertisement By this time, Russell was in his second season as player-coach, and in 1968, his first season at the helm, Russell's Celtics beat the Lakers in the finals in six games. But with Wilt, the result would be different, right? The Lakers thought so. For the first time, Los Angeles would have home court in Game 7. Through six games, each team had held serve at home. Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke was so sure his team would prevail, he had balloons in the rafters to drop after the win. The gesture angered Lakers (West) and Celtics (Russell) alike. But the Celtics used it as fuel, leading by as many as 17 and taking a 15-point lead into the fourth quarter. The Lakers, however, showed grit despite losing Chamberlain to a knee injury, and got within 103-102 with a little more than three minutes remaining. Chamberlain said he asked back into the game at one point, but Lakers coach Butch Van Breda Kolff said according to The Los Angeles Times: 'We're doing well enough without you.' And for the Celtics, they had one last bit of magic. Clinging to that 103-102 lead, John Havlicek had his dribble poked away. The ball went straight to Don Nelson, who grabbed it and flung it at the hoop. His shot hit the back of the rim, popped up and dropped in to give the Celtics a 105-102 lead. From there, the Celtics would go to win 108-106, with Wilt still on the bench and the balloons still in the rafters. Russell had his 11th NBA title in 13 years. Lakers coach Pat Riley set this scenario in motion a year earlier. Yes, that's Riley at the 1987 Lakers championship parade guaranteeing that his team would be back celebrating another title one year later. But six games into the 1988 Finals, that prediction was in peril. With the upstart Pistons leading the series 3-2, Game 6 at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. was no picnic for the Lakers. Thanks to an epic performance from Isiah Thomas, who scored 25 points in the period — most of it on a sprained ankle — the Pistons held a two-point lead going into the fourth quarter. Advertisement With the Lakers down one, Bill Laimbeer fouled Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with 14 seconds left in the fourth. The Captain sank both free throws, the Pistons missed a shot, Byron Scott missed two free throws and the Pistons, who had no timeouts, couldn't get a shot off and it was onto Game 7. That's where the legend of 'Big Game James' Worthy was solidified. Worthy did what Magic Johnson usually did, notching a triple-double with 36 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists in the Lakers' victory, earning Finals MVP honors along the way. But the Pistons didn't make it easy. Trailing by as many as 15 with 7:27 to go in the fourth, the Pistons whittled the Lakers' lead to two late. 'This is stunning,' CBS' Dick Stockton said as Dennis Rodman hit a hanging one-hander with a little less than three minutes to go in the game. The Pistons were able to keep it close, trailing by three. After a Lakers' turnover and down three, Rodman rushed an ill-advised runner with 40 seconds that missed. After the Lakers pushed the lead to 106-102, the Pistons still wouldn't go away. Laimbeer swished a 3-pointer with six seconds to go to cut the lead to 106-105. An A.C. Green layup cemented the final margin. The game was also the last time any team has surpassed 100 points in Game 7. Also, watch the final two seconds. Pure chaos. This is probably one of the reasons why the NBA now surrounds the court with rope in the final moments of a clinching game. This may be the most improbable Game 7 in NBA history. And it almost became the greatest comeback in league annals. The Rochester Royals raced out to a 3-0 series lead, winning the first three games by an average of 16 points. The Knicks came roaring back, winning Games 4, 5 and 6 to tie the series. To this day, no other team in finals history has gone down 3-0 to force a Game 7. Advertisement And that first Game 7 in finals history, in the parlance of the day, was a humdinger. You may not know that by looking at The New York Times' front page the day after. After tying the series down 3-0, the Knicks fought back in Game 7 from down 14 to take a 74-72 lead with two minutes to go in the fourth quarter. The Knicks' miracle comeback was almost complete. Almost. The Royals, now the Sacramento Kings, and Knicks were tied at 75 before two free throws and a late layup gave them the NBA title. To this date, it's still the only championship in franchise history. Before John Havlicek stole the ball, 'Handsome' George King did. A 6-foot wisp of a point guard, King played six NBA seasons, five with the Royals. In a 2-3-2 format, the Nationals won the first two, the Pistons won the next three. As the series returned to Syracuse, the Nationals (now the Philadelphia 76ers) took Game 6 on April 9 by five points. On April 10, the teams played the closest Game 7 in NBA Finals history. The Pistons took a huge early lead, going up 17 points a little more than three minutes into the second quarter. The year before, that may have meant death for the Nationals. But thanks to the new 24-second shot clock, which Syracuse brass famously suggested for the league, the Pistons couldn't stall. The Nationals chipped away, cutting the lead to six at halftime and tying the game at 74 to enter the fourth quarter. With the game tied at 91 with six seconds remaining, King hit a free throw to put Syracuse up one. Two seconds later, King stole the ball from Ft. Wayne's 'Handy' Andy Phillip, a five-time All-Star and eventual Hall of Famer, to seal the championship for the Nats. 'A Hollywood writer couldn't have dreamed a better script than this one,' Jack Andrews wrote in the Syracuse Post-Standard. Advertisement This one isn't here because the game was great. Well, it was for Walt 'Clyde' Frazier and the Knicks. This one is here because what Willis Reed did before it has entered pop culture and remains 55 years later. Reed injured his thigh in the first quarter of Game 5. Without him, the Knicks rallied to win the game and take a 3-2 series lead. Two nights later in Los Angeles, the Lakers pounded the Knicks, who were without Reed, by 22 to tie the series. Before Game 7, no one knew if Reed would play. The New York Times reported the chances of Reed playing were 50-50. As the teams were warming up, a murmur started among the crowd. ABC's Jack Twyman caught a glimpse of a figure in the tunnel. Reed, torn thigh and all, started the game, hit his first two shots and the rout, physically and psychologically, was on. The Knicks led by 14 after one and by 27 at halftime. Frazier put the pedal to the metal with 36 points, 19 assists, seven boards and five steals. The Knicks had their first NBA title. But it was Reed emerging from that tunnel at Madison Square Garden that has come to epitomize the grit and determination it takes to win a championship. For the first four games, this series was, let's be honest, gross. The Spurs won the first two, the Pistons won the next two and the losing scores were: 69, 76, 79, 71. Oof. Then came the Robert Horry game in Game 5 at the Palace of Auburn Hills. The Spurs reserve took over late in the fourth and hit the game-winning 3 in overtime as 22,000 Pistons fans held their collective breath as Horry had a wide-open look to ice the contest. So, with Game 6 in San Antonio, it was a foregone conclusion that the Spurs would lock up their third title, right? Wrong. The defending champion Pistons stunned the Spurs and the basketball world with a 95-86 win to force a Game 7. Advertisement In the first Game 7 in 11 years (and it was the lowest-scoring Game 7 since 1952), the teams were tied 16 times and exchanged the lead 10 times. Tim Duncan was his usual solid self with 25 points (on 27 shots) and 11 rebounds. The game, however, belonged to Manu Ginobili, who had 23 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter. He was 3 of 4 from the field, assisted on two of the other Spurs hoops and grabbed three boards in the process. 'We went into that Game 7 scared s–tless,' Ginobili recalled, many years later. 'Pop (Spurs coach Gregg Popovich) called it appropriate fear. And it's true. It's not that you're paralyzed by fear. But we have to play every single possession. We've got to be physical. 'I remember things about the fourth quarter, when everything opened up for me. I remember starting pretty well, but thinking in the fourth quarter, it's my game. I know they won't have an answer, that I'm in the zone, I'm feeling it. I've got that feeling in my head, saying that this is my moment.' While people may wonder why we don't have the 1984 Game 7 in this spot is this: That series was iconic, but Game 7 was more of the same in Celtics-Lakers history with the Celtics dominating and winning. This Game 7 was somewhat like the Cavs-Warriors': the absence of offensive fireworks ratcheted up the tension because it felt as if the next made hoop could be the last. Every point was at a premium. The Celtics jumped to a nine-point lead after one, but the Lakers kept chipping away at Boston's lead. By the fourth quarter, the Celtics held a four-point lead. Then, the Lakers rallied behind Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and … Metta World Peace (now Metta Sandiford-Artest). World Peace scored six of his 20 points (second only to Bryant's 23) in the fourth, including a crucial 3-pointer with one minute left to give the Lakers a 79-73 lead. Advertisement Two Celtics' 3s sandwiched around two Bryant freebies cut the lead to two with 16 seconds to go, but two free throws by Sasha 'The Machine' Vujacic sealed the win and the Lakers' 16th title. It was Bryant's fifth title, and he was named Finals MVP for the second straight year. (Photo of LeBron James and Andre Iguodala: Garrett Ellwood / NBAE via Getty Images)
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Warriors' Draymond Green reacts to LeBron James' viral ‘ring culture' comments
Warriors' Draymond Green reacts to LeBron James' viral 'ring culture' comments originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area LeBron James' viral comments about 'ring culture' quickly garnered the attention of the basketball and sports world, including that of Warriors star Draymond Green. Advertisement 'I don't know why it's discussed so much in our sport and why it's the end-all, be-all of everything,' James said on the 'Mind the Game' podcast. 'You tell me Allen Iverson, Charles Barkley, and Steve Nash weren't f–king unbelievable? They can't be talked about with these guys because they won rings? It's like saying Peyton Manning can't be in the same room with Tom Brady or [Patrick] Mahomes because he only has one ring. 'They don't ever discuss that in their sport. Barry Bonds never won a World Series, and you can't sit here and tell me that he's not the greatest baseball player to ever touch a bat. … Jerry West went to like nine straight NBA Finals and was only able to win one ring. And he's the logo of our league.' Green and his podcast co-host Baron Davis discussed James' comments on the latest episode of 'The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis,' where Davis initially said he 'definitely' agrees with James. And while Green does as well, he shared a more thought-out response with a big-picture perspective. Advertisement 'I think ring culture took a big turn and came into play in large part due to the success of the Golden State Warriors. What Bron was saying is that you get guys like Stephen A. [Smith], and to me it felt like Stephen A. is someone who talks a lot about rings, and you don't know what it takes to win a ring because you've never won a ring. You don't understand because you've never gone through it. And because you don't know how hard it is because you've never gone through it, then you start using it to lessen the greatness of some of the greats. 'Is having a ring important? Of course. Does it add to legacies? Does it stamp legacies? Absolutely. I'm not going to sit here and act like having a ring or rings doesn't matter. It does matter. But it doesn't make [Charles] Barkley less great than he was. It doesn't make Allen Iverson less great. I think when people use it, they use it to dim the greatness, dim the light on guys. And that's what I felt like Bron was getting at.' To Green's point, both Barkley and Iverson are Naismith Basketball Hall of Famers, 11-time NBA All-Stars and one-time league MVPs. But some critics have downplayed their greatness over the simple fact that they never hoisted the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Advertisement In more recent times, players such as James Harden, Russell Westbrook and — probably more than anyone –Chris Paul, have been scrutinized for never getting over that hump of winning a championship. 'CP and James Harden, if they don't run into us [the Warriors], they probably do win a championship,' Green said. 'Sometimes, that's just how the cookie crumbles. But that don't mean those guys aren't great. That don't mean Chris Paul isn't a winner. Chris Paul is a winner. There's so many things that have to go right for you to win a championship. 'So to just lessen someone's greatness because of it, I think that's wrong. Again, I'm not saying that having the rings don't matter. When I walk in a room, I feel great about the four rings I have. But that does not lessen someone else's greatness.' While people will have their own opinions and continue to debate their stance, Davis ended with a pretty level-headed statement. Advertisement 'There are more great players than great players that won rings,' Davis said, as Green agreed. 'There are more great players who haven't won rings than great players that have won rings. That's the way we got to look at it.' Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast
Los Angeles Times
21-06-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
NBA Game 7 preview: Breaking it down by the numbers
For the 20th time, there will be a Game 7 in the NBA Finals. Indiana will play at Oklahoma City on Sunday night in the final game of the season, with the winner getting the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Home teams are 15-4 in Game 7 of the finals, but a road team — Cleveland, over Golden State — won the most recent of those games in 2016. A look inside some numbers surrounding this matchup: There have been only two 40-point scoring performances in Game 7 of the NBA Finals — and both came in losing efforts. Jerry West scored 42 points in Game 7 of the 1969 series, but the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics in Bill Russell's final game. And Elgin Baylor scored 41 points in Game 7 in 1962 — another Lakers-Celtics matchup — but Boston prevailed in that one as well. Bob Pettit had the third-highest scoring total in a Game 7. He had 39 for the St. Louis Hawks against the Celtics in 1957 ... and Boston won that game as well. The highest-scoring Game 7s in a winning effort? Those would be by Boston's Tom Heinsohn in that 1957 game against St. Louis and Miami's LeBron James in the 2013 series against San Antonio. Both had 37; Heinsohn's was a double-overtime game, James got his in regulation. Yes, these are high-scoring teams. Oklahoma City was No. 4 in points per game in the regular season (120.5 per game) and Indiana was No. 7 (117.4). The Thunder are second in that category in the playoffs (115.2), just ahead of No. 3 Indiana (115.1). In Game 7, that might not matter much. No team has reached 100 points in Game 7 of the NBA Finals since 1988. Or even topped 95 points, for that matter. The last five Game 7s: — 2016, Cleveland 93, Golden State 89 — 2013, Miami 95, San Antonio 88 — 2010, Los Angeles Lakers 83, Boston 79 — 2005, San Antonio 81, Detroit 74 — 1994, Houston 90, New York 84 The last finals Game 7 to see someone hit the century mark was when the Lakers beat the Pistons 108-105 in 1988. The average margin of victory in Game 7 of an NBA Finals: 6.9 points. Each of the last eight such games have been decided by single digits. Only four have been double-digit wins: Boston over St. Louis by 19 in 1960, Minneapolis over New York by 17 in 1952, Boston over Milwaukee by 15 in 1974 and New York over the Lakers by 14 in 1970. The closest Game 7 in the finals was Syracuse beating Fort Wayne 92-91 in 1955. That was one of six Game 7s decided by three points or less. The Thunder are the 22nd No. 1 seed to play in Game 7 of an NBA Finals. Their 21 predecessors on that list are 12-9 in the ultimate game; seven of those games have been ones where both teams entered the playoffs as No. 1 seeds. The Pacers are the fourth No. 4 seed to make Game 7 of the title round. Their three predecessors went 1-2 (Boston beat the Lakers in 1969, Seattle lost to Washington in 1978 and the Celtics lost to the Lakers in 2010). It'll be the fourth Game 7 for Indiana forwards Pascal Siakam and Myles Turner. Siakam's teams have gone 2-1 in Game 7s, Turner's have gone 1-2. Indiana's Aaron Nesmith is 2-0 in the pair of Game 7s in which he has played, with Indiana winning at New York last year and Boston beating Milwaukee in 2022. Both of those wins were in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league's reigning MVP, has averaged 27 points in two previous Game 7s. Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton scored 26 points in his lone Game 7 to this point. No player on either side has previously been part of a Game 7 in the NBA Finals. The NBA doesn't announce referee assignments until game day, so it won't be known until Sunday morning who the three-person crew is for Game 7. This much is certain: for at least two of the referees, it'll be the first time on the NBA Finals Game 7 stage. Scott Foster — who would seem a likely pick this year — worked Game 7 in 2013 alongside Dan Crawford and Monty McCutchen, and Game 7 of the title series in 2010 with Dan Crawford and Joe Crawford. The most recent Game 7 was in 2016 and the crew for that game was Dan Crawford, McCutchen and Mike Callahan. Outside of Foster, no referee in this year's pool has been on the court for a Game 7 in the NBA Finals.
