Ways to make it through the wall

Good morning. The Thunder pulled together a blowout to advance to the West finals for the first time in this era. All four teams still alive have a real shot at a championship. This is the NBA the league office has fought to create. Let's basketball.

Four teams remain in play for the 2024-25 NBA championship. Three of them were among the league's worst teams just three years ago. The fourth (Minnesota) was bad four years ago. Three small markets, one the biggest of them all (but without much success this millennium). Whoever wins the championship will do either for the first time ever (not counting Indiana's ABA banners or the non-Thunder titles for the franchise that was once the Seattle SuperSonics) or for the first time in 50 years (in the case of the Knicks). Any of the teams can win it – Oklahoma City was the best team in the league all season, but have shown some vulnerability.

This is a perfect situation for the NBA, which has worked tirelessly to achieve competitive balance. While the league has marked five different champions over the past five years, this final four feels like a tier above in terms of meeting the NBA's stated goals. In those five years, you had championships for the era-defining Warriors and consistently viable Celtics in there, plus rings went to generational superstars on the Bucks and Nuggets. The Raptors are the true teambuilding wild card champion from the half-decade in question, and a sign of what the NBA's been chasing: no dynasties, no team is out of the picture for too long, unpredictable, equal opportunity for teams regardless of market size.

Those are exactly the ingredients of these conference finals.