Sports Eye
NBA championship reels off
By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.
THREE of the world’s well-known and prestigious annual sporting events were successfully conducted last month despite the deadly threat of contagious COVID-19 disease. First to finish this year was the U.S. Open (lawn tennis) on September 13 held in New York City won by Dominic Thiem, the very first Austrian to accomplish the feat.
Second was the 107th edition of the 21-day Tour de France cycling marathon with first timer Slovenian the 21-year-old Tadej Pogacar unexpectedly winning the coveted tiara with hauling records. Yes, he’s the youngest winner after 1904 (second TdF edition) and the youngest mountain climber of all time since Tdf was born in 1903.
Third to defy the world pandemic was the UCI World Road Race Cycling Championship that saw Italian Filippo Ganna winning the 31.7 kilometers individual-time-trial race (i.t.t), Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe winning the 176 kilometers event, and Anna van Breggen of Netherland both winning the women’s 31.7 kilometers i.t.t. and the 143 kilometers road battle.
In the NBA Finals which I believe being closely followed by Filipinos during these days being basketball as our number one favorite sport in the country. The first hostility of the best-of-seven championship series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat was finished today (I’m writing this piece on October 1). The heavily favored many-time champion Lakers mercilessly pounded the Fil-Am coached Heat, 116-98, to take the first salvo. After the game, some basketball connoisseurs flooded me with some queries while unanimously predicting Lakers championship victory. Among them was my neighbor Gerald Barrinuevo who fearlessly forecasted a 4-1 score Lakers final conquest. He cited the high quality of defense by the Lakers that forced the Heat to commit numerous missed shots, passing errors and series of offensive rebounds. But he was also humble to say that the initial game was just the introduction and sizing up for both teams and loads of adjustments can be seen in the succeeding skirmishes, particularly from the underdog Heat squad.
Honestly, being a diehard fan of the Lakers five since the era of Magic Johnson, Karem Abdul Jabbar, James Worthy, Michael Cooper, Jamaal Wilkes, Norm Nixon in 1980s, during my four-and-half years stay in Los Angeles county Long Beach, California, my mind says a Lakers championship victory is in the offing, but my heart says a liking for Heat because it has a Fil-Am coach Erik Spoelstra, whose mother is a Filipina named Elisa Celino from San Pablo City, Laguna.
Admittedly, the Lakers have the big advantage since they already won the morale boosting first match. Second and third matches will be on October 3 and 5, respectively. Let’s just wait and see.
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The second oldest, richest, longest, toughest and second most prestigious bicycle race in the world (next to TdF) called “Giro d’ Italia,” (Tour of Italy) is on its 104th edition. It kicks off on October 3 and finishes on October 25. Unfortunately, big names in world cycling like defending champion Richard Carapaz of Ecuador, TdF champion Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia and his compatriot 2019 Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain) king Primoz Roglic, 2019 TdF titleholder Egan Bernal of Colombia and four-time TdF titlist Chris Froome of England, to name some, will not join the 21-day road combats because they prefer to participate in the 18-day Vuelta scheduled on October 20 to November 8. The last five days of Giro (October 20) is the grand start of Vuelta on its 74th edition.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near. THE REVELATION 1: 3
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