Stephen Curry’s champion Golden State Warriors, the most dominant team of the last decade, and the Boston Celtics will have to overcome their recent scandals to fight for a return to the NBA Finals in the new season that begins on Tuesday.
In front of them they will have a set of aspiring franchises with many pending accounts, such as the Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucksthe Kevin Durant’s Brooklyn Nets or the Joel Embiid’s Philadelphia 76ers.
The spotlight will also be directed towards Los Angeles, where Kawhi Leonard returns from his injury for a new attempt to storm the championship with the Clippers and Lebron James He does not give up dreaming of his fifth ring, although the limitations of the Lakers may invite him to focus on his great individual records.
The few standout signings — Rudy Gobert to the Timberwolves, Donovan Mitchell to the Cavaliers and Dejounte Murray to the Haws — were overshadowed by a turbulent season that affected franchises as stable as the Warriors and Celtics themselves.
First was the arrest in June Miles Bridgesthe explosive forward of the Hornets who appeared at the All-Star, accused of assaulting his wife in front of their children.
In September, the results of the investigation commissioned by the NBA against robert sarver, owner of the Phoenix Sunswhich confirmed the racist and misogynistic behavior that he maintained for years in the organization.
At the end of that month it was the runner-up Celtics who shocked the league by suspending their coach Ime Udokaan emerging and admired figure on the bench, due to an intimate relationship with an employee in his charge, who breached the rules of the franchise.
The chain of scandals reached the Warriors in early October when the temperamental Draymond Greenwinner of four rings with the franchise along with Curry and Klay Thompson, punched young shooting guard Jordan Poole during training.
Although he acknowledged the crisis generated by the altercation, coach Steve Kerr opted not to suspend Green and will allow him to pick up his championship ring on Tuesday in the opening game against the Lakers.
The Warriors, who returned to the top in June after three years of ordeal, want to turn the page on their internal problems as soon as possible and get back on track for their fifth title in less than a decade, which would put them on the Olympus of the NBA dynasties.
