Prior to the series, LeBron got enough (mostly justified) respect that it was fair to say, “Maybe the Cavs play some weird-ass style and LeBron’s singular talents are enough to make this interesting, like the first half of last year’s finals.”

And yet LeBron will get credit for dragging his teams to 6 consecutive finals even though it’s painfully obvious that it’s just the result of a shitty, shitty, conference.

I’m sure it’s happened before (Shaq-Kobe Lakers, ‘86 Celtics, maybe), but I just cannot think of a situation where the drop-off from the conference finals to the finals was so dramatic and depressing.

Although, pretty compelling recurring article: Donald doesn’t know shit about _____.

Fair, though their traditional bullshit would have them erring in favor of making a scam operation like that look legitimate.

Well, clearly you don’t subscribe to the “SAY IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN UNTIL IT FEELS TRUE” school of political thought.

It’s also important to note that the players were becoming increasingly unsettled because even during his short tenure, his face was noticeably moving towards this inevitable conclusion:

Right, just like how penicillin and the polio vaccine were developed in the middle of war. Remember when a war caused Lister to advocate for anti-septic methods in surgery? Or the drug cocktail that essentially controls HIV - that was developed by a doctor in a POW camp, right?

He was a veteran pilot with an iron sense of right and wrong;

And yet they made the Western Conference Finals last year.

And yet arguing against conventional wisdom represents 95% of the article output from the analytic community - “You thought X was good at Y, but really he’s not. Here’s the equation that proves it.”

So, you don’t think it matters at all, for example, whether a team won because they hit an unsustainably high number of contested mid range jumpers?

I agree mostly, but what happened to Jordan when the turnaround wasn’t falling? Did he become a non-scoring defensive liability?

Or they are the same team but their opponents can (1) keep their best players on the court longer because of time off between playoff games and (2) have more than 8 hours to prepare for GSW, unlike the regular season.

Because the great players had plans B and C.

During the regular season teams only have a day or two to prepare for a new squad. The best players play limited minutes, meaning that a unique team with a deep bench can rack up a ton of wins.

And also, those examples were close - clearly he flails to try and create contact, a long standing tactic going through Reggie Miller to Ginobili to Wade...etc. - but they don’t really look like the swinging of the leg after the momentum is over right into a guy’s nards, like you see with Adams.

My feeling is that now that the league has outlawed any sort of on-court justice from other players, they have to suspend Green. Either you turn your head while Adams or some other enforcer gets their revenge or you make the consequence severe enough to deter that from happening.

Missing: Both teams play well; one wins.

Pilot/episode 1 is rough. The timing is weird, it doesn’t flow well. This is true of a lot of pilots. The subsequent episodes are better.