I remember it like it was yesterday – the first time I realized that life wasn’t always fair.
Reggie Miller had helped me experience the highs and lows of sports just a few months earlier. I remember him exploding in The Garden in the fourth quarter against the Knicks in the playoffs, and his 8 points in nine seconds is permanently ingrained in my mind.
Reggie was my hero, he embodied everything I loved about basketball, and he had turned me into a diehard sports fan.
Reggie had turned me on to the entire sports spectrum, and the following year I dove head-first into the Indianapolis Colts. “Big Play” Ray Buchanon, “Captain Comeback” Jim Harbaugh, and the newly drafted Marshall Faulk had turned the Colts into must-see television.
The season was full of highs and lows, as the “Cardiac Colts” came from behind in four games down the stretch to finish 9-7 and make the playoffs. We traveled to San Diego and pummeled the defending AFC Champions. Then we invaded Arrowhead Field and came from behind again to beat the best team in football. I remember the buildup that week as we prepared to go play the Pittsburgh Steelers.
At this point, as an eight-year old, it never occurred to me that the Colts could lose this game.
The game started off well enough. We kept the game close, which was nothing new, and I knew that Jimmy Harbaugh was going to come through again. Then it all fell apart.
- First, Kordell Stewart cheated. He ran out of the back of the end zone, and then came back in to catch a touchdown pass, virtually unguarded.
- Then, on 4th-and-one, Lamont Warren had a free path to seven points, before somehow being tripped by a shoe lace and falling inches short of the first down marker.
- Finally, there was the hail mary. I remembered having no idea what a hail mary was, but wondering how on earth Aaron Bailey didn’t catch the ball. I remembered thinking that Harbaugh threw it 80 yards, but going back and realizing that the Colts were on the 29-yard-line.
I remember crying. An awful lot.
At that moment, I realized that sports weren’t always fair. Worse than that, though was the fact that something that I had always known to be true – the Colts would always come back from behind and win – turned out to be a lie.
Now that we’re older, we realize that sports don’t always go our way. We accept the fact that every year, all but one team in each sport finishes the season wishing that they had done more. We even grow to bitterly accept defeat. This past season’s Super Bowl loss will ALWAYS hurt, but at least the city of New Orleans was a deserving champion.
But every once in a while, we are caught completely unaware; and in those cases we feel like a little kid again. Nothing can stop the pain, and we are almost madder at ourselves for letting our guards down than we are for the actual painful moment.
“The Decision” came close this summer. The shocking development of LeBron turning on his hometown and basically shoving it in their face for an hour hurt nearly everyone involved. However, the entire week-long bonanza had at least partly prepared us for something crazy to happen; and if you happen to live anywhere outside the city of Cleveland and you were 100% surprised, you probably need to get out more.
Unfortunately, as this summer has gone on, I have become more and more painfully aware of something. It’s very possible that the 2010-2011 NBA season will prove to me again that life isn’t always fair. Worse than that, though, is that it could potentially show me that everything that I have ever believed about the game of basketball could be a lie.
As an Indiana boy, I have been conditioned to understand that Hoosiers is the greatest sports movie of all time. Believing anything else would literally be heresy.
Why is Hoosiers so great? Because David CAN beat Goliath every now and again. Because if a team works hard to come together, they CAN achieve greatness. Because every team has its flaws, but hard work and discipline CAN overcome them.
Because every once in a while, that perfect team has the perfect player and creates the perfect moment.
Playing ball in Indiana, you learn that shooting, defense, and teamwork will beat excitement and athleticism every time. You idolize guys like Reggie, Larry, and Steve Nash because their hard work and crafty minds routinely outdo their more physically gifted peers. It is literally ingrained in you that two good players will beat one great one every time.
It doesn’t matter how many “stars” a team has, the better team will always win.
This is something that I have wholeheartedly believed ever since I started playing the game I love. Along with this, I inherently believe, for the most part, that all “superstars” are selfish and incapable of playing with eachother on a successful team. This causes me to downplay the greatness of guys like LeBron and Dwyane Wade, and actually hope that they will fail. At different points this summer, I have said things like,
“I can’t wait for CP3 to join the Knicks. A team of Amare, CP3, and Melo would be SO much better than the Heat.”
“Who cares about the Heat? The Thunder have already been playing with each other, and Durant is better than any of them anyway.”
“Obviously, the Heat can’t beat the Lakers. LA has the much more complete team.”
And my favorite…
“Wow. Darren Collison, Brandon Rush, Danny Granger, Lance Stephenson, Mike Dunleavy, Paul George, Tyler Hansbrough, and Roy Hibbert is a much better team than the “Big Three.”
After the rumor came out that Carmelo might be going to the Clippers, I texted one of my best friends and made another ridiculous comment. “Baron, Gordon, Melo, Griffin, and Kaman obviously beat the Heat, right?” The words had barely left my mouth when I realized, “What am I even saying?”
Do we realize that a team consisting of LeBron James and the Partridge family just had back-to-back 60-win seasons? Do we realize that Dwyane Wade single-handedly won the NBA Finals just five years ago? Didn’t I base an entire article on the “fact” that the team with the best star always wins, unless there is just a ridiculous abundance of good players on the other side?
And then, all of the sudden, I got this real sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. What if “team” doesn’t matter at all? What if the Heat are unbeatable? What if everything I have ever believed in is a lie?
Seriously, let’s think about this. Since 1980, there have been seven different champions. Out of those thirty winners, you can really only say that there have been three teams that won without having the best player.
- Los Angeles Lakers – ten rings. Whether it was Kareem, Magic, Shaq, or Kobe, you would be hard pressed to argue that there was a better player for that particular NBA Finals series.
- Chicago Bulls – six rings. Seriously now? Let’s just move on.
- Boston Celtics – four rings. Larry Legend was at his peak, and KG could not be stopped in 2008.
- San Antonio Spurs – four rings. The greatest Power Forward of all-time playing his best basketball.
- Detroit Pistons – three rings. The only three teams where less talent actually beat more talent. But really, all three teams were aberrations. In ’89 and ’90, Detroit benefited from LA and Boston being old and Jordan being too young. In 2004, the Lakers were such a mess, any team that liked eachother would have beaten them.
- Houston Rockets – two rings. The Dream Shake made people cower during Jordan’s hiatus.
- Miami Heat – one ring. John Hollinger once “proved” that Dwyane Wade’s NBA Finals was the most dominant performance of all-time. Well, Dick Bavetta deserves credit for it too.
So in thirty years, the better “team” has won three times. Literally every other season, the “Alpha Dog” has won it all. I saw this first hand when a Pacers team with three Hall of Famers (Reggie Miller, Mark Jackson, and Chris Mullin), three more All-Stars (Rik Smits, Dale Davis, and Jalen Rose), and a multiple time All-Defensive Teamer (Derrick McKey) couldn’t beat a team that had Jordan and Scottie.
By all accounts, I should have realized right then that it doesn’t really matter how good your TEAM is, it just matters who has the ball during crunch time.
Good grief, now that I think about it, even Hoosiers is full of it. Seriously, is that team even mediocre without Jimmy Chitwood? Without him, the words “Coach Stays” and “I’ll make it” mean nothing. There is no way that Hickory wins without him.
So what does this all mean for us? Unfortunately, this article has no epiphany. I tried desperately to find a loop-hole in this entire theory, but unfortunately, I am only left with two thoughts for you:
Don’t let yourself be caught off-guard when the Heat do, in fact, win it all this year.
Believe me, you could absolutely drive yourself crazy by trying to pick a “sleeper” team this year. As you can see from above, I have tried to talk myself into every one under the sun. Just settle down, and realize that there are only four possible threats to the Heat this year, and only one team can give them a legitimate run unless something catastrophic happens to LeBron James’ knees (here’s hoping for option b).
Maybe the Celtics have one good year left, it’s possible that the Thunder could make the leap this year, and it would be awesome if Dwight Howard all of the sudden figured out how to play basketball.
But if you are a Heat-hater, the only team with a chance is the Lakers. You might as well throw yourself on their bandwagon right now.
Begin to appreciate “pure basketball” again.
Trust me, this is incredibly difficult for me to say.
I have always thought that it would be ridiculous to watch college basketball when the NBA clearly had the better players. Does anyone watch NFL Europe? Does anyone watch the WAC play football? Does the MLS even exist anymore? Of course not. We watch the best, because it’s the best. But if you really want to see the best “team” win again, if you really enjoy watching “pure” basketball, if you want to have that Hoosiers feeling again…you’ve got to throw yourself back into college basketball.
AP; Getty Image
Maybe you were one of the millions of people who was captivated by March Madness this past season. If you were like me, you thought it was so refreshing to see “teams” like Butler and Duke conquer the star-filled teams like Kentucky and Kansas. It was great to see David conquer Goliath once again. Finally, everything seemed right in the world.
I, for one, felt like a kid again. Everything that I had always believed was reality again. There was no Kordell Stewart to run out the back of the end zone. Michael Jordan wasn’t popping his head through that door. Once again, the “little guy” could win it all.
That is, until Gordon Hayward’s shot rimmed out.
Then, it became clear. Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith were just better players than Hayward and Shelvin Mack. It didn’t matter how well Butler played, and how impressive their team defense was, and how inspiring their story would have been…the better players won again…like they always seem to do.
Rats.
About Jon Washburn
