Still on the ongoing NBA Conference Finals between Atlanta and Milwaukee in the East, and Phoenix and Los Angeles in the West (the C side not the L), it’s funny how things in real life can disappoint us.
Though when it comes to games prediction, I should be more used to disappointments than joy with my record.
Look at the Suns-Clippers series. The Suns, the team I picked to win in the absence of Kawhi Leonard, seemed all set to march to their 3rd finals’ appearance in team history with the return of Chris Paul.
The first one was in 1976, but they lost to the Celtics, 4-2. The second time was in 1993, behind Charles Barkley and Steve Nash, but again, lost, this time to the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls.
But the strange truth is Phoenix is the 2nd most successful franchise never to win an NBA title behind Utah. This is based on percentage of win-loss games at 53%, with 29 times reaching the playoffs and nine times reaching the Western Conference Finals.
Their opponent, however, at one time, was branded the worst franchise in sports history in a Sports Illustrated story in 2001, with no league or conference title won up to that time until they won the division titles in 2013 and 2014, but lost the past three years in the playoffs.
This team is one of the oldest, starting out as the Buffalo Braves in 1970, becoming the San Diego Clippers in 1977, before the present Los Angeles Clippers beginning 1984.
Now before you start thinking, this guy knows his basketball, allow me to disagree with you, I simply did a little online research.
This was the time I realized we were looking at a second best winning team for all its games going up against a team that earned the worst franchise as judged by basketball fans, almost the Alpha and the Omega.
And as mentioned, Phoenix only needed one victory against Los Angeles, with its 3-1 record, only to succumb to the never-say-die Clippers, starring only half of their All-Star duo as Paul George rose to the occasion in Game 5. Now, the record is 3-2, still in favor of Phoenix though.
So why am I disappointed?
I was pretty sure without Kawhi, the Suns, with Paul back in harness, can beat the Clippers, but as of this writing, the series is still a series, unless the Suns make me look like an expert by winning it and advancing to the finals.
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For an update on our Ayuda Sa Atleta sa Campaign for our national athletes, we encountered problems with storage for donations in kind from Gatorade, Alaska, and Milo. We just recently rented for a month an apartment in Muntinlupa, belonging to the grandmother of blind para-athletes, Jerome and Joshua Nelmuda, with their mom, Annete volunteering to help out in repacking the goods.
We are hoping by next week, we can start distributing the ayuda packs through either delivery or pick up in Muntinlupa or from my house in Taguig, while Tom Carrasco and Alex Wang have volunteered to help deliver some.
Again, thanks to Jean Henri Lhuillier for kicking off this campaign with his P250,000 seed fund, with donors following.