Fansided

NBA Tank Rankings — it persists

By Matt Rutkowski

Jun 23, 2016; New York, NY, USA; Skal Labissiere (Kentucky) walks off stage after being selected as the number twenty-eight overall pick to the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the 2016 NBA Draft at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 23, 2016; New York, NY, USA; Skal Labissiere (Kentucky) walks off stage after being selected as the number twenty-eight overall pick to the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the 2016 NBA Draft at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports /
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Kings
May 10, 2016; Sacramento, CA, USA; Sacramento Kings vice president of basketball operations and general manager Vlade Divac and head coach Dave Joerger share a laugh during a press conference at the Sacramento Kings XC (Experience Center). Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports /

4. Sacramento Kings

The other side of the Cousins coin is also tails. The joy of “Yay, Boogie’s gone! It sucked playing with him!” turned to “Oh no. We still suck at playing.” pretty quickly. Until some advancement in technology figures out how to turn the flaming stacks of methane next to the landfill into usable energy, there’s not much to be excited for in Sacramento.

Through a rigorous process of models, projections, and high-level cost-benefit analysis, the Kings organization decided that the potential gains of moving on without Boogie outweighed the potential loss of Boogie himself. That’s science. You believe in that, right?

Well, no. No to both. You shouldn’t believe that happened. You shouldn’t believe in science either.

Believing in science indicates that you think it’s something to believe in, that it’s somehow a system of faith in something beyond the ability to prove. That’s not what science is. It’s a system, a procedure. It’s like saying you believe in walking. You can believe in someone’s ability to walk straight just as you can believe in one’s ability to apply the scientific method correctly, but going beyond that, to apply the idea of faith to the core concept, puts rigorous testing on the same level or even at odds with blindly grabbing at feelings or specters.

These are different dimensions, different. They can overlap, and touch, and mingle in whatever ways makes your heart flutter, but they should never be equated. You don’t believe in science. You believe in people.

If you want to, that is. Maybe don’t believe in the Kings.

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