NFL Has Already Seen a Rivalry Like Cav-Warriors Before
By Erik Lambert
While the NFL is no doubt happy with it’s slightly more parity-driven product, they must be impressed with what’s happening in the NBA.
Specifically with how the Cleveland Cavalier and Golden State Warriors have taken complete ownership of the league. It’s basically become a question of which of those two teams are going to win the championship. Over the past three years they’ve traded shots. The Warriors won in 2015, the Cavaliers in 2016 and the Warriors again in 2017. Each time the victories have spurned calculated offseason moves in order to find that extra push to top the other.
In 2016 it was the Cavs bringing back LeBron, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving healthy. Then this past year the Warriors fired back with the blockbuster signing of Kevin Durant. Now word is filtering out that Cleveland is in hot pursuit of another potential ace with the Pacers’ Paul George and Bulls’ Jimmy Butler being the desired targets.
The NFL has to admire this sort of heavyweight fight. After all it wasn’t too long ago where they were seeing the same thing between the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers.
The winner claims the Super Bowl
From 1988 to 1995 there were eight champions crowned. All but two of those times it was either the 49ers or the Cowboys winning it. San Francisco went back-to-back in ’88 and ’89 but the rivalry really began in 1992 when they agreed to a misguided trade sending Pro Bowl defensive end Charles Haley to Dallas. With his help the Cowboys would beat the 49ers in two-straight NFC championships and go on to win the Super Bowl.
So in 1994 San Francisco decided to strike back when they signed away Cowboys linebacker Ken Norton and nabbed superstar cornerback Deion Sanders in free agency. With their help the 49ers downed the Cowboys in the conference title game and won the Super Bowl. It was gripping football theater. Dallas got the last laugh by winning the championship a year later. Still, it remains one of the most top-heavy times in the league’s history.
That’s what the NBA is experiencing right now. It may not be the evenly contested era that many fans want. At the same time it often involves some pretty impressive basketball being played. Fans should at least try to enjoy it as much as those grudge matches back in the ’90s were.