Smallwood: Cavs-Warriors a marquee matchup but not a rivalry
THE NBA has tried too hard to push the Golden State Warriors against the Cleveland Cavaliers as some kind of rivalry for the new millennium.
THE NBA has tried too hard to push the Golden State Warriors against the Cleveland Cavaliers as some kind of rivalry for the new millennium.
Yes, the Cavaliers and Warriors have played for the last two NBA titles, and, yes, Cleveland's LeBron James and Golden State's Stephen Curry are the most recognizable players on the planet.
Still, while familiarity may breed contempt, it takes longevity to build a proper rivalry, and Golden State and Cleveland have not been going at each other long enough to qualify.
A rivalry is defined as a competition between differing sides for the same goal, but it requires much more substance than that to qualify as a true sports rivalry. A sports rivalry is based on a long, continuous and contentious series of encounters between teams, built on decades of competition. They ultimately induce a strong element of institutionalized hate in fans and players.
The Cavaliers and Warriors played on Christmas Day and Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Unless they meet in the Finals, that's it for the 2016-17 NBA season.
With half a season and the playoffs to go, the franchises based in Oakland and Cleveland won't play again unless it is for the title.
That's not a rivalry.
In the past two seasons, the teams have played 17 times, including 13 in the Finals, but in the previous nine seasons the teams played only 17 times.
Golden State plays in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference, while Cleveland plays in the Central of the Eastern Conference.
The teams have never battled for a division or conference championship. They never met in the playoffs until the 2015 NBA Finals.
Other than the shared desire to win the Larry O'Brien Trophy and occasional gamesmanship that exists in all competition, there is no animosity between the players on the Cavaliers and Warriors.
The cities are 2,450.3 miles apart, via a 36-hour drive on I-80.
There are no longstanding beefs and, without beefs, there is no rivalry.
The Browns and San Francisco 49ers have never played in a Super Bowl. Cleveland and San Francisco have never played in the World Series. Both the Oakland Raiders and Cleveland Browns are in the AFC, but have met only twice in the playoffs. The Oakland Athletics and Cleveland Indians have never met in the major league baseball playoffs, even though both are in the American League.
Until the 2015 NBA Finals, there was nothing for fans in Cleveland and the Bay Area to bark at each other about.
Since they've split titles, there is no jealousy or hatred – underlying issues that fuel any true sports rivalry.
Eagles fans don't just dislike the Dallas Cowboys, they despise them. The same is true of Washington and the New York Giants.
Fan hatred has been passed from generation to generation.
Those rivalries were born from those teams battling each other for decades, with division titles, playoff games and Super Bowl bids at stake.
The Eagles and Giants have played 170 times since 1933. The Eagles have played Washington 166 times since 1934 and faced Dallas 116 times since 1960.
Warriors-Cavaliers doesn't have anything like three "Miracles in the Meadowlands," "Bounty Bowl," the "Body Bag Game" or "Pickle Juice."
You can't find a video of Curry whining about the Cavaliers, saying, "I don't like them, because I don't like any guy on their team," as you can of Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby talking about the Flyers.
James will never earn the moniker of "The Bay Area Strangler." He, in fact, says that there is no rivalry with the Warriors, despite the protest of Golden State forward Draymond Green.
"I don't believe I've ever had a rivalry in the NBA," James said. "It's just that too many guys move and go places and change different locations.
"It's totally different from the '80s, when obviously we saw the Celtics and the Lakers go at it so much, and I don't look at it as a rivalry."
Boston and the Lakers might be the only real cross-conference rivalry in sports. It's legitimate, because the franchises have played in the Finals a record 12 times beginning in 1959, when the Lakers were based in Minneapolis.
Cleveland, Oakland and San Francisco have sports rivalries that are not contrived. Browns fans, for instance, hate the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals, but that is born from proximity and being in the same NFL division. Oakland Raiders fans will still despise the Chiefs, Broncos and Chargers even after their team relocates to Las Vegas. Their shared American Football League origins guarantee that.
The Giants and Dodgers are archrivals dating back to their days in New York.
Those matchups have sustained their intensities through the tests of time.
Cavaliers-Warriors has no history. It's a "Marquee Matchup," not a rivalry, and if they don't meet again in the 2017 Finals, it will be quickly be forgotten as that.
@SmallTerp