June 18, 2016
On Thursday night, LeBron James’ final line was 41 points, 11 assists, 8 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 blocks. It’s a particularly bad time to be a LeBron hater because he has been masterful in these NBA Finals against the 73-win Golden State Warriors, the best regular season team of all-time. James has thoroughly outplayed two-time MVP Steph Curry, who does at least seem to be dealing with nagging injuries.
(Note: This piece contains Game of Thrones spoilers if you aren’t caught up through last week’s episode.)
In fact, James has been so good in these past six games that he should probably be the Finals MVP even if his Cleveland Cavaliers lose on Sunday night:
These NBA Finals haven’t been a classic. We’ve seen six blowouts so far, and here we are, staring at a very compelling Game 7. How cool are the stakes for Sunday night’s game?
On one side, you have a Dubs team trying to cap off a magical season and win back-to-back titles. On the other, a (conservatively) Top-5 player of all time is trying to win his third NBA title and more importantly deliver the first championship in 52 years to the poster child for sports futility in America… the same city that he once left in free agency, causing a civic meltdown.
Pretty cool, huh?
In my lifetime, there have only been four Game 7s in the NBA Finals. And while those games haven’t proved aesthetically pleasing, that is because the intensity level is through the roof. There is no way I’m missing a second of that game.
Unfortunately, there is a major television conflict: Game of Thrones is on at the same time, and it’s not just any old episode. “The Battle of the Bastards” is the penultimate episode of the season, and like most HBO shows, GoT tends to bring out the real fireworks right before the finale. It’s a concept that at least dates back to Season 3 of The Wire when George Pelecanos wrote one of the greatest television episodes of all time, “Middle Ground.”
(Michael Baumann, now of The Ringer, created the term “Pelecanos Hammer” to describe this trend, a term I have adopted.)
Normally, this would be an easy call: DVR Game of Thrones and watch the game live. Even though GoT is the only television show I watch live, that isn’t out of necessity. In a vacuum, I could happily watch LeBron and the Warriors lay it all on the line, and then watch Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton do the same. Problem solved, right?
Not necessarily. Like most NBA fans, I enjoy having my Twitter feed open during playoff games. Sometimes a writer who I follow tweets out a great stat. Sometimes I want to watch a GIF of Steph Curry throwing his mouthguard at a fan over and over. Sometimes Ayesha Curry calls the NBA rigged, momentarily setting the internet on fire.
The problem is that not everyone I follow on Twitter will choose to watch the NBA. And as someone who had the Red Wedding spoiled via Twitter, I have firsthand experience at how much that stinks.
With the NBA game starting sometime after 8 p.m. and GoT kicking off an hour later, there’s probably no choice but to stay off Twitter for the second half and switch over to HBO after Adam Silver forks over the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Regardless of how you decide to go about it (there’s also a wrestling pay-per-view), Sunday figures to be a crazy TV night.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
