It sure looks like the Boston Celtics will need to make room for an 18th National Basketball Association Finals banner in the rafters at TD Garden, which would be the team’s first since 2008.
The Celtics had a 3 games to 1 lead in 2024 NBA Finals, which was prolonged into Monday night thanks to the Dallas Mavericks’ 122-84 thumping of the Celtics on Friday night at American Airlines Center.
No team has ever rebounded from a 0-3 deficit in the NBA Finals, or any NBA playoff series, by winning the final four games of the series to claim the crown, but the Mavericks took the first step in making history Friday night.
However, just as with a 16th seed beating a top seed in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, you know it has to happen at some point. The Mavericks are definitely hoping that happens this season to become the first NBA team to rally from an 0-3 series deficit to win a seven-game series.
••• On another National Basketball Association note, last Wednesday was a somber day with the passing of NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West at age 86.
West was a 14-time All-Star and a champion with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1971-72 NBA Finals, and he was the Most Valuable Player in the 1969 NBA Finals while he was on the losing side as the Lakers fell to the Boston Celtics that season. His silhouette is considered the basis for the NBA logo.
West was the third player to reach 25,000 points in NBA history and has the most career points in NBA Finals history — at least to this point.
After his playing career ended, West became an NBA executive, helping the Lakers to their “Showtime” days during the 1980s with Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Earvin “Magic” Johnson. Thanks to signing Shaquille O’Neal and orchestrating the trade that brought the late Kobe Bryant to “Tinseltown,” he set up another Laker dynasty. West also worked in the front office with the Memphis Grizzlies and the Golden State Warriors, then took on an advisory role with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2017.
I guess it had to be fitting that West passed during the NBA Finals. It’s just sad that his passing couldn’t have waited until the 2024 NBA Finals ended.
R.I.P., Jerry West.
••• Speaking of the other professional sports championship series going on, the Florida Panthers also closing in on winning the first Stanley Cup in the 30-year history of the franchise.
The Panthers took the first two games of the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals over the Edmonton Oilers on their home ice at Amerant Bank Arena, then took Game 3 Thursday night in Edmonton’s Rogers Place, and looked poised to take the Stanley Cup back home to Florida on Saturday night, but the Oilers had other ideas as they clawed the Panthers 8-1 to force Game 5, which was slated for Thursday night at Amerant Bank Arena.
So, by the time you woke up this morning, both the Stanley Cup Finals and National Basketball Association Finals may have come to an end.
••• The final major college championship series began Friday as the 2024 College World Series got underway in Omaha, Neb.
In a rarity, only two college conferences are represented among the eight teams in the field — the Southeastern Conference with Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky and Texas A&M and the Atlantic Coast Conference with North Carolina, Virginia, Florida State and North Carolina State, which was the last team to get into the field after having to win the rubber game of its Super Regional series with host Georgia.
In theory, you can have an all-SEC championship series or an all-ACC championship series.
Of course, a poetic justice would be a team from each conference squaring off in the best-of-3 CWS Championship Series, which will begin June 22.
Would it not be neat if you had a Florida-Florida State final or UNC-N.C. State finals match-up or a match-up of border teams Kentucky and Tennessee?
We definitely will have a new national champion as Louisiana State University defeated Florida in last year’s CWS Championship Series.
So far, through the first four games in which one team was from the SEC and the other from the ACC, the SEC won all four of them — Tennessee 12, Florida State 11; Kentucky 5, N.C. State 4; Texas A&M 3, Florida 2; Tennessee 6, North Carolina 1. The fifth such game was slated for Monday afternoon when Florida faced N.C. State.
••• We had it happen once more — three different winners in the three Triple Crown horse races for 2024.
After Mystik Dan won the Kentucky Derby and Seize the Grey took the win at the Preakness, dark horse Dornoch came out on top at the Belmont Stakes, which took place June 8.
We had the same thing happen in 2023 when Mage won the Kentucky Derby, National Treasure won the Preakness and Arcangelo won the Belmont Stakes. What will happen in 2025? We’ll have to wait until next spring to find out.
••• Finally, I would like to congratulate two of my three mentors for getting Oklahoma Press Association awards at the OPA Awards Banquet on June 8.
When I got into this business, which for the record was truthfully by accident, when I got out of college after graduating from Phillips University in Enid in May 1989, I ended up being hired as a sports stringer/correspondent for my hometown newspaper, The Enid News&Eagle.
The three sports department full-time staff members were sports editor Jeff Mullin and sports writers Bruce Campbell and Mark Rountree. Two of these mentors got awards on June 8.
Mullin, who is now retired after spending his final years at my hometown newspaper as city editor, got recognized for being in Oklahoma newspapers for 50 years.
Campbell, who also is retired but still helps out my hometown paper as a contributor, got third place in the sports story category for the Division I (large newspapers).
Congratulations, Jeff and Bruce. I also want to thank you for shaping me into the sports (and even news) writer I am today. I forever will be grateful.
On a side note, one of my other colleagues who have helped me out in covering sports for me at whatever newspaper I’ve been at, sports writer John Ferguson, who used to be at The Tulsa World and the Wagoner County American Tribune — where he is now an editor — also got awarded for 50 years in Oklahoma newspapers.
••• If there are any sports camps taking place this summer, please let me know.
We will run the briefs about them in our editions, then I will come out for action shots for later publications.
Also, this is just a reminder to you coaches about letting me know if any of your senior athletes will be signing letters of intent in the near future.
I would prefer to have two-day notice, but oneday notice is sufficient, to let me know where and when the signing will take place because if I’m notified, I will be there to catch the moment.
My contact information is at the end of this column.
••• Also, just to let you readers know, I will be out the rest of this week on vacation and return on Monday. If there’s anything I need to know, reach out to me at my contact information at the end of this column.
If you need immediate assistance, call the number below and ask for either newsroom intern Jade Phillips or Jaci Walker, or e-mail them at haley@cookson.news or jaci@cookson.news, respectively.
•••
Seeley is the sports editor of The Vian Tenkiller News. He can be reached by telephone at (918) 7754433, Ext. 139 or by email at davids@cookson. news.
