Fansided

NBA Powerless Rankings: 5 lessons we didn’t learn in the regular season

By Matt Rutkowski

BOSTON, MA - JANUARY 18: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been converted to black and white) Jayson Tatum
BOSTON, MA - JANUARY 18: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been converted to black and white) Jayson Tatum /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 6
Next

5. Excitement is good

The Indiana Pacers are good this year. They were not great last year, and they looked to be worse before this season started. Fans of Indiana are happy that their team turned out to be a happy story. Victor Oladipo exceeded all expectations, and he is exciting to watch on any given night.

The Indiana Pacers are unlikely to win the NBA championship. Does that mean their excitement should be tempered or disqualified? If you answered yes to that question, you are a bad person, and I hate you.

Good things happen. Good things then stop happening at some point. What is or was good is not defined by the person who experienced the best thing. Their perspective is skewed. They just happen to have the skewed perspective of a very fortunate person.

In any given NBA season, 29 teams do not win a championship. Many teams do not have a chance from the start. These expectations are generally laid out in over/under bets or Power Rankings or pre-season predictions. Then the things start happening.

I have a great admiration for anyone who sees positives and celebrates them. I have deep enmity for anyone who wants to wag their finger from afar. Why celebrate Milos Teodosic’s cool passes when some end in turnovers and the Clippers aren’t going to make the playoffs.

Because the passes are cool. One does not need to justify their enjoyment of their choice of entertainment. Want does not to assign some comparative value to it in order for it to be legitimate.

Because the passes are cool. That’s enough. You don’t need anything else. Anyone asking for more is a bouncer for a club you’re not trying to enter.

Home/NBA