Pitchin with Pritch: Long time between trophies for Buck

It was late July and the NBA was still playing basketball. That in itself was a little strange, but having the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns playing for the championship was a little strange in my opinion as well.

But they didn’t get there by accident. They were pretty talented and deserved the opportunity. 

The finals also had some surprises in that the Suns won the first two games. When you only have to win four of possible seven games, winning the first two puts you in a very good position to win a championship. 

Nothing however says that is what will happen and the Bucks proved that by winning the whole thing in six games. 

The Bucks last won a championship 50 years ago with a youngster named Lew Alcindor at birth and later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. 

For decades, it was the only time the franchise had reached that level—until now. The Bucks did it again and they had another young goliath from Greece with a name that challenges one to say or spell in Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Antetokounmpo had maybe the greatest series ever by an individual player. He capped it with getting 50 points, 14 rebounds, and hitting 17 of 19 free-throws and on the defensive side of things, blocking five shots. 

By the time the final buzzer came, there was little doubt who would be named the most valuable player of the series.

Chris Paul, the Sun’s 36- year-old point guard finished with 26 points and the loss had to be painful. He’s been to the finals but has never been on a winning NBA Championship team during his career. 

It is difficult for me to think of a 36-year-old person being old, but in the NBA, it is old.

Huskers picked deep in Big 10

Nebraska was picked to finish in the bottom half of the Big 10 West in the annual preseason media poll that was conducted by Cleveland.com.

The Huskers received 91.5 points to trail, in order, top-picked Wisconsin, Iowa, Northwestern, Minnesota and Nebraska in fifth. Purdue and Illinois rounded out the Big 10 West.

Last year Nebraska was picked to finish fourth but ended up fifth. In 2019 they were favored to win their division but finished sixth. 

In 2018, Coach Frost’s first season, Nebraska was predicted to finish fourth but ended up sixth.

Maybe this year something good will happen and it will seem like Nebraska football is being played like the coaches and everyone else would like to see it played.