LY: SUNS, BUCKS TO MEET IN NBA FINALS
By: Allan Ly
RP Show Intern
This year’s NBA Finals is not like previous years, as small market teams are having a crack at the last dance.
The winners in the Western Conference are the Phoenix Suns, who beat the Los Angeles Lakers in six, the Nuggets in four, and the Los Angeles Clippers in six.
The Suns are in the Finals this year, and this was 28 years removed from their last appearance in 1993.
Back then, the Sun’s best player was NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, who was the reigning MVP, and they faced off against the reigning champs in Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.
Barkley and his Suns had a valiant effort, but they, unfortunately, lost to the Bulls in six.
After that attempt at the NBA Finals, the Suns did not sniff the finals but only the Conference Finals in 2005,2006 and in 2010.
So the Suns have waited for a long time to have another crack at the NBA Championship.
Leading the Suns is Chris Paul, who will be in his first NBA Championship in his 16-year career.
Paul was close to the NBA Finals when he lost with his Houston Rockets in 2018 to the Golden State Warriors in seven games.
Paul will have an excellent chance to make some noise in this year’s NBA Finals because of the young stars that support him.
Deandre Ayton is only 22 years old, and he is constantly providing stellar defence and great offence for the Suns.
Ayton is a double-double machine when he scored 14 points per game and averaged 11 rebounds per game this season for the Suns.
The other star is Devin Booker, and he is the Sun’s best player on the team as he is always guaranteed to come in clutch.
What surprised me about Booker is that he was not supposed to be this good coming out of Kentucky when he entered the NBA.
Booker was picked 13 in the 2015 NBA draft by the Suns and was a steal for them, and he constantly improved every year.
Booker scored 14 points per game in his rookie season; next season, he scored 22 points per game. This season Booker scored 25 points per game.
Standing in the Sun’s way is the Eastern Conference Champion, the Milwaukee Bucks, with their star Giannis “The Greek Freak” Antetokounmpo.
They got past the Heat in four games, then had a hard battle with the Brooklyn Nets and the Atlanta Hawks because it took them seven games each to beat them.
The Bucks did win an NBA Championship; however, that was a grand whopping 50 years ago when they won in 1971.
Back then, the Bucks had a superstar duo of Oscar Robertson and Lew Alcindor (later switched his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabar).
From then on, the Bucks had a hard time making the finals; however, they did make the conference finals in 2000 and 2018.
The fortunes of the Bucks changed when they found a gem in the 2013 NBA draft with the 15 overall pick.
The Greek Freak got selected with that pick, and from there, he has won MIP( most improved player), 2X MVP, DPY (Defensive Player of the Year), plus a boatload of other awards in the NBA.
This NBA Finals appearance is validation for Antetokounmpo, who hasn’t made the Finals in his career.
I can not wait to see who wins the NBA Championship this year; both the Sun’s and the Bucks’ long journeys will finally be over, and only one will reign supreme over the NBA. The first NBA Finals game starts on July 6.
(Follow Allan Ly on Twitter @AllanTheIntern)
