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How different the NHL and NBA are, in their sports, and their followings, and, to some, in their level of excitement. But this spring, the playoff rushes in both sports turned out to be surprisingly similar.
In the NHL, there is no question that every round was crammed full of exciting play from puck-drop to final horn. And as often as not, that final horn didn’t come until after overtime.
The NBA playoffs were far less enthralling, until the end.
The big difference between the two leagues is that if you asked 100 knowledgeable followers of pro basketball who the top two teams were, and who would be favored to reach the finals, it might have been unanimous that the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs would be meeting for the title.
In the NHL, most observers probably would have picked Pittsburgh in the East, and...well, maybe Chicago, or St. Louis, or Anaheim, or maybe San Jose, all ahead of the Los Angeles Kings in the West. Count that as Surprise No. 1.
In the NBA, the Miami Heat, with the dominant Lebron James and a strong supporting cast, mowed down their opponents, although they had some trouble along the way. Each time they faltered, James would storm back with a strong performance to lead a comeback victory. That worked, all the way to the finals.
The San Antonio Spurs, meanwhile, are the epitome of the word “team.” Sure, Tim Duncan can be dominant, and he’s as smooth and consistent as he is humble and quiet. In the playoffs, the Spurs charged through, seeming to unify even more as each round progressed. And reaching the finals seemed anticlimactic, although most still picked the Heat to win the showdown.
In Game 1 in San Antonio, it was prophetic that the Heat fell apart, because the heat in the arena was stifling. It was 90 or so outside, and the air conditioning turned the place into a sauna. Lebron James went out with a serious case of leg cramps, and couldn’t play down the stretch in the fourth quarter, when the Spurs turned a very close game into a blowout.
Once again, Lebron James led the way and the Heat evened the series in Game 2. Then it was off to Miami, but if the Heat was confident, that went away when the Spurs shot 86 percent in the first quarter, scoring 46 points to take command, and winning easily. Once again, it was anticipated that Miami would come back in Game 4 and send the series back to San Antonio at 2 apiece. No chance. The Spurs crushed the Heat once again, sweeping the two games in Miami and going home to take a shot at Game 5.
In that one, the Heat gained the early lead behind James, but San Antonio awoke with a 16-point deficit in the first quarter and romped to a 47-40 halftime hold. Lebron James had 20 of those 40 points. But San Antonio never let up, moving the ball with quick precision and raining down shots from all over the court. In the end, the Spurs eased off with a 20-point lead and won by 15. Of that margin, the Spurs were so much more astute at hitting 3-point bombs that the difference was only 2 points without the cushion in 3-pointers.
Meanwhile, back in the NHL, the Los Angeles Kings turned convention, smart-money, and expert opinions upside down. In the first round, the Kings lost the first two games to San Jose, as Jonathan Quick yielded 7 and then 6 goals. For good measure, San Jose also won Game 3. Incredibly, the Kings got it together right then, and won one game, then another. When they won their third straight, you could almost feel those Sharks jerseys getting a little tight in the neck, and sure enough, the Kings won Game 7 to take the series.
Same thing in the second round, when the Kings trailed Anaheim -- the overall season leader in NHL points -- three games to two. But the Kings won Game 6, then snatched Game 7 from the Ducks, just as the Chicago Blackhawks were beating the Minnesota Wild in a superb series.
Tired and weary, the Kings went to Chicago and lost Game 1 to the rested and ready Blackhawks. But they bounced back to win Game 2, after trailing 2-0 halfway through the game. Out in L.A., the Kings came from behind more than any normal team could hope to, and beat the Blackhawks. Then they continued to fall behind, rally, and win the overtime marathon series in the seventh game.
The New York Rangers, meanwhile, beat Montreal to gain the final, and many picked them to beat the “no-name” Kings from the Left Coast. But the Kings won twice, dropped Game 3, but bounced back in Game 4 for a 3-1 lead in games. Then they went home and captured the Cup in Game 5 before their home fans.
It was a remarkable, and remarkably close, triumph. But when you check the stats, you see that Jonathan Quick was fantastic after that shaky start six weeks earlier against San Jose. Anze Kopitar and new linemate Marian Gaborik formed a slick duo, with Kopitar leading the entire playoff in points, and Gaborik leading the entire playoff in goals, with 14 -- including the game-tying goal at the end of Game 5. Justin Williams was the third-leading scorer, and Jeff Carter fifth. Then came Jonathan Toews of Chicago, followed closely by defenseman Drew Doughty of the Kings -- meaning LA had five of the top six scorers in the playoffs.
They gave the MVP trophy to Williams, who scored some key goals in the finals. That’s one NHL tradition the Kings couldn’t upend, which is to give the MVP award to a player who excels in the final series, forgetting the first three rounds. In the case of the Kings, you could have picked Kopitar, Quick, or Doughty as quickly as you picked Justin Williams. If ever the MVP should have been a team award, this was it.
And if the Kings weren’t conclusive evidence about that, those NBA San Antonio Spurs offered more of the same.  

John Gilbert has been writing sports for
over 30 years. Formerly with the Star Tribune and WCCO. He currently hosts a daily radio show on KDAL AM.

Some people here in Duluth -- which, we should remind you, is the newly crowned No. 1 city in the country if you like to do outdoors stuff -- consider that summer has arrived with pragmatic things such as, the ice melting away from the surface of Lake Superior, or for us to hit three weeks in a row without the temperature dropping below freezing.
   Others look at things like the end of high school baseball, softball and track, or the start of the Duluth Huskies baseball season.
   Not me.
   For me, summer arrives when Grandma’s Marathon cuts its annual swath down Highway 61 from Two Harbors to Canal Park. No self-respecting winter would hang around past that mid-June date. Which just happens to be falling this weekend.
   Will this be the year that somebody breaks the unbreakable course record, set a generation or two ago by Dick Beardsley, who was chased the whole 26.2 miles by Garry Bjorklund for a scintillating 1-2 finish by Minnesotans. Runners get faster, and come from farther away, but nobody has been able to break Beardsley’s record.
    Among the highlights for me was two years ago, when Kara Goucher came home to run to a half-marathon victory that not only was a record but qualified our favorite hometown runner for the Olympics.
   The point is, whatever else you’ve got planned for Saturday, do something to your schedule to allow you to take in the Marathon. You might volunteer to hand out liquids to the runners, or you might just line London Road to cheer on the runners as they do their thing.
   If you do that, you will notice what makes Grandma’s special. Sure, there will be a bunch of very slim, very swift runners from Africa, mainly Kenya and Ethiopia, and they will form a pack out front, that will probably become way out front before the halfway point.
   But that doesn’t matter. Grandma’s is the embodiment of the old adage that it’s not whether you win or lose, but how hard you compete. It also is a place where hundreds -- thousands -- of local folks gear up, prepare, and go off to run 26.2 miles. They will run to exhaustion, and they will prove that competing is what it’s all about. Doesn’t matter what their elapsed times are, or if they’re an hour or two behind the leaders. It’s doing your best to go the distance that matters.
   It’s not the biggest marathon in the world, or in the U.S., but it’s among ’em. And besides, it’s our marathon.

‘U.S.A....U.S.A...’
   It would have been possible to watch the entire World Cup soccer tournament for however many weeks it’s going to take, and never hear U.S. fans chant that incessant “USA...USA...USA...” It’s not that I’m unpatriotic. Far from it. But that chant started when Team USA under coach Herb Brooks made that stirring run through the 1980 Winter Olympic hockey tournament, upsetting the mighty Soviet Union, and then rallying to beat Finland in the Gold Medal game.
   The chant was born in the Lake Placid arena, and it was such a catchy, nationalistic achievement that the chant has become absolutely trite when it becomes the common theme of every U.S. team in every sport that happens to win.
   The World Cup is soccer, soccer, and more soccer, as teams play through four-team round-robin groupings to determine the finalists, and then things get serious, as the teams battle to the finish for the World Cup.
   The powers behind the World Cup did a great job of grouping all the teams into their four-team groups. Homestanding Brazil is a favorite, but many pick Argentina to beat Brazil. Still others like Germany. But in each group, there is a potent favorite, a pretty good challenger, a good contender, and a fairly weak entrant. Good for the seeding process.
   The U.S. is nowhere near as serious about soccer as all the top teams from around the world, who call soccer football, or, more accurately, “futbol.” Their teams genuinely resemble life and death struggles. In the U.S., we are so arrogant that we believe U.S. baseball, football and basketball are the top sports in the world, and those of us with clearer vision may prefer hockey to those three. We’re closer, because hockey is played in almost every country of the world, whereas baseball, our football, and basketball are minor league by comparison. In every country -- every one -- soccer is the top sport, which is what makes the World Cup so special every four years.
   The U.S. is in a group with Portugal, Ghana and Germany. Remember now, you have to finish as one of the top two in your group to advance. Otherwise you go home.
   In the opening game, the U.S. got a goal from Clint Dempsey after only 29 seconds of the scheduled 90-minute game. It was the fifth-quickest goal in World Cup history. The U.S. rode that 1-0 lead throughout the game, or at least through the the first 82 minutes. The Ghana players pressed and worked for openings, and with 8 minutes left, Andre Ayew scored and Ghana had tied the game 1-1.
   Ties matter in soccer, where it can help determine the final order within groups. But with four minutes remaining, a pair of U.S. reserves collaborated. Graham Zusi booted a corner kick out front, but it seemed just a tad high for a leaping U.S. player to reach with his head. It didn’t matter except as a diversion, because behind him, John Brooks, another sub, timed his leap perfectly and headed the goal.
   The U.S. held on, through extra minutes at the finish, and won the game 2-1. It was a huge victory, simply because a loss might have insured a quick exit for the U.S. team. And that set off the celebration, “USA...USA...” and all. Not that it will be easy in Game 2.
   Next up, the U.S. faces Portugal Sunday, but any thoughts of an easy game cannot be declared just because Portugal was blown away 4-0 by Germany in its first game. Indeed, Portugal was considered to be a strong challenger, but Thomas Mueller scored three times and Germany established its dominance early. Instead of being down, Portugal’s forces realize immediately that if they can bounce back and beat the U.S., they would have an excellent chance at finishing second and advancing.
   We can all but concede first in the division to Germany, although it will be interesting to see if the Germans can duplicate their astounding first game performance when they face a Ghana team unlikely to be intimidated.
   That’s what makes the World Cup so great. Here is the U.S., proud of its athletic achievements, and maybe a little arrogant about it, being battled to a standstill by tiny Ghana, a nation from the east coast of Africa, whose players were devastated by the late turnaround that cost them a victory or tie against the U.S.
   People in the U.S. who know nothing about soccer will find themselves watching the sport for the first time, maybe. It is worth watching, despite the absence of the free-scoring style we prefer in many sports. Watch for the amazingly intricate footwork, and if you don’t realize how intricate and how difficult soccer is, take a ball out in the back yard and see how long you can maintain possession, and how many seconds it takes until you are thoroughly exhausted. If you think you can master it, get your kid, or a neighbor kid who might be small but has played a little soccer, and see how you can do against a little twerp who knows the game.

John Gilbert has been writing sports for
over 30 years. Formerly with the Star Tribune and WCCO. He currently hosts a daily radio show on KDAL AM.