The NBA has grown into a global enterprise.	After 40 years, devoted fans have been rewarded.	Curran carried the 1975 trophy in his luggage.

Sign of the times: 2015 vs.1975 by Nick Curran

Basketball-crazy fans in 215 countries watched, listened to and participated in the NBA Finals this month in 47 languages through multimedia and digital technologies. The NBA has an estimated 835 million fans and followers in social media globally.

Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors, the league's Most Valuable Player this season, could walk down a street almost anywhere on the planet and be mobbed by adoring fans.

It didn't used to be that way.

The last time the Warriors battled for the National Basketball Association championship, CBS televised each game live in one country, the U.S., and one language, English. And we were glad to get that much exposure! The four major sports -- baseball, football, basketball and hockey -- had similar media structures in those days.

I knew it well. I was in my sixth year as NBA director of public relations. Many did not know I was a one-man department. During the Finals I rented a suite in the city of each competing team. I slept in one room and entertained in the other. We had a head coach and star player meet the press each day. We had a modest budget for food and beverage for the media and most media were writers from daily newspapers.

ESPN did not exist in 1975. Although CBS did a fine job of live prime-time coverage with two announcers, we could not imagine having ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV with 24/7 news and entertainment. There were no pre-game telecasts or live post-game press conferences. There was no instant replay.

The 2015 Warriors front office had the luxury of Oracle Arena being available whenever it was needed. So did the Cavaliers with Cleveland's Quicken Loan Arena.

You won't believe what the arena obstacles were like for the 1975 NBA Finals. Honest!

In those years, like now, the league preferred a 2-2-1-1-1 playoff schedule. That meant the team with the better regular-season record played Games 1 and 2 at home, Games 3 and 4 on the road, Game 5 at home, Game 6 on the road and Game 7 at home.

In 1975 the Washington Bullets earned home-court advantage, but Game 4 couldn't be played in Oakland. The Oakland Coliseum Arena, the Warriors' regular home, was booked for the Ice Follies for a week and couldn't be changed. The ancient Cow Palace in Daly City, which was the Warriors' home a decade earlier, couldn't host Game 4, either, as a karate tournament was scheduled. (No kidding!)

So the league and both teams agreed to a unique, awkward 1-2-2-1-1 schedule. The Bullets insisted the series open in Maryland, followed by two games at the Cow Palace, then back to Maryland for Games 4 and 5, then single games on each court if it went the full seven games.

There was grumbling among some Warriors players. They didn't want to play the NBA Finals games at the Cow Palace. It took Rick Barry, the MVP of the NBA Finals, to convince his teammates they could win on that old wooden floor. He stepped up, and so did Al Attles, the Warriors head coach.

Attles knew the Bullets had superstars in Elvin Hayes, Wes Unseld and Phil Chenier. Washington was going to do or die with its seven best players.

Attles used 11 players and substituted heavily. The Warriors had fresh players on the court throughout -- and swept that series in four games. The offensive strategy was basically to feed Barry. He was their prolific scorer. Others were playmakers, rebounders and in-your-face defenders.

The 2015 Warriors won 67 games for rookie head coach Steve Kerr in the regular season. The 1975 Warriors won just 48 games. Kerr also used players interchangeably. Some 6-foot-7 players in this lineup played all five positions.

Curry and teammate Klay Thompson electrified their fans with their 3-point shooting. In 1975, the NBA had not yet approved the 3-pointer. The 2015 Warriors had eight players who averaged seven points or more per game. The 1975 Warriors did not have this balance.

And when the 1975 Warriors clinched the championship, owner Franklin Mieuli received the Walter A. Brown Trophy. It was named after the original owner of the Boston Celtics. I used to have to cart it from city to city, checking it with my baggage so it was on hand for the deciding game.

Starting in 1986, the league made it simpler. They presented the trophy to the winning team to keep and manufactured a new one every year. It is now called the Larry O'Brien Trophy after the commissioner from 1975 to '84. O'Brien was my boss at the beginning of his tenure.

Andre Iguodala was voted Finals Most Valuable Player and deserved it. He was the first MVP in Finals history who did not start one game in the regular season. Coach Steve Kerr became the first rookie coach since Pat Riley in 1982 to guide his team to an NBA championship. This team is definitely one for the ages.

Eileen, are retired and live in Santa Barbara.

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Bike Gear   by Andy Dolich

 More pedal power to anyone who hops on their favorite two-wheeler and takes off down the highways and byways of life in the Bay Area. I have no idea how anyone actually completes the tortuous 3,360 miles of the Tour de France, let alone the Tour to de Grocery Store. We will see who the King of the Hills will be when the 2015 Tour de France pedals off on July Fourth, and who rides into Paris on July 26 wearing a yellow jersey.

Seems to me that recreational cycling is a much better way to get around town and do your part to squelch the petro-burning damage done every time the key turns on your gas guzzler. Cardiovascular conditioning is a positive that comes from those uphill climbs, and putting more muscle on the legs makes for quicker getaways and occasional wolf whistles.

OK, now that I have paid my positive dues to those who mechanically push pedal to the metal, it's time to hit the hand brakes and ask all you peddlers: What is the story with your garish garb?

Do you actually think an urgent phone call is coming in from the organizers of the Tour de France, pleading with you to jet over and fill in for Vincenzo Nibali?

Why do you insist on pouring yourselves into those neon colored, form-fitting, logo-encrusted, aerodynamically spandex-encased cycling togs? I'm just guessing that you aren't being paid to ride for Team Sky, Movistar, Tinkoff-Saxo Bank or Katusha. I also fail to understand some of the other stuff you guys are up to.

Aerodynamic helmets: Those super swept-back helmets make you look like a movie extra from the original Alien. I get the safety angle, but how many of you need these customized cranium cruisers if your top speed is 21 mph?

Click-clack shoes: I spend a fair amount of time in coffee shop-peddler hangouts in Northern California, and when the biker gangs hit the hard floors they seem to be channeling Savion Glover breaking into a tap routine. If I wanted to hear your damn click-clack shoes while catching up on the day's sporting news I'd buy a ticket to Stomp! One other point of interest: Millennial bikers seem to prefer Peet's over Starbucks. Hear that, Howard Schultz?

Gloves: I'm totally confused by the glove thing. Full fingered, three-quarter and half-fingered, no fingered. I'm thinking the real use is holding on to a hot pastry on your daily refueling stop at the coffee shop. I can just see the leaders of the mountain climb asking their teammates if it's time for a caffeine break and croissant.

Hand signals: Those hand signals for your turns are greatly appreciated. I'm sure those drivers who are texting, talking, brushing their teeth, shaving or writing a presentation draft on their laptops while driving over the speed limit will swear they never saw you until they hit you.

You look silly: Just think if other athletes dressed like you when participating in their favorite sport. Would schoolyard hoopers turn up in full NBA uniforms? Would your kid's T-ball coach show up looking like Tommy Lasorda or Lou Pinella, with a form-fitting major-league baseball uniform emphasizing an overflowing gut? Do you dress like Venus, Maria, Roger or Rafa when smashing fuzzy balls around the local courts?

The yellow jersey: Did you just complete the entire 3,642 kilometers of the tour? Congrats! Why doesn't everyone just wear a yellow jersey and black shorts?

Look at me, Ma, I'm King of the Cycling World!

Have a pleasant Peloton. 

NBA Should Reform Intentional Foul Rule by Howard Pearlstein

In the offseason the NBA owners should do something about intentional fouling. It's just wrong that the people who gain from it are those who commit the fouls, which makes the game a bunch of legal tricks instead of a contest of athletes.

Even something as simple as an intentional foul should get the foul shooter three or four shots or cost the person doing the fouling two fouls against him and his team, or both. Maybe make an intentional foul a flagrant one? Or half a flagrant one? More shots for the person fouled and more fouls against the person doing it.

It's contrary to any sense of sportsmanship and excellence, and a disgrace to the art of basketball and its history.

Send us your Memorable Sports Moment, Reader's Comment or SportsPulse and we will share them with our readers. Write: theultimatesportsguide@gmail.com. 

What do all these illustrious names have in common?

Michael Altfest, Steve Baker, James Brandt, Paul Brekke-Miesner, Robinson Brown, Walter Champion, Harvey Cohen, Isaac Cronin, Eileen Curran, Nick Curran, Glenn Dickey, Andy Dolich, Jeff Elefante, Pete Elman, Leland Faust, Nancy Finley and Chris De Benedetti, Jim Fitzpatrick, Rob Flammia, Daniel Geary, Andre Johnson, Kenny Karst, Ira Klein, Richard Lupoff, Bruce Macgowan, Patric Mayers, Ross McKean, Robert Moselle, Dave Newhouse, John Ourand, Howard Pearlstein, Rudi Petschek, Laurel Poeton, Phil Schaaf, Jonathan Siegel,

Tom Stern, Shelia Young

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