If there is one downside to the rise of the Warriors (other than Kevin Durant going there), it is the end of the parity era of the NBA. The last great year of the NBA playoffs, aside from a few select series (the 2016 Western Conference Finals & NBA Finals, mainly), was 2014, when we had one of the great two week periods of basketball we've ever received, and I was seated deep in Queretaro, Mexico, to enjoy it all.
I still remember the day I was told I had to venture down to Mexico for a project. To be fair, I wasn't told; I was asked, with a full expectation that I was supposed to say yes. It was a pretty good posting for someone less than a year into the job, to go on a short term assignment in a foreign country for an office that was just beginning to grow. It was exciting. For someone who picked the job I did largely because I could travel, this is not onyl what I signed up for but what I wanted. Still, Mexico, with all its uncertainty, was not a destination I would have volunteered for.
Little did I know, Queretaro was a perfect little town, the posting offered me the opportunity to meet some incredible people, eat some incredible food, find a new favorite drink, and go to Mexico City a few times. Oh, and to watch some incredible basketball on some jacked-up semi-legal streaming service. I mean, that is what I signed up for.
The service was called XMBC, a weird streaming & hosting service that housed tons of 'channels' airing movies and shows on demand, and of course a few live TV options. This was before the days of Reddit's NBA Streams sub, or other services that were more above board. There were a few normal streaming sites I used when in college without cable services, but most of those had already started down the path of being infected with computer aids with endless ads. My second cousin had sold me on XMBC, something of a streaming all-in-one platform. Their sports streams were iffy at best. Each game had 4-5 links, one of which would be good. The WiFi alternated between spotty and perfect at the Hotel Real de Minas in the heart of Santiago de Quereatro. It was an interesting setting that would house my nightly routine.
A quick recap of what the NBA was like a scant four years ago, the postseason tournament that would end with the San Antonio Spurs unleashing three of the most perfect games of basketball than can be played. But a couple months before that basketball nirvana, the Spurs struggled through a 7-game series to put away the Mavericks. That series had everything, close games, patented Spurs blowouts, game winning shots by Vince Carter - a feat that seemed ridiculous given his age FOUR YEARS AGO. Including that Spurs series, there were five different series that went the full seven games. Three of them out West, with the one exception being the Blazers beating the Harden-led Rockets, a series that ended with a Dame Lillard series-winner as time expired in Game 6. It was madness. That whole first round was.
This was a time when the Thunder were in all their glory, but more than that the Grit 'N' Grind Grizzlies were too, and they played a fascinating 7-game series, somewhat marred by suspension to Zach Randolph keeping him out of Game 7. The Clippers and Warriors played a seven game series, the last time the Warriors would be anything other than prohibitive favorites - and it played out against the backdrop of the Donald Sterling scandal. It was a great time to be alive as an NBA fan. The styles were varied. No team had Rockets-ized and shot 40+ threes You had big post teams like the Blazers and Grizzlies, great passing teams like teh Warriors and Clippers, and whatever the hell the Thunder called their dual iso offense. It was magic.
It was nice that the Western Conference Playoffs were so fantastic, as being in Central Time Zone, the games were perfectly timed, starting anywhere between 8 and 9:30 local time, ending latest at 12:30. I used to watch them during dinner and after - the during being mostly the Eastern Conference (far less fun, with the two series that went the distance being the top-seed Pacers struggling against the Hawks, and the Nets beating the Raptors in their last moment of relevance). After used to be back at the Hotel Real de Minas, my home for two months, in their courtyard near the pool at the bar. I took my place at a table in a comfy chair, and ordered Alfonso XIII's while I fired up XMBC.
What is an Alfonso XIII (Trece)? It's a mixture of Kahlua, Evaporated Milk and Brandy, with one or two ice cubes. They were refreshing as hell. I swilled those down - telling the bartender to make it lighter than normal, as I was dug into my chair until the battery forced me back to my room. It was an ideal setting, the thin, cool Queretaro air making the evenings rather sweet.
The games made it even better - to be honest, I was watching the NHL playoffs at this time as well. Somehow, the internet at times was strong enough to do it simultaneously. But while the NHL playoffs were featuring the Sharks blowing a 0-3 lead to the Kings, the NBA playoffs featured close game after close game. The level of play was unreal. The competitiveness of the games was insane.
The Thunder and Grizzlies played a seven game war that featured four straight OT games in Games 2 through 5. The series was somewhat sullied by Zach Randolph's (deserved) suspension for punching Steven Adams forcing him to miss Game 7, but those four straight OT games, including final margins of 3, 3 and 1 on the last three, were enough to remember forever.
The Clippers Warriors series may be overshadowed by teh Sterling issue, or it being the last moments where the Warriors were mere mortals, coached by Mark Jackson, but it featured games that ended with margins of 4, 2, 1 and 5 - the last being a 126-121 Game 7 win that I can still remember to this day, a game filled with peerless execution by the Clippers during probably their best season in the CP3-Blake era.
Finally, the only West series not to go the full seven might have been the best, as it featured another three OT games in its six games, going the extra five in Game 1 (2 point Portland win), Game 3 (5 point Rockets win) and Game 4 (3 point Portland win). Of course, the series would end in the best game, with Dame Lillard hitting a series winning three as time expired to win Game 6 by one point, taking the Blazers to the second round.
The level of play was fantastic all around, about as good as those damn Alfonso XIII's. It may seem like my lasting memory from this project is the fact I got semi-buzzed nightly drinking a milk-based cocktail watching streamed basketball. Fear not, my real memories from Queretaro are the restaurants, including a Mexican Churascaria right next door, or the other really nice restaurant across the road. The other memories are the perfect little town center; the trips to Mexico City, which included a 2.5 hour bus-ride on the most comfortable bus I've ever been in. The fact I could also watch basketball semi-legally a country away was just an added bonus.
