That says a lot though. He has been terrible on both sides of the ball. Not terrible to have him as your 8th man I guess
I enjoyed this analogy, but I'm not sure it's any more complicated than - basketball is really fun to follow when you're winning. It's an exciting, action-packed game, the personalities are few and thus digestible and narrative-ready, the season might feel long but the playoffs are short-ish. And unlike football it's easy enough to understand what's happening on the court and to have an opinion about it (and following football can feel like a chore, too). If the sports were movies, Baseball is like Gone with the Wind while Basketball is Pulp Fiction. Getting the satisfaction out of a baseball season requires a long-term investment, it becomes the background to your life. Basketball is built for a casual fling for a month or two.
I get what you mean here but have to say, by most measures the NBA playoffs are as long as it gets. They're pretty much a full 2 months with the winner typically playing 20-25 playoff games... is any other sport approaching that? 1/6th of the time we are alive, the NBA playoffs are in session.
the entire sports media world has been dogging on the Knicks since before this series. They continue to say the Knicks aren’t that good. They continue to say they’re gonna be run down. When they aren’t saying that, they’re saying the Celtics are going to crush the universe of basketball and win a championship. I mean, TNT featured Reggie Miller in the booth and Chuck shitting all over New York yesterday.
I don’t, you just are trying to post jabs that make no sense. “The Yankees fans still think they’re a winning team and make fun of their rivals.” Maybe you lived here for 18 years but it doesn’t sound like you’ve been here for 20.
The comparison is that both are playing meh teams (Cleveland probably better than bad Halliburton Indy), and the Knicks are getting lionized for barely winning, while everyone acts like Boston winning by less than 50 is a crisis.
I mean, I think you're both right.
Agree. It’s just a fun ride for me, personally. This team hits a wall, whether it’s the Celtics, injuries, or fatigue first, I don’t know. Enjoying it while it lasts.
I don't know. I think Celtics fans are really reaching to feel aggrieved. What the Knicks are doing - the high wire act, the thin bench, Brunson-Hart-DeVicenzo - is genuinely remarkable and if this was happening in Boston we'd be over the moon about them. They deserve all the flowers they're getting. I think an ECF finals with them will be like a trip to the dentist - we'll most likely get through it but there will be moments of deep discomfort.
It's mostly a damned if you do/damned if you don't thing though with this specific team. The mega-minutes have many of these guys playing the best ball of their lives, and if he rested guys normally, there's a large chance they'd have been sitting home for a while already.
Is the overachieving sustainable against a commited and competent team. Ala what the Celts displayed vs the Heat AFTER game 2?
No? They are down 4 of their top 5 frontcourt players. At full strength, they're not as good as BOS and they're nowhere near full strength. It will be a miracle if they can finish off this series.
This immediately makes me feel better. What a glorious time to be alive.
Honestly, more Celtics fans should adopt this mindset.
It's kind of hard not to feel aggrieved when you have a local radio host on the highest ratings show already starting with "If the C's don't get any pushback from their opponents, I'll be disappointed with this championship" like two weeks removed from questioning their character after losing game 2 to Miami.
Well, I am of the opinion that with 30+ teams in every league, making it to the final four in the playoffs is a win for that season; it is just not easy to get there. BUT....if you keep making it to the final four yet never win, then those later final fours are not much of a win, in fact they turn the other way. If the Celtics beat Cleveland then that's what? Six Conference finals in this era? You've got to get the whole thing once.
It's pretty easy to ignore all of this, whether your team/s are winning or losing. I have no idea why anyone would subject themselves to Stephen A Smith talking (screaming) about anything.
F&M, SAS, exasperated guy and most of twitter should be put on ignore. This season has been fantastic and the playoff run has been a blast.
People in my office in NYC were looking past the Celtics to the Finals after they took out the Sixers. The euphoria is real. I don’t really blame them though. It’s a franchise that hasn’t had many (any?) legit contenders since the 1990s so hard not to get a little carried away as a fan.
Knicks fans in normal times are like Mets fans: smart, you can talk to them in an objective way about basketball, measured on team's chances.
I think these kind of generalities are dumb, but in my experience, Knicks fans are like Red Sox fans pre-2004, they always expect bad things to happen, they don't know how but they are sure they will because they always do. Anyone blustering about Knicks vs Celtics as a NY fan this season clearly doesn't pay much attention to basketball, every fan base has a large percentage of morons.
I have no problem ignoring them, and I don't think most people around here do either. I hope the C's win every game by 100 points, and I don't have to find a fingernail replacement doctor in June. But, I was just pushing back on the idea that C's fans are feeling aggrieved for no reason. If these talking heads weren't getting attention, they wouldn't be on the air, and most sports fans aren't like SoSH, so they are being given plenty of reasons to feel like the C's are being disrespected or diminished at almost every turn.
No other city in the history of sports has bandwagon fans. You nailed that one perfectly.
That’s interesting, I don’t have anyone in my circles who really thinks the Knicks are title contenders as is. This is what 99% of my chats look like.
There is also no way the Knicks are beating the Celtics. They are going to run out of gas and players.
I agree with every word of this. I think BOS will be challenged in the Finals if whoever makes it is healthy, but they should coast to the Finals and be a decided favorite there (as always, depending on health).
I think in general, we should all admit that New York likes beating Boston at anything and Boston likes beating New York at anything. Boston has had like 20 years of eating New York’s lunch both directly and indirectly. When it comes to hoops, this Knicks team is fun particularly because of how they are being built, one careful piece at a time and accumulating draft picks while making smart trades for good contracts. When they lose this year, it’s going to switch immediately to “Randle will be back and we’re gonna get another big piece to help Brunson.”
An oft-quoted remark from Economist John Maynard Keynes goes, "The market can stay irrational longer than I can remain liquid". i.e., just because I'm right, and am sure I will eventually be proven right, doesn't mean it will happen fast enough for me to profit by it.
Honestly, not that irrational if OG’s injury isn’t that bad. They’d be heavy dogs the rest of the way but crazier things have happened and injuries can swing series at a moment’s notice.
This is it exactly. People harp on Thibs driving his players into the ground (I think an argument for that was more valid before the playoffs/walking wounded deal they have going on now), but at this point slamming the pedal to the ground is all they can do. It's like a glorious redline.
I definitely agree. And it's hard not to like a team that plays super hard every night. I can flip up my New York hate sunglasses like Dwayne Wayne and appreciate what they're doing. Their fans have been waiting for this, and as a pre-2004 Red Sox fan I get it.
It reminds me a lot of the IT Celtics teams. 2017 playoffs before Tatum arrived especially. We knew the ECF against the Cavs was essentially a date with the Executioner, but it was fun anyway and I just enjoyed the ride with no expectations of a title.
Something about Brunson “acting” for his fouls has a lot to do with the fact that he gets destroyed at the rim and it gets routinely missed. It’s at Aaron Judge low strike call levels. Him acting is usually not to make up a foul, it’s so they actually get called. Yada yada I know. It’s not fun to see. But if you watched them all year (not saying you didn’t) you’d know that his head-snapping has more to do with awful officiating..
Pretty off topic, but since you brought up Dusty...
