Miami Heat Becomes the First Five Seed to Make the NBA Finals in NBA History

Miami Heat made history yesterday, becoming the first #5 seed in NBA history to make the NBA Finals.

The Miami Heat face their most formidable challenge of the playoffs, going against a LeBron James lead team and a dominant player in Anthony Davis, the Los Angeles Lakers. 

LeBron James accounted for two of three championships in Miami history; it’s a perfect storyline to play against the team. He won his first NBA championship and went against his former Head Coach Erik Spoelstra. 

Miami Heat lives for the underdog title and love taking down teams no one expected them to beat, such as the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics.

If you think the Los Angeles Lakers will have an easy walk into a championship win, you haven’t watched the Miami Heat play this year; they play gritty and with a chip on their shoulder. 

Jimmy Butler is the epitome of what the culture is with the Miami Heat a hardworking and leave it all on the court type player. Butler has been averaging 20.7 points per game, 5.7 rebounds per game, 4.5 assists per game, and 1.9 steals per game. Butler will need to average a little more then 20 points if he wants the Heat to pull the major upset over the Lakers. 

The young nucleus for the Heat has been the main reason for their late playoff run. Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson have played phenomenal. 

Tyler Herro has been a huge boost off the bench and will be a significant factor in the NBA Finals due to the scarcity of depth to the Lakers bench. Andre Iguodala will be another key off the bench; they need his championship pedigree to have the young guys ready for the bright lights since he is the only one on the team with championship pedigree outside of Udonis Harlem, but he doesn’t play. This is Igudola's sixth straight NBA Finals. 

Bam Adebayo has played phenomenal in the playoffs finishing last night game with 32 points, 14 rebounds, and five assists in an elimination game. He will need to come close to those numbers as he prepares to go up against the best Power Forward in the league in Anthony Davis.

The Heat's wildcard is Goran Dragic; if he plays in the NBA Finals as he did in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Lakers, who are suspect at best at the guard position, the Heat will give the Lakers all they can handle. 

Game 1 will be this Wednesday at 9 PM ET on ABC. 

I predict the series to go seven games, with the Los Angles Lakers winning the 2020 NBA Finals. 

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Deion Sanders Could be the Stepping Stone to Bring Big Time Talent Back to HBCU Sports

This past Monday, Deion Sanders became the Head Football Coach at Jackson State. 

For those that don’t know, Jackson State is a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). This past season Jackson State finished 4-8 overall and 3-4 in the SWAC. 

The SWAC is one of four historically black colleges and university conferences(HBCU); the other three conferences are the CIAA, MEAC, and the SIAC conferences. 

Deion Sanders is a huge deal for not just Jackson State University, but HBCU schools in general. 

The first big signing this year for HBCU sports was Makur Maker signing to Howard University, but Deion Sanders becoming the head football coach at Jackson State University takes HBCU sports to another level.

Deion already has a Mississippi State freshman defensive back, Javorrius Selmon, transferring to play with Jackson State because he wants to play for Deion Sanders. That is the first of many transfers and signings to come.

This could get the ball rolling to get more big-name former star professional athletes to coach at HBCUs and current five-star athletes that are currently at these “power conference schools” such as LSU, Alabama, Kentucky, Kansas to transfer to a HBCU and change the narrative and bring the same revenue they are giving these PWI institutions to HBCU’s. 

HBCU’s sports talent level in the 70-90s was astounding. During the 70s-90s, HBCU had high caliber talent such as Willis Reed at Grambling State University, Earl the Pearl Monroe at Winston Salem, Rick Mahorn at Hampton, Shannon Sharpe at Shannon Sharpe, Jerry Rice at Mississippi Valley State University, Michael Strahan at Texas Southern Dick Barnett at Tennessee State, Edwin Moses at Morehouse, Wilma Rudolph at Tennessee State, Yolanda Laney at Cheyney University, Doug Williams at Grambling State, Steve McNair at Alcorn State, and Althea Gibson at Florida State. 

In the 2000s era, the talent level had dropped off. HBCU’s lost the talent level to the big schools because of “more TV exposure,” but with Deion Sanders, kids know the cameras will be tuned into HBCU sports, now that Primetime is in the building.  

With what’s been going on in the news due to continued police brutality, if it isn’t clear by now the way people of non-African American descent think of African Americans, you probably live under a rock.

It is now more crucial than ever to focus on building up our own community because we are always helping other races, but when it comes to social injustices matters to African Americans, most people from different races go MIA. 

It is time to take back what is ours, and what better way to start that by building up powerhouse HBCUs sports programs to generate revenue for our HBCUs and go toe to toe like the old days against these powerhouse PWI programs that were built by star African Americans athletes. 

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