NBA finals underway

The NBA 2022-23 season is coming to a wrap with finals on Thursday, June 1. The best of seven series contains the first seeded Denver Nuggets of the west and the eighth seeded Miami Heat of the east. Two stars lead the show. Nikola Jokic is a two-time MVP leading the Denver Nuggets. Jokie has averaged an astonishing 30 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists throughout the playoffs. The Miami Heat is lead by Jimmy Butler, a player who lead the Heat to the finals in 2020. Butler averages 25 points, five rebounds and seven assists.

“I hope the Heat can make it out and win it all, but I believe that the Denver Nuggets will come out on top in five games and take the championship home,” Nick Costa, a sixth-grader, stated.

The last eight years have been dominated by one single team in the finals. The Golden State Warriors have won the Championship in 2022, 2018, 2017 and in 2015. In the two they didn’t win, the Warriors made it to the finals. The Warriors drafted a young prospect in 2009. Most scouts didn’t expect much from the skinny and scrawny kid named Stephen Curry. Curry, a point guard from Davidson University, was the seventh round draft pick, and has since lead an illustrious career on the court. Some argue he is the greatest player to wear a Warriors jersey.

Curry is different than most players. He doesn’t attempt flashy dunks, and he doesn’t block people off the backboard. Curry is a shooter who hits almost every three-point attempt. Curry passed legend Ray Allen to become the all time three-point leader with 2,974 three-pointers.

Curry started a dynasty with Klay Thompson, who was drafted in 2011, and Kevin Durant, who was traded to Golden State in 2016 from the Oklahoma City Thunder. Durant left in 2019 to team up with Kyrie Irving in Brooklyn to play for the Nets. That Nets team won two championships and two more after Durant left.

This year, the Warriors are nowhere to be seen, after being eliminated from the playoffs in the second round against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.

“I don’t think I would consider the Warriors the rulers of the NBA anymore, but I do think a championship is still possible,” Ethan Shelton, a 6th grader, said.