2025 NBA Playoffs: LeBron James and Stephen Curry are still there – legendary things

They are still there.

You look up, you look around and see so many new faces ready to take their place among the NBA elite. It should have happened for a long time now, but they are still there.

Fortified by acquisitions of various degrees, the Lords of the Rings find themselves in hunting in title 5, letting us ask us how LeBron James and Stephen Curry can draw from their respective tanks to go to June – once again.

It was just to deduce that we had seen the last of these great titans. Four months ago, we thought that the Los Angeles Lakers hoped to make Walker Kessler of Utah to strengthen their front line – a great decision, not a change of people. Four months ago, we thought that the Golden State Warriors were seated and looked at the world of the NBA pass in front of them and transforming Curry's golden years into a mediocrity show.

But then, the Dallas Mavericks came to the Lakers with a care package, entitled “Generational Superstar”, and the Miami Heat had an unhappy superstar whose time had passed and on which few teams were ready to bid.

This is how we got here. Luka Dončić and Jimmy Butler perfectly joined the outgoing stars on their lawn, and now they are looking to take corners – the old -fashioned “thread” way.

The Lakers were already gathered, but they were not considered a real threat of final, and now they seem to have more than one chance of perceiving. There is a reason why the eyes drove the Mavericks for not having engaged the rest of the league when Dallas decided to leave Dončić's business. Because even if James is not the 48 -minute fire room that it was in the past, it is unnecessary concern, putting it with Dončić and preparing for all the possibilities of what could happen when the weather warms up.

The Warriors were in game territory before Butler and, thanks to a last week, he found himself there even after his arrival. But they were 23-8 since the acquisition for the low-lower. This is not a shade for Andrew Wiggins and Kyle Anderson – it's just that the superstars of the playoffs should not be twinned with generational supernovas.

This is why all eyes will be on both champions in the coming weeks.

Oklahoma City Thunder has dominated the west all season, like the Cleveland Cavaliers in the East, but the challengers and the stars that lead them feel reasonably confident about their chances.

It is not a passage of the torch, not exactly. There have been many players and teams that held the belt in the last seven years not named James or Curry.

Nor is this next qualifying series. The Boston Celtics are the champions, and probably the most likely team to repeat from the Curry-Kevin during Warriors.

The Celtics were at this stage, at that time, a certain time. They are respected, carrying a line of line of Russell and Bird and contenders since. Any team that beats them, if a team should be so lucky, would come with applause and a firm handshake.

But there is something different among the old people, because we know how much they have a taking on basketball culture, on the NBA as a whole.

They endured, and that is perhaps what makes them endearing. In a space that changes in constant evolution, these two are the box office, notes certainties, the subjects of each important conversation in sport-sometimes to the detriment of new stars.

And this is where, despite the admiration and perhaps an appreciation of the place where they took the game, there is an equal bull eye on these jerseys. Because eliminating them, getting this flesh book, it always means a lot in today's game.

The currency that the Houston Rockets would obtain, the measure of the revenge coach Ime Udoka would demand to go back to the final of the NBA 2022 when Curry put the final to his career masterpiece in capturing the MVP of the final, would be immeasurable.

The skins on the wall of Anthony Edwards – he already has his idol, Kevin Durant, graciousness of the shocking scan last year – will continue to increase. You can bet that he was looking at a place next to it, for James and certainly for Dončić. We expect Edwards and Dončić to be at the center of the next decade, fighting against supremacy, or at least temporary control in this nomadic NBA.

It was not premature to look at the current players in their prime numbers like tearing off something. Nikola Jokić is the best player in the game, and Giannis Antetokounmpo is his most irresistible two -way force.

But as has been proven, staying at the top is damn impossible these days. So many factors out of its control must go in your direction in order to compete in a coherent way at the highest level. There must be a commitment to the property to spend and exhaust all the resources – hence James Fleching on the Lakers on each occasion, either by forcing them to write his son or to make these passive aggressive declarations on the consolidation of the team which have mysteriously stopped since the Dončić trade.

There must be stability on the sidelines – because the bucks have changed the coaches twice since he won everything in 2021, and the Nuggets are still reinstating from Michael Malone.

Cressively, it would almost look like a shock if the bucks or the nuggets climbed the seed 4-5 to the finals, because it is how fast this league moves.

Faster than ever, faster than ever.

It is not supposed to be like that, this seismic, which makes these guys more impressive older – the fact that they are even in the title conversation.

History says that James at 40 should get longer, years of qualifying matches have finally wreaked havoc.

The story says that curry legs should become heavy. The years of running around the screens, escaping from the clutch and the outfit, negotiating the defenses of the fifteenness intended specifically to stop it and only should have beat him now. He is 37 years old!

But they are both still there.

Maybe a second round match awaits you, if he manages to escape the first.

Or perhaps, just perhaps that some of these new catches are ready to store them again, to store them for good and to move the bandwidth of the league elsewhere.

But in one way or another, even if they do it, you feel the feeling that James and Curry are preparing to get up, at the same time next year.

Source Link