Dan Marino made it to the Super Bowl in his 2nd season. I wasn’t alive in 1984, but I imagine plenty of people saw that after his 5,000 yard season and assumed it would be the first of many. He lost that one and retired 15 years later without another appearance

Yeah I think the NBA has the longest windows if anything. Most NFL contenders have like a 1-3 year window, MLB is weird where high spenders like the Dodgers and Yankees are perennially in contention but one-year wonders win it all the time, though the NHL does seem to have some lengthier windows. But seems pretty common in the NBA for a team to take like 3-4 years to get over the hump after their first real season of contention (Bucks, Nuggets, and Celtics all had that to different extents recently) and one-year wonders basically never happen (really just the Raptors in recent memory who were only in real contention for one season).

Ravens were the same. I’m hopeful again now with Minter we may get a fresh jolt, but that 2023 team was it. Every other team who has led in both DVOA and OVOA (I think that’s the stat) in the same year have won the Super Bowl, and ravens let it slip through their hands.

If Lamar never wins a ring, that will be the biggest regret year (2019 was amazing but not as surprising to see a playoff breakdown given how young many of the players were)

what do you mean ? I went to sleep when my lions were up 17 at halftime and I didn’t watch the rest of game .
Surely we won right ?

Yea losing to the 49ers in the NFCCCG when we had a cushy lead was NOT good. Window felt closed. We’ll see about this year

Yeah. Lions losing hurt a lot because of this. It felt like it was their time but didn’t happen

I mean it’s been one year for the Thunder I don’t think we’re burying them yet tbf

The Warriors and LeBron really distorted our view of repeatability and consistency.

Celtics did make the finals 2 years before that and did get to the Conference Finals many times, so they knew the window

Seriously. The window doesn’t close when a player passes their physical prime. The window closes when a player gets paid what they’re worth and fucks the cap space up to add depth.

OKC and Spurs have a lot of talent on rookie contracts, and the Knicks have Brunson on a criminally team friendly deal. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

Great example

Always thought after he won that one that he would win at least one more, maybe two

One of the best qbs ever too

Technically it was 2011. But what’s wild is they did that by barely making the playoffs as the 6th seed and then had a lot of injuries going into the playoffs.

Dan Marino entered the chat

Great point

Both franchises kinda took a nosedive

Oof

Man that team rose so quickly and fell apart even faster

Sorry Bengals fans

doubtful. in the few seasons before they traded PG and WB, their drafts and personnel were kinda bad.

Yeah but between “probably, but not sure when” and “most definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, even if it makes me look like a weak ass bitch” winning a chip, what are you gonna choose lol

I’d bet money that the Spurs will have multiple finals appearances. The core is still in their rookie contracts, coaching is elite, FO is as good as it gets, and Wemby has the same drive as Jordan/Kobe. The intangibles are there just like the Warriors

Especially because the Pacers hung tough and just eventually were slowly worn out of the game, and given how Halliburton, their best player, started the game, you just felt so strongly the outcome would have been different. 

I wont sleep over OKC 2025 getting a chip because thats the game and it rewards that type of play. Thats on the NBA admin and officiating.

But Lu “built like a fridge but flops like fish” Dort celebrating as champion?

Digusting.

Same, I knew it was over right there and didn’t want to see clip after clip of him hitting the floor. The emotional pain of losing a shot at a chip seemed worse on him than the physical pain

I always describe the pacers run as one of those sporting miracle movies where the underdogs overcome adversity to win except the ending is the star player gets hurt and they lose tragically. It fucking sucks so much

Yeah, I turned it off and started watching video games.

Came back after half but it was ineveitable what was going to happen

The thing is that the Pacers were a deep team and them being able to push their breakneck pace no matter who was on the floor is why they made it that far. They had 7 separate players averaging double figures in the series with an 8th at 9.4 in Aaron Nesmith, who shot 47% from 3. In the regular season and in each playoff series, Hali was somewhere between 4th and 6th in Usage% on the team. That’s why the end was so heartbreaking. It was a team playing damn near perfect team basketball and swinging the ball on every play and almost everyone was capable of scoring. Them getting kinda screwed out of game 4 made it even worse, because he may not have even gotten injured if they had a chance to close it in 6.

And then in the meantime all the Thunder fans can talk about right now is how they would have repeated if such-and-such didn’t get hurt

Didn’t he play with West, too? Two of the greatest ever on the same squad and they just ran into the Celtics buzzsaw every season.

IIRC, he played like 10 or so games in 1971-72 so he qualified for and did get a ring. But sooo brutal to come so close so many times only to retire and your team that year breaks the regular season wins record (69, broken by Bulls 72 then Warriors 73), winning streak record (33, still standing) and wins the title.

Just like the Spurs now have gotten lucky with injuries to OKC and people have started calling them a dynasty that will run for the next 10 or so years. Especially with Victor being 7’4”, we just can’t assume that he’s going to be healthy every year like he has been this year.

I think people have forgotten the difference between a dynasty and a very good team. The Warriors were a dynasty, the Patriots and Chiefs were/are a dynasty. OKC won a ring and had a great season after that, but it’s not to the point of dynasty.

Spurs just got lucky against OKC too lmao.

I’m not even a Pacers fan, but I was really invested in the Pacers run last year, and I’m still disappointed about how it ended.

Between that and getting the 5th pick this year I have just accepted that Herb Simon broke too many mirrors or walked under too many ladders or some shit. Just a completely snakebit franchise. If the Knicks win this year it’ll be proof I think.

He doesn’t really try to score 40 ever, he is a very pass first player, and mostly uses scoring to open the floor. This has always been a huge annoyance to some Pacers fans who think he isn’t aggressive enough as a scorer. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the ability, he usually just blows games open with 12 in a quarter and then plays keep away.

Right now you are just at hypothetical playoff appearances

What’s more valuable: a hypothetical victory, analytical victory, or moral victory?

Either way, could be as soon as next year for you guys.

The Baltimore Bullets made the playoffs with 16 wins (and 54 losses).

https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/BLB/1953.html

He got a sort of career lifetime All-star in 2021, as the 3rd best player on the top record Jazz