The 2022 FIFA World Cup ended on Sunday with arguably the greatest Finale in the history of one of the world’s most prestigious tournaments. However, NBA fans somehow brought in a LeBron James comparison.
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For the next few months, it might seem berserk to compare anything from any particular instance of the match between Lionel Messi’s Argentina and Kylian Mbappe’s France to any other match in football or even a different sport.
But, NBA has already found something which might be as crucial in the league’s history as Emiliano Martinez’s clutch save was Argentina in almost the last play of the game.
NBA Twitter compares a LeBron James play from the 2016 NBA Finals to Emiliano Martinez’s stoppage-time save
The WC final in Qatar turned from one of the worst showings by a terrific team (France) until 80 minutes to probably the best match in the most awaited tournament in the world. Thanks to Di Maria, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, and the man without whom Argentina wasn’t definitely winning the Ultimate reward – the goalkeeper, Emiliano Martinez.
Some of his saves in the game, much like his opposite number Hugo Lloris, were truly outstanding. However, his last save, in the injury time of Extra-time, couldn’t have come at a more crucial time than it did.
There was an NBA Finals series as exciting as this game in 2016. The Finals MVP, LeBron James’ did some breathing things in that 7-game series. And one of them was a chase-down block on Warriors’ Andre Iguodala in Game 7 which is probably the most clutch defensive play of all time.
So, NBA Twitter thought that’s the best comparison they could come up with for Martinez’s save.
Considering that Cleveland Cavaliers winning the 2016 championship is the biggest comeback in NBA’s Finals history, and most likely its greatest-ever series, it’s not too absurd to compare the historical instances.
What’s the pressure in a WC Final compared to an NBA Final?
When we come down to comparing stakes, an NBA Finals series had an average of 12.4 million viewers. It was around 22 million in the Cavaliers-Warriors series in 2016.
NFL gets the best viewership among the top sports in the US, with over 100 Million people watching the Superbowl in recent years.
Coming down to “Soccer”, the 2022 FIFA WC Final reportedly had around 4 billion viewership, which estimates to be around 43 million-rise to the previous edition of the tournament (2018).
To put that in perspective, the world’s total population is just over 7.8 billion. With more than half of the world watching, it’s way more stake than any other sport. And you can just imagine the pressure players must feel with those many eyeballs at them.
