In the NBA, there are wins, then there are convincing wins. Last Thursday night, the Warriors defeated the Denver Nuggets and their incredibly talented super star, The Joker. One might say it was an unconvincing win. How that Nuggets game would be remembered would depend on the next game, which was played last night against the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Warriors defeated the 2021 NBA Champions convincingly, which helps to define the infinitive To Convince: from the Latin, convincere, to demonstrate incontrovertibly. By defeating the Bucks, the Warriors convinced me (and others I should imagine) that they have finally found the way as in a clear path forward to the playoffs, and with enough games left on their schedule to incorporate Draymond Green and James Wiseman. This does not mean that the Warriors will go on a tear and win the rest of their games, but it does say the rest of their games will be mostly about strategy and not rhythm or energy or confidence.
I would be remiss if I did not mention that the Bucks game saw Klay Thompson shooting like Klay Thompson. HooWah!
I'd like to add that in my last blog I left out the Bucks as contenders for the Eastern Conference Championship. They are rapidly improving, which makes the Warriors' win that much more CONVINING.
PLUS:
I read in this mornings Athletic Pulse an article about Coach Mike Fratello and his sadness and anger over the evil Russian war against the country of Ukraine. Frattello, once the coach of the Atlanta Hawks coached the Ukraine National team from 2011 to 2014. Many of his players are now on the battlefield fighting the invaders.
I'm with you, Mike. As a Russian American, a naturalized citizen of this country and one who has a very dear friend in Saint Petersburg, a retired basketball players for Spartak, and with two cousins in Moscow, I am, like you, saddened and angered that Putin has started a war pitting Slavs against Slavs. I have not heard from my cousins, but the son of my friend in Saint Petersburg has been arrested along with many other Russians for protesting the war and sentenced to two weeks in prison. Two weeks may not seem a lot, my friend says, but he is worried about torture.
As athletes, we should be proud that the governing bodies of most sports federations have opted to bar Russia from participating in international events and cancelled their upcoming events. The federations that are still straddling the fence, shame on you. It's a painful fall, straddling.
Need I remind anyone which ex President of the United States of America is a friend of the evil Russian Dictator? Please note I have not used the past tense.
We might all want to say a prayer for Brittany Griner who has been arrested in Russia.
Finally, who needs Russian vodka. We have Gray Goose. And if GG is not your taste, remember Poland makes vodka.
If my readers get a chance, go on the internet and look up Associated Press writer Paul Newberry's article entitled "National Hypocrisy League Shows True Colors Again." Second sentence: The organization better known as the NFL proved. . .
From an article by Robert Whiting published in Sports Illustrated in 1979, "You Got to have Wa," i learned the following: Wa is the Japanese ideal of unity, team play, and no individualism. To Kyrie Irving, Novak Djokovic and Aaron Rodgers, listen up.
"The US is a land where stubborn individualism is honored and where 'doing your own thing' is a motto of contemporary society. In Japan Konjinshugi, a term for individualism is almost a dirty word. The Japanese have a proverb: The nail that sticks up shall be hammered down."
Haiku
Fly balls suspended while talks resume.
Russia playing a dangerous game
