It’s been three years since we last saw Don Draper light one up and deliver a line that stopped us in our tracks. With the NBA back, it’s time for a redux.
As the 2017-18 NBA season drew to a close, I texted two buddies who had way more time on their hands than me with a very important question: If I was going to binge one show over the summer, which one should it be?
I’d asked the same question 12 months prior and they told me Game of Thrones was the easy choice. I wasn’t disappointed, to the point that I needed an outlet to work through my obsession with the show. Taking inspiration from a Wire-inspired playoff preview Bill Simmons did years ago, the Game of Thrones Guide to the 2017-18 NBA season was born.
Fast forward to July. This time around, I was given two choices: Mad Men or Breaking Bad. Mad Men, they said, was the superior show, but Breaking Bad would be the better binge. It felt like I was deciding between a Crave Case and a Black Label Burger. As I’m quite a few years removed from college, I went with Mad Men.
Initially, I had some reservations about the decision. In the pilot, I didn’t buy how this clearly revered ad exec (Don) would go into the day of a major pitch meeting without a clue as to what he was going to say (looking back, it was completely out of character). The first season moved a little slow and often not a lot actually happened, but the characters had so many subtle little quirks and were beautifully deep and complex, like the Sopranos, but with the bass turned down. And Peggy, for reasons I wasn’t able to understand yet, was someone I couldn’t get enough of. I persevered.
Needless to say, the show rewarded my faith. Now it’s time to pay it back.
In a lot of ways, Mad Men is as perfect for this NBA season as GOT was for the last one. 2017-18 was dominated from beginning to end by two powers: the established Warriors (House Lannister) and the upstart Rockets (House Targaryen). Just like the quotes that Thrones are famous for, last year’s NBA season was in your face and over the top. Little thought was involved; it was always going to be Warriors over Cavs. Everything else was just window dressing.
This season? Sure, it seems like there’s still a natural order to things. The Warriors are still the Warriors, right? Look deeper though. Everywhere you turn, there are potential league-altering situations brewing right before our eyes. They might not be obvious at first, but just like Mad Men, that’s when the NBA is at its best: when stuff happens that no one saw coming, but in retrospect, actually made a ton of sense.
Unlike last year, every team is represented here. I tried to hit all the classics, but some just didn’t have a natural fit (I’d challenge anyone to find a suitable landing spot for “I am so glad that I got to roam those hillsides.”). Lastly, Mad Men‘s all-time best quote – the one that survived the show’s existence and has become part of our parlance as a civilization – won’t be one of the headers. I’m making you work for it. If you don’t know which one I’m talking about, well that’s…
Anyway, enough preface. Let’s get cracking. Why? Because we’re creative, the least important most important thing there is.