Jim Alexander: As the NBA Finals Disney Will Hate begin tonight, with the small-market Oklahoma City Thunder favored to beat the small-market Indiana Pacers as (so the smart guys say) most of America will yawn, leave it to us to figure out who the key player in this matchup is.
It is … wait for it … Paul George!
Those of us who figured getting rid of George might get the Clippers closer to a championship? It seems the Thunder and Pacers (in reverse order) beat the Clips to it.
Consider: The Pacers drafted George in 2010 and traded him to OKC in 2017 for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis. Subsequently, they swapped Sabonis to Sacramento in February 2022, in a six-player trade that brought Tyrese Haliburton to the Pacers. You may have heard of him.
And then, in 2019, the Thunder sent George to the Clippers – at free-agent signee Kawhi Leonard’s request – for Danilo Gallinari, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and seven first-round picks, four of which have already been used (one of them by Miami to draft UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez Jr.). Another of those picks turned out to be Jalen Williams, who averaged 21.6 points during this past regular season and turned out to be a pretty good wingman. SGA, of course, was the league’s MVP in 2024-25, and he’s a lot of the reason why the Thunder, the regular-season leader in victories, is considered a heavy favorite in this series.
So whatever happened to PG, anyway?
Mirjam Swanson: Podcasting!
And, for the record, let me say: Paul George is a good podcaster.
He’s often almost too honest, as he was in interviews and scrums – which is great.
But he’s also not slanderous. He’s not disrespectful. He’s not a jerk or a shock jock or a court jester. He’s not Gilbert Arenas. Or Draymond Green. Or even Pat Bev.
He’s also as thoughtful as he is in those interviews and scrums, which is why it was fun to cover him; if his uneven play often drove even his most ardent supporters up the wall, he was always fascinating to me.
As for the trail of breadcrumbs he left in his wake that Indiana and OKC have followed to the NBA Finals? That is interesting – but as fun as it is to poke fun at PG, it probably does say something about how he’s been viewed in his career, as someone with the talent to net a substantial haul, someone worth a high-value return.
That’s all it would be, of course, if PG had managed to maneuver his way to a Finals at some point. But because his teams have always fizzled out, for one reason or another – the “bad shot” by Dame, a way-off 0 for 6 in the fourth quarter of a disastrous Game 7 defeat vs. Denver in the bubble, the COVID diagnosis the morning of the Clippers’ win-or-go-home playoff game vs. New Orleans – his story feels like one, for now and maybe forever, of unrequited potential.
But I agree with him – and disagree a little with you – on this particular NBA Finals matchup: It’s good. No, we’re not seeing the old standby stars, but the torch has got to be passed eventually. Always does. And the teams that SGA and Hali are leading? They’re fun. They play hard, smart, together – they’re real teams.
“Teams can’t go after three star max-contract guys anymore, right?” said George on a recent pod, in perfectly tuned irony, his Philadelphia 76ers having struggled after having teamed him – a max-contract star – with Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey for what was a hopeless and horrendous season. The man knows of what he speaks.
“There’s the new first, second … aprons, right? I think both of these [Finals] teams, they fall under the first apron. You’re looking at where the NBA will be for the future. You’ll probably have two stars … but the importance of not only developing your guys but going after guys that fit your team, that play their role.”
In other words: Good basketball over star power.
As for the ratings concerns, not only did the NBA already just sign a massive deal with the Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video through 2035-36, the ratings for THESE playoffs have been … fine! Even with three of the four teams in the NBA’s final four coming from small markets, Sports Media Watch reported viewership is actually up 3%.
Saw the other day, that baseball’s ratings are up too, increased by 10% on FOX and 22% on ESPN. But maybe we can thank the jolt baseball got from the big-market clash that was last year’s World Series? Either way, we’re all watching ball?!
Jim: Actually, I don’t disagree with you at all on the potential quality of this series. I’ve never subscribed to the idea that TV ratings determine the worth of an event. And the idea that small markets – or, shall we say, overlooked markets – automatically won’t draw interest seems ridiculous to me. You get this series to a sixth or seventh game and see how many people tune in.
That being said, I really think this will go to a sixth or seventh game. (My son, whose Pacers fandom goes back to Reggie Miller’s playing days, will appreciate that.) The oddsmakers have made OKC a heavy favorite, but for what it’s worth, reports are that Indiana seems to be getting a lot of love from those who are, um, invested in the outcome of this series. And although we pretty much considered the Western Conference the stronger one during the regular season, what Indiana did in knocking off Milwaukee, No. 1 seed Cleveland and the Knicks in the East should serve notice that this isn’t going to be a walkover.
Oh, by the way: If SoCal fans are searching for a rooting interest, you’ve got both ex-Clipper SGA and ex-Laker Alex Caruso playing for the Thunder. (And there seems to be a good number of fans who are still unhappy that the Lakers let him get away.)
Moving along, I heard this question from a family member Tuesday night while watching Clayton Kershaw pitch against the Mets: “When do you think he’s going to retire?”
Understand, the family member quoted – not for attribution – doesn’t necessarily want him to hang ‘em up. Nor do most of us. But it’s probably a legitimate question and one being asked in a lot of other SoCal households. Kershaw is 37, he’s had injury issues for several seasons now, and he is operating with far less velocity these days and needs to be absolutely precise in order to succeed. (And let’s face it: Right now, the fact that he’s a healthy body who can give them a few innings makes him indispensable on a Dodgers staff with one injury issue after another.)
I approached this subject in a column a month ago when I pointed out the number of over-30 and over-35 players currently performing in Southern California. A decade ago, we were celebrating Kershaw and Mike Trout as MVPs at opposite ends of the stretch of the 5 Freeway separating Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium. Now, we wonder how much each has left … and maybe we should be savoring their presence while we still can.
Mirjam: I imagine all of L.A. was having that conversation about Kershaw at once – because it also came up in my household. Like how all of L.A. threw up its hands in unison when Freddie Freeman hit his grand slam, I can picture a large portion of those folks turning to each other and wondering quietly how much the longtime Dodgers ace has left in his tank.
But, to your point, we also wonder about LeBron’s longevity. Just how far can even the most phenomenal 40-year-old take it?
Maybe we should be asking: How much longer till Kershaw’s kids are draft eligible? Can any of them pitch? Maybe that’ll motivate him to stick around longer … I kid, I kid. Thinking of LeBron’s kid – who is doing just fine.
It’s just that a few years ago, if Kershaw struggled for a few games after returning from injury, we’d all assume it was just a matter of time till he was the Kershaw we all knew and expected. But now we don’t know quite who we should expect him to be, because he’s 37 and, well, Father Time is undefeated.
That isn’t to say, though, that Kershaw has been defeated. There’s certainly a world where he bounces back from his shaky first few outings since returning from eight months away, where he proves he’s still the guy Dodgers fans have been rooting for his whole career – 18 impressive seasons, all here in L.A., a span in one place that’s been matched by only 58 other players.
So of course L.A. wants to see him go out strong, and on his own terms, and not quite yet.
Jim: To answer your question, Charley Kershaw does have a locker in the Dodgers’ clubhouse, right next to his dad. (So does Charlie Freeman, right next to his dad. Clearly, they take this Dodger Family stuff seriously.)
My only hope: That the last time we see Kershaw on a mound, whenever that takes place, is a triumphant moment. When he was battered by the Arizona Diamondbacks and knocked out in the first inning of a Division Series game two years ago, that was the fear – that this might be it. Thankfully, it wasn’t.
And I guess this sums it up as well as anything, from the scrum after his first appearance this season against the Angels a couple of weeks ago. The last question he was asked was about what motivated him to come back this year for his 18th season.
“Just want to pitch,” he said. “Simple as that.”
OK, one more thing to chew on: When the Knicks canned Tom Thibodeau after the Pacers knocked them out, it continued a string of strange – impulsive? – NBA coaching changes. Michael Malone, gone in Denver before the regular season had ended. Taylor Jenkins, gone in Memphis, similar timing. Earlier in the season, Mike Brown – a year and a half removed from a Coach of the Year season – gone in Sacramento, two days after Christmas. Mike Budenholzer, gone in Phoenix, although that’s become such a toxic situation that nothing seems surprising.
(And, by the way, Dan Hurley and Rick Pitino have said they’re not interested in the Knicks job. No surprise.)
What’s going on? Coaching is an uncertain profession anyway, but it seems like things have gotten extreme.
Mirjam: Global seat warming? Extreme conditions, for sure.
Out of 30 teams, only two coaches – the ones you’d guess; Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and Golden State’s Steve Kerr – are coaching the teams they were hired to coach before 2020.
It’s not musical chairs with the NBA, it’s a mosh pit. And it’s never been more true: Coaches are hired to be fired – which sounds, actually, like a dream.
I mean, the Knicks now reportedly owe Tom Thibodeau about $30 million to not coach them, and I think Mike Brown’s situation was similar. Poor guys. Poor, poor, rich guys.
And the Lakers? They excused Darvin Ham after he oversaw a Western Conference finals run but found himself on shaky footing with his proletariat, waving him off with two years and $10 million left on his deal.
They’re literally paying people to go away. And then paying a new guy to come in and try his luck. In the Lakers’ case, broadcaster/podcaster-turned-head coach JJ Redick, for a reported $8 million per year for four years. I’m bad at math, but I guess you could say the Lakers paid $13 million for a five-game first-round exit to match the previous season’s. Is that how that works? Is that good business? I guess it’s the American sports way.
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