Category: Sports

With the NBA Finals beginning tonight, illustrious sneaker designer and artist Tinker Hatfield has teamed up with Michelob ULTRA to reveal yet another beautiful design from his one-of-a-kind mind.

“Well, I did last year’s bottle, which was kind of like a net draped over the actual net,” Hatfield tells SLAM over a Zoom interview. “The hoop was draped over the bottle. And I thought, well, it was just a quick read from a distance that you could, ‘Oh, that bottle’s got a net on it and oh yeah, the net of course, the cut-down the net. So only the winners get to do that. And so I’m like, well, that one worked out okay. That worked out well because it was very recognizable. And then I was just thinking as they asked me to do the same thing, that another talked about, lusted after, often photographed part of winning a championship is the actual ring that they get made. You know, Michael Jordan has six and there’s a beautiful poster of him with all his rings on his fingers. And I just think that just was a spectacular kind of photoshoot. But really, the rings are really in and of themselves kind of interesting. And obviously they don’t come along very often. So I thought, well, let’s basically print up a ring around the bottle and have the first one be the net bottle, and the second one is now the ring bottle. And [you] only get a ring when you win. I had to design a ring.”

This year’s Finals are coinciding with the NBA’s 75th anniversary season, which is prompting Tinker and Michelob to drop 75 limited-edition Championship Bottles in the winning team’s city. Those 75 winners will also get an NFT cooked up by Tinker.

The legend laughs and tells us that while it was an interesting challenge to design a ring, he’s not planning on giving up his day job at any point.

“I kind of hope that no one calls me up to design their ring for them,” Hatfield laughs. “I have enough stuff to do.”

We’ve ranked the best 75 individual season teams ever, which is featured in our SLAM’s TOP 75 NBA Teams of All Time special issue. This week, we’re unveiling which squads made it on our top 10. To find out who else made it on the list, read here.

3. 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers

Coach: Bill Sharman

Record: 69-13

Roster: Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Jim Cleamons, Leroy Ellis,  Keith Erickson, Gail Goodrich, Happy Hairston, Jim McMillian, Pat Riley, Flynn Robinson, John Trapp, Jerry West

It had been an ugly decade for the Lakers, after they left Minneapolis and settled in L.A. From 1949-54, the franchise won five titles. It played for another championship in 1959. But the ‘60s? Six trips to the Finals. Six losses—all to the Celtics. Legendary guard Jerry West was beginning to wonder whether he would ever get to feel like a winner.

The situation was particularly painful in 1969, when L.A. hosted the Celtics in the seventh game of the Finals at the Fabulous Forum. Owner Jack Kent Cooke was so convinced his team would finally win that he had dozens of purple-and-gold balloons trapped behind netting in the arena’s rafters, ready to flutter to the floor when the Lakers clinched the championship. But instead of a celebration, there was another disappointment, as the Boston dynasty came to a close with its 11th crown in 13 seasons.

Things weren’t any better the next season. Los Angeles dropped another deciding game in the Finals, this time to the Knicks, who fed off Willis Reed’s heroics and Clyde Frazier’s excellence. When the Lakers dropped a Western Finals decision to Milwaukee in 1971, it was time for a change. Cooke directed GM Fred Schaus to sign Bill Sharman as coach. Thus began L.A.’s transformation from sad-sack also-ran to NBA champion.

Sharman re-cast the Laker approach, convincing center Wilt Chamberlain to focus more on rebounding and defense and less on scoring. The Lakers had guards Gail Goodrich and West, both of whom scored more than 25 a game, for that. Power forward Happy Hairston hit the boards with a ferocity, and wing man Jim McMillian hit a ton of corner jumpers and got out on the break with a fury. In fact, the whole team ran with abandon. The Lakers averaged 121.0 ppg.

Sharman also instituted the shootaround concept in 1971, primarily to make sure Chamberlain got out of bed early enough in the day so that he was ready to play that night. It worked. Not only did The Dipper play in all 82 games, he helped the Lakers to an NBA-record 69 victories. Included was a 33-game winning streak—the longest in history for any major US sport—during which the Lakers beat their opponents by an average of 16.7 ppg.

L.A. breezed to the Pacific Division title and swept away Chicago in the opening round of the playoffs. Waiting in the Western Finals were the defending champion Bucks, who had won 63 games and boasted the terrific tandem of center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and guard Oscar Robertson. After Milwaukee whipped the Lakers, 93-72, in the first game—in Los Angeles—some doubt crept into the collective Laker psyche.

The Lakers won a wild Game 2, 135-134, to even the series and went on to overcome the Bucks in six. One of their nemeses had been vanquished. Another—New York—was waiting. The Knicks had routed Boston in the Eastern Finals in five games and were hoping to relive their 1970 title success at the expense of L.A. When the Knicks won the first game, in Los Angeles, by 22, many were shocked. The Lakers were motivated.

That would be it for the Knicks’ success. The Lakers evened the series with a triumph in the second game, and Chamberlain had 26 points (on 9-10 shooting) and 20 boards to key a 107-96 victory in the third. The Lakers won the series in five games, capping a tremendous season and bringing vindication to the franchise. Chamberlain was the Finals MVP, and West could finally feel like a winner.

Boy, did it feel good.

Get your copy of SLAM Presents TOP 75 NBA Teams Of All Time

Photos via Getty Images.

Andre Iguodala hasn’t played since Game 4 of the Warriors’ first-round series against the Denver Nuggets due to a neck injury. The injury has sidelined Iguodala for 13 of their last 16 playoff games, including 12 straight, while he recovers. As of Wednesday, Iggy has been ruled questionable for Game 1 of the FInals along with Gary Payton II.

But Iggy’s injury woes haven’t prevented him from playing a vital role for the Warriors as a player-assistant coach while in street clothes. This is mainly done by mentoring Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody all season and keeping this deep playoff run in perspective. According to Shayna Rubin of the Mercury News, Iguodala has made sure to remind the rookies to take plenty of pictures and keep memorabilia.

“Historically, they aren’t supposed to take on everything that comes with being in the Finals,” Iguodala said. “They’re supposed to be on college campuses learning about themselves, learning who they are as people, learning what they like, learning what they don’t like, instead of these guys making five-plus million dollars a year, got all the pressures, the madness of having money and being in the spotlight. You can become jaded. You can start taking these things for granted.

“It’s not their fault. I’m guilty of it, just being in the Finals so many times where I feel nothing. I just know it’s my job to go out and win. Really no joy in it; it’s just going to work.

Iggy has also maintained his brutal honesty with playoff vets like Kevon Looney and players playing in the playoffs for the first time like Jordan Poole. The third-year guard said Iggy “doesn’t leave any rock unturned,” and as a three-time champ, he coaches “how he sees the game unfold.”

“Extremely meticulous,” Poole said. “He likes to point out the details and small things. He has a lot of knowledge, and he’s willing to share, which is really cool to be a part of — He’s also extremely real. He’ll keep it a rack; he won’t sugarcoat anything. Being able to have him in our corner as a vet is huge.”

Iguodala’s knowledge as an 18-year vet and a player who played a significant role in the Warriors’ title runs as a versatile defender in Golden State’s small-ball lineups has earned him the ear of the younger Warriors.

His institutional knowledge of Golden State’s playstyle and culture has helped him stay in the League just as much as his quick hands, length, and athleticism. At 38-years-old, Iggy isn’t a part of the Warriors’ long-term plan, but for the time he’s relied on to be a strong voice on the bench.

He’s been given even more leeway as a veteran and player-coach because the Warriors championship core of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson trust him to help Poole, Kuminga, and Moody see what they see on the floor. Having him in their collective ear will only make playing on the biggest stage of basketball even more when it matters the most.

“He has access, not just physical access but emotional access that the coaching staff does not have,” Coach Steve Kerr said. “Frankly, there’s a trust factor that exists that can’t possibly exist between players and coaches. That’s why the role is so important. He has a different vantage point, and the guys believe in him so much, and he’s just brilliant at demanding and embracing and everything in between.”

Iggy awaits clearance for Thursday’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals.