2015-16 NBA Thread (feat. the Wives)

It's very annoying that this is going to become a "thing" for athletes' last games, particularly in the NBA, when you can truck up as many shots as you want. Stephen Curry will probably score 100 in his final game in some manufactured match-Wilt stunt.

 

Dick, it can only happen in specific circumstances, that is, star's team out of the playoffs plus game doesn't matter to opponents. Most stars have and I assume will continue to have their last career game come in the playoffs.

 

Kobe's 60-point game is the equivalent of an SJ threadjack. The Golden State Warriors finished the season with a single-digit number in the loss column. Outside of the undefeated NFL teams, that's the greatest regular-season accomplishment in major American sport in my nearly five decades on this planet. They could conceivably lose more games in the playoffs than they did in the regular season -- and STILL WIN THE TITLE. In a world where everything THE BEST EVER, we may be actually watching the best ever right now. So glad this Kobe Bryant distraction is over.

 

1. If the Warriors don't win the title, their amazing accomplishment in the Endless 82 will mean nothing. Ask the 2001 Mariners and 2007 Patriots.
2. Best season ever and best team ever overlap but are not identical. As back-to-back champs, the Warriors would have laid a strong foundation for a claim to the latter, but they'd still have more to prove.

 

Congrats to Warriors fans here for getting to witness history.

Strange, having grown up in L.A. during Showtime and now watching the complete opposite of times ... Warriors trying to defend their title with the game's best player, and the Lakers sucking as hard as you can suck.

 

For most of the true greats, their last game will come in the playoffs, not in a game that makes the difference between 16-66 and 17-65.

 

Just seems as if ESPN, to keep with its Hollywood home and makeover, created this rare Kobe night. How many of LA's shots did he take? And for you guys hoping to get some mention of it in your morning paper and not being on the western side of the country, how about that almost hour late start on both Kobe and the drive for 73?

 

I don't disagree with anything you've said, but I would put down the caveat that there were a fair amount of pretty shitty teams for them to put up that record, including the really shitty Lakers (who got them for one of their nine losses). Seven teams with at least 50 losses, one with 65 and one with 72.

For me, there are also a couple of other interesting things to the season. One is the fact that there are no sub-.500 teams. The East is interesting, too, for the fact that four teams finished with the same 48-34 record. So the 3-6 matchup and the 4-5 matchup both feature teams with the same record. I've seen it happen at 4-5 before, but never at 3-6.

 

Shaq and Kobe figured out there were millions of dollars worth of endorsements by squashing their beef.

 

I was thinking about the 2001 Mariners too. I had to make sure I looked up the year. Which shows how forgettable record runs of victories can be if you don't finish the deal.

 

It took almost 13 years, but Kobe finally found somebody from the Mountain time zone willing to just stand there and let him finish on their grill.

 

Man,you really have a 2004-ish thing about the Shaq/Kobe relationship. You know, I really don't think the rest of the world gives much of a shit about that anymore. And I think their future endorsement value remains about the same regardless of whether they're buddies or not.