Asterisk or not, NBA champs will have earned it

Asterisks have long been a fickle form of punctuation in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

They tend to be subjectively attached to certain championships and, even then, do not always stick.

Some of the loudest asterisk talk in league history followed the San Antonio Spurs' championship in the 1999 season, which was shortened to 50 regular-season games because of a lockout.

Phil Jackson, who did not coach that season, unforgettably started and amplified that campaign, hypothesising that a compact schedule diminished their achievement.

Jackson, who has won more championships than any NBA coach in history (11 with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers) later admitted in a 2011 radio interview he was just "poking fun", presumably for potential mind-game benefits later.

The 1993-94 Houston Rockets is another that has an asterisk beside them.

While former coach Rudy Tomjanovich has earned a spot in the Basketball Hall of Fame's 2020 class after a lengthy wait, Hakeem Olajuwon and Co. have been constantly reminded the first championship in Rockets' history was not secured until after Michael Jordan embarked on his first retirement stint to take up Minor League Baseball.

But we now appear headed for an asterisk that will be mandatory rather than abstract - in this season's best-case scenario and maybe even its worst.

Whether the NBA resumes the season or ends without a champion for the first time in its 74 years, there will be no entry in the record book like this campaign.

"Every NBA Finals ever has been a best-of-seven," said Todd Spehr, a league historian. "I suppose you could list several subjective asterisks if you wanted to reference various injuries that have happened in the finals, but this would be new territory.

"If you take a hole out of the last portion of the season and then present a modified post-season, it will always be considered abnormal."

Let us keep things hopeful for now. Let us imagine that the dire circumstances caused by the coronavirus outbreak improve expeditiously, enabling the NBA to play on this summer.

The problem: Even an optimist can imagine the dismissive things sure to be said about the team that conquered a post-season that, as Spehr hinted, is likely to feature games in empty arenas and a format scaled back from four rounds of best-of-seven matchups.

The Milwaukee Bucks badly need a championship, not only to halt a 49-year title drought, but also to enhance their chances of persuading reigning Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo to commit to a long-term contract.

The Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James faces the obstacle of Father Time, as well as a formidable obstacle of his own building in the form of the Los Angeles Clippers' Kawhi Leonard.

Both stars, who share the same Staples Centre home court, have a chance to become the first player in league history to lead a third franchise to the NBA's ultimate prize.

For James in particular, at age 35, the clock is ticking fast. You have to wonder, though: How would we really look at Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, in our rings-are-everything sports culture, if they emerged victorious from a regular season and postseason that fell short of 82 games as well as the 16 play-off win norms?

How much credit would James or Leonard get for leading their team to such a crown?

Perhaps the basketball public, grateful just to have the game back in any form, would be unusually forgiving.

But do not count on it. "Phil's asterisk comment has sort of stuck. The word 'asterisk' is always interpreted negatively," Spehr said.

However, this season has been irrevocably altered, so if we are even fortunate to get an NBA Finals, it is going to be in its own historical place.

Fears are mounting that a comeback in July or even August is an unrealistic expectation for any professional sports league unless the Covid-19 crisis eases significantly in coming weeks.

The NBA is likely to wait until at least June 1 before it makes binding decisions about the fate of the rest of the season.

Too much money has already been lost to be hasty.

Giving itself as much runway as possible to craft some semblance of a palatable finish - for as long as the league can hold out until the delay affects next season - is the league's best play.

NY TIMES