Who is going to win the 2017 NBA Finals: LeBron James and the Cavaliers or Steph Curry and the Warriors?
We’re only about 60 hours away from the start of the Finals, so everyone out there is starting to place their official predictions on the outcome of the series. Some people are doing full breakdowns of the Cavaliers/Warriors matchup and pointing out why one team will be superior over the other, while others are making their predictions based on what their hearts are telling them as opposed to their heads. But whatever the case, there is certainly no shortage of people making Finals predictions at the moment.
So who should you pick? Well, you could crunch a bunch of numbers to try and figure out which team will win. You could also make your pick based on whether you like LeBron or Steph better. Or you could take into account the incredible stat Reddit user PZinger6 shared with the world on Monday. He discovered that LeBron has never won an NBA title during a year in which Nick Saban and the Alabama football team has failed to win a national championship.
Since 2011, Alabama has won three titles, and they’ve won those titles during the same years LeBron has won his three NBA titles. And during the years Alabama has lost, LeBron has also lost in the NBA Finals:
So Warriors then, right? Since Alabama lost to Clemson in the college football title game back in January. Not so fast! While this stat—which is already being called the "Nick Saban Curse"—seems to suggest that Golden State will prevail in the Finals this year, there’s also another curse at play that might affect the series outcome.
As we pointed out to you last June, First Take talking head Stephen A. Smith has incorrectly predicted the last six NBA Finals. Between 2011 and 2016, he picked the wrong team to win every year.
And this year, he’s going with…
The Warriors in 7!
So something has to give. Either LeBron is going to win an NBA title during a year in which Alabama didn't win the college football title or Stephen A. is going to be right for once with his NBA Finals pick.
Where does that leave you? Back trying to figure out who the heck you’re going to pick to win it all. Good luck.
