Column: NBA Finals will affect multiple legacies

We’re on the brink of history.

Today we’ll witness the first game of the NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs in a 2013 rematch series that has more subplots and symbolic implications than a David Lynch movie.

Last year the Spurs looked as if they were up to the task.

They used their veteran core of old dudes in Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Tim Duncan to take a 3-2 series lead after Game 5.

They used their hallmark fundamentals and shooting guard Danny Green’s apparent inability to miss a 3-pointer from anywhere in Texas.

The Spurs would have dispatched the Heatles in Game 6 to win it all had Miami’s own old dude, Ray Allen, not hit an overtime-forcing, buzzer-beating 3-pointer that we can only assume woke both Jerry West and “Big Shot” Robert Horry from their respective sleeps.

The Heat pulled it out in overtime, effectively crushing the Spurs’ spirits and allowing for a Game 7 in Miami, after which they hoisted the Larry O’Brien trophy for the second consecutive year.

This year, the Spurs want revenge.

They want to make up for the one shot they allowed that haunted them for the entirety of the next year — the one that kept the franchise from winning its fifth championship in less than 15 years.

If they win the series, it will firmly establish Coach Gregg Popovich as a top-three coach in NBA history along with Red Auerbach and the Zen Master, Phil Jackson (Sorry, Pat Riley).

It will leave no doubt for Tim Duncan’s case as the best power forward of all time, especially given this might be the Big Fundamental’s last season of his legendary 15-year career as a walking double-double.

Add that the Spurs are filled with international players such as Tony Parker (France), Boris Diaw (France again), Manu Ginobili (Argentina), Tiago Splitter (Brazil), Patty Mills (Australia) and Marco Belinelli (Italy), and it’s clear the NBA’s overseas popularity only stands to grow if they manage to take the series.

But if the Heat wins it all, the storylines are even more compelling.

As the best player in the universe during an era of 24/7 sports coverage, LeBron James regularly gets compared to every great who ever stepped on the court.

But if he and his Heat win it all this year, he will finally, rightfully, be a worthy fixture to oppose Michael Jordan in the conversation for the greatest player of all time.

LeBron’s stats are comparable to Jordan’s, and at his age he’s actually won as many championships as His Airness did by age 29, along with one more Most Valuable Player award.

That LeBron’s team has made the Finals four times in the past four years is nothing short of amazing.

Jordan’s Bulls never even did that. And if they win, they’ll be placed into some pretty elite company.

Only five teams have ever “three-peated” in the NBA’s 68-year history.

Two of those teams, George Mikan’s Minneapolis Lakers and Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics, came when the league had only eight or nine franchises.

Two of the others were Jordan’s teams, and the most recent was Shaq and Kobe’s run from 2000-2002.

Either way, I can’t see this series going any fewer than seven games.

The teams are too equally matched and familiar with one another for it to end quickly.

There’s too much talent, too many Einsteinian basketball minds on each side for this series to be anything but a demonstration of hardwood beauty.

And, in the end, Terrell Owens still said it best.

Get your popcorn ready.
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aknorth@indiana.edu