An NBA logo is seen on the facade of its flagship store at the Wangfujing shopping street in Beijing, China (Photo : REUTERS/Tingshu Wang)
As the Warriors and Celtics duke it out to be crowned NBA Champions, it's looking like another thrilling season's conclusion that is too tight to call. Here, we have a look back on three other classic NBA finals encounters from over the years to see how 2022 measures up.
1984 - Celtics beat the Lakers
Let's start with one for those who say we don't get the same level of drama today as previous generations enjoyed. 1984 saw one of the classic showdowns between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. It was certainly a memorable period in the sport, and the two had been pushing each other to greater heights since first encountering one another in college in 1979.
Trailing 2-1 after the first three games, Bird famously called his teammates a bunch of sissies and galvanized a fightback that would take things to a seventh game decider in which he himself proved to be the deciding factor. It was just the first chapter in a rivalry that would continue throughout the 1980s, and Johnson would take revenge the following year. Yet nothing could match the intensity of those 1984 finals when it all began.
2013 - Heat beat the Spurs
There were so many iconic moments in the 2013 finals, it is hard to know where to begin. The teams were well matched, but the Spurs always seemed to have that slight edge, and so it was that by Game 6, victory seemed a formality. That was the encounter that became known as the headband game, and LeBron James went on a personal rampage and turned everything on its head.
If live NBA betting had been around, a few sportsbooks would have been bankrupted, but the long and short of it was the Heat were back in contention and ready to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in Game 7.
2016 - Cavaliers beat the Warriors
The thing you have to remember about 2016 is that this was when the Warriors were in a league of their own during the regular season. Their 73-9 record is only part of the story, in as much as they won so convincingly. Winning their first 24 games on the fly is a record still to be eclipsed. The Cavaliers went into the finals with a more modest record of 57-25, and when the Warriors comfortably won three of the opening four encounters, all was going to form.
At that point, somebody threw aside the script. James and Irving set an NBA Finals record of their own by scoring 41 each in the fifth game, and James did it again in the sixth. It was the stuff of comic book legends as the teams went into the 7th game tied on 610 points. That was an encounter for the ages and of course, that man LeBron James was yet again in the thick of the action as he secured an improbable title for the Cavs and another MVP award for himself.
