Every so often, I find it good to comment on the state of sports (at least within my sphere of interest). I must be on guard, that my heart doesn't idolize it. But the more I read God's Word, the more I learn not only about the Lord but also how either He or Biblical truths have been active in areas of interest to me.
Right now, the NBA is in its playoff run, and like clockwork, the two remaining friends from college with whom I still have any contact and I email each other our predictions for playoff series and champions. The NBA is our first league of interested, followed by MLB, and maybe the NFL after that. (Neither hockey nor soccer have grabbed our interests in the same way, and that's OK.)
The first round played out mostly to my expectations, including two picks I made that went against the grain (LeBron James's Los Angeles Lakers over Kevin Durant's Houston Rockets, and Anthony Edwards's Minnesota Timberwolves over Nikola Jokic's Denver Nuggets). But the big surprise was the Philadelphia 76ers over the Boston Celtics, who were sneaky good during the regular season (their star, Jayson Tatum, was out for most of the season to an Achilles tendon injury, and they were expected to take a gap year like the Indiana Pacers had done after losing their star to the same injury). Both my friends and I had picked Boston to win the East, because they were the most battle-tested of all the teams.
As I began my email, it opened up a huge reflection on the issue of "cheating the system." Actions have consequences, and in sports, sports curses are real. I've mentioned before about my views on the Chicago Cubs' longstanding double curse (the first of which began in 1918, and the second of which began in 1945), both of which were broken in 2016 when the team finally won the World Series. I do think teams can also curse themselves, and I commented the same about the Philadelphia 76ers:
I've been casually following them over the last 10-15 years dating back to "The Process," when Sam Hinkie was GM and threw away 3 or so seasons on purpose to get top draft picks. I do believe to a degree that cheating the system ultimately doesn't reward you (I know LeBron and KD among others of their generation cheated the system and benefited from it, but that's a different analysis for another time) -- and we saw that with the 76ers a decade ago when Joel Embiid was young and hurt to the point of sitting out entire seasons. They also had Nerlens Noel who flamed out (I think he was a top-3 pick the year before Embiid); Ben Simmons who spectacularly flamed out (he was supposed to be the centerpiece alongside Embiid); and Markelle Fultz who had a freak shoulder injury (thrombosis-related I think?) that fundamentally messed with a key part of his game. And even Embiid hasn't made it out unscathed; even after the first few seasons when he finally got healthy, relatively speaking, he still would get hurt come playoff time after having monstrously great regular season campaigns. And even the few times when he was healthy enough to play the entire playoff run, those runs got cut short by something fluke-like: one of those years was Kawhi Leonard's miracle bounce Game 7 buzzer-beater in 2019 (I don't often watch sports live but that was one of those rare games when I was at a restaurant and saw it on the TV... I remember thinking: "did I just see what I think I just saw?" LOL); another of those runs was cut short by Ben Simmons' "yips" in 2021 when he single-handedly threw away the series vs Atlanta, and then tanked the rest of his career. The point is, Embiid has not made his stamp on the league in terms of playoff success like many expected he would or should (I would say he was as talented as Giannis Antetokounmpo and a rung below Nikola Jokic when all is said and done), and because I absolutely believe in sports curses, I think his failures were in part a result of GM Hinkie cheating the system for a few years that netted the Embiid/Noel/Simmons/Fultz core. You cheat the system, you don't get blessed for it. And even if you do for a little bit, it always comes back to bite you in the butt.
True to form, the 76ers have not advanced past the 2nd round since before Hinkie's tenure as GM. Both aforementioned series where their seasons ended were in the 2nd round, and they've also lost in the 1st round at other times. But I did add commentary about how Philadelphia changed their strategy since then:
That said, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe are from a different regime, one that didn't try to cheat the system by tanking. This is no longer Embiid's team but Maxey's (and soon, Edgecombe's, once he has a few years under his belt). Those two in particular do not have the baggage from the Hinkie era. I think there's no telling how far this team could go, because those two guys are already scary good. But they are unproven. Do I think they could beat the Knicks? Perhaps. Last year, I didn't pick Indiana to beat New York (which they ended up doing), but I did say that they would go as far as Tyrese Haliburton would take them. And Haliburton took them very far until getting injured. I kind of see the same thing here with the 76ers, especially regarding Maxey. I think Edgecombe someday could be better than him, but right now this is Maxey's team. They could totally do a Cinderella run to the Finals. But of course, injuries tend to determine things, just like they already have done in these playoffs so far.
As a result of Haliburton's Finals run last year, and the 76ers' change in strategy, I'm particularly bullish on this team. My friends and I have been predicting playoff outcomes for about a decade now (we did fall completely out of touch for about 5 years before I reached out to them in September 2017 to initiate our own GOAT debate, a topic that was just beginning to heat up around sports circles), and it's interesting to discover what we learn after each playoff run, especially when the results don't match our predictions. I wrote the following on the matter:
If there's anything I've learned from this generation's NBA, it's two things: 1.) never count LeBron out until he proves he can no longer pick up the slack or if there's a juggernaut in his way, and 2.) as Haliburton has shown, if there is anyone with comparable talent and confidence in today's league, even if young, don't count that man out, either.
Obviously, time will tell. Today's post was written and sent for publishing five days ago, on May 4th, so by the time we reach the evening of May 9th, once this post runs, it could be a wholly different story. I suppose that's the fun of making these predictions. And, just to assure the reader, these are all gentleman's predictions, so no gambling or betting whatsoever is involved. We predict solely for the enjoyment of it, plus the camaraderie.
Other sports observations:
You cheat the system, you don't get blessed for it. And even if you do for a little bit, it always comes back to bite you in the butt.
[H]ere is my take on LeBron and then Durant.
1.) First, LeBron: because he took the shortcut to a championship by going to Miami in 2010 instead of staying in Cleveland, yes he got blessed with 2 championships there. But I think he could've ultimately ended up with 5 or even 6 (especially given the total number of years he has ended up playing) instead of only 4 because although his superteams took him to 10 NBA Finals, he couldn't convert even half of them to championships. Some of the time, his superstar teammates got injured at the most inopportune times (coincidence? maybe... or maybe not). Additionally, human nature shows that when a person cheats the integrity of the sport by starting up a brand-new team of superstars, and they win immediately by doing so, then they get used to it that they expect it and act as if they're entitled to it. Throw in the fact that in his prime, LeBron got "superstar calls" by the refs that were so grossly unfair in his favor (he would bait refs into calling fouls on his opponent even when they didn't do anything wrong) that he would either a.) throw a tantrum if things didn't go his way; b.) lie to the media and make excuses for not winning by saying he "didn't have enough help" or c.) make up an injury to make it look as if when he lost it was solely because he wasn't at full strength. And so on. I thought it was interesting too that he cheated the system by going to Miami, only to realize that Pat Riley was not going to let LeBron be LeGM like he wanted (and there's a story about Riley confiscating LeBron's cookies on the team plane one time which obviously ticked him off). The last several years with the Lakers, he used his influence to force them to make bad trades (for example, Russell Westbrook), and to engage in nepotism (drafting Bronny James) - which, by the way, it came out in the Buss family drama around the time they sold the team, that Jeanie Buss commented LeBron wasn't grateful enough for all that they did to accommodate his huge ego, including drafting Bronny, among other things.
What was ironic about how the Lakers beat the Rockets this playoffs was attributed to something I did not foresee about LeBron. He's used to being the #1 guy, and for good reason: for the longest time, he was the best guy on the team, so it would make sense. But, with the Luka Doncic trade, the Lakers made it clear that LeBron was no longer #1. They decided they were finally going to stand up to him and dare him to leave if he didn't like how they ran their team (especially after having let him run their team for many years with no real success to show for it). I've learned not to count LeBron out (even for one series) because I've done it so many times in the past only to be surprised that he was still playing as if he were in his prime. But what I did not expect (and I think it had to be this obvious for it to happen) was that LeBron humbled himself for a change. This past season, it was clear that the Lakers were rolling when LeBron was out with a sciatica injury. Then, when he returned and assumed the #1 role, they immediately started losing. And then kept losing to the point that LeBron once again entertained the idea of changing teams, only for the Lakers to roll their eyes and once again dare him to walk at season's end. For all the whining he's done over the years (including this past season) about wanting to win and wanting another championship... sometime during the season it took him deciding for the first time in his life to look in the mirror and realize that, if he truly did want to win another championship, he needed to not be the #1 guy anymore and sacrifice for the team. I honestly did not expect that. I expected him to stubbornly be selfish and narcissistic like he's always been, and see his legacy fall apart ("pride goes before destruction, and a haughty man before a fall," after all...). I suspect someone in his inner circle talked some sense into him and that led to him finally changing his tune.
For the record - I don't buy the [nonsense] that he's now spewing about no longer caring about the GOAT debate. Being the GOAT was his #1 M.O. even since before joining the league in 2003. And until last year (2025) the debate was out there: "Jordan's the GOAT!" / "No, LeBron's the GOAT!" etc. I think with Jordan giving interviews on NBC to be aired during halftimes of prominent NBA matchups this past season, plus one instance of the pro-LeBron media daring to call Jordan a liar for being nervous about shooting one free throw in front of some kids because he hadn't picked up a basketball in years (within a day, the footage was released, shutting up the critics). I think LeBron and his team (Maverick Carter, Rich Paul, etc) all realized that they no longer had control of the narrative, and that public opinion was decisively backing Jordan once again, after about a decade or so of that support being in question. I suspect they realized that at that point, no matter what they did, no one was buying their story anymore, and as such they had to drop the issue lest they start making LeBron look bad. Finally Jordan was once again the GOAT, at least over LeBron.
2.) Durant - first, the Rockets need to get rid of him. The "burner" issue that fractured the locker room cannot really be resolved unless Durant is gone. Sure, Houston can try to trade Alperin Sengun and/or Jabari Smith, Jr, two guys Durant outright criticized (the latter of whom those criticisms were personal and not only professional), but the quickest way to address the toxic culture is to get rid of the primary person responsible, and that's Durant. Send him to Sacramento. That's where he belongs.
OK. With that out of the way, here's my take on Durant cheating the system. For the record, I still don't have an issue with the Warriors signing Durant in 2016 due to 1.) the huge upward spike in the salary cap that summer, and as a result, 2.) the Warriors had the money. What were they going to do with it? Sign Timofey Mosgov and a washed-up Luol Deng? But, on the contrary, I do have an issue with the signing from Durant's side of things. There was a report that, during his free agency, his deadbeat father reached out to him and encouraged him to be selfish. (Durant's father was completely absent when he was a child, and even when he was an adult, the contact was minimal prior to that point.) Durant got his two rings with Golden State. He was blessed immediately for cheating the system on his side of the ledger (although I still maintain that the Warriors didn't cheat on their side of the ledger). The reason for my split reaction can thusly be explained in how each side fared after they split ways: Golden State managed to win one more ring post-Durant, but Durant's career has been a series of messes ever since. If I remember correctly, both LeBron and Durant went to the Heat and Warriors respectively "to learn how to win," and then left each place because, in their minds they now knew what it took to win, they wanted to win somewhere else, and not only on their own terms (which is not necessarily "wrong"), but on terms wherein they either held complete control (LeBron) or things just magically worked out to their expectation (Durant), and when they didn't, he would blame everyone else and not take any responsibility for himself (both LeBron and Durant). Not that there weren't outside factors in any of Durant's other stops since Golden State (Brooklyn, Phoenix, and now Houston), but Durant expected to have the privileges of being the #1 guy without the responsibility of being the #1 guy, and he would cut others down in ways that LeBron even wouldn't when things didn't go his way. I also suspect Durant went out of his way to hide his sins by creating the burner accounts, thinking that no one would ever trace it back to him. The Bible talks about this type of thing:
Proverbs 28:13 - "Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy."
Jeremiah 23:24 - "Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? Declares the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth?"
1 John 1:8 - "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."
Luke 12:2 - "There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known."
Galatians 6:7 - "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."
Ironically, Durant also claims to be a Christian, yet he defiantly pulls these types of stunts and sidesteps when confronted on it. Anyway, I do believe he is reaping what he has sown by the utter lack of success that he's had since leaving the Warriors. Do I celebrate it? Absolutely not. I think if he would just accept a trade back to Golden State (or anyplace where the Rockets decide to send him... which could be Sacramento of all places) that would help. Like with LeBron, he just needs to humble himself and stop trying to cheat his way to more championships. He needs to settle for being a #2 or #3 option on whatever team he goes to next, on account of his unwillingness to step up and be the type of leader that being a #1 demands. I think the Warriors were the perfect storm for him because he could be the guy who takes the last shot and win Finals MVP, but have Steph Curry be the guy who actually leads the team. Although I have high regard for folks like Kyrie Irving (Brooklyn) and Devin Booker (Phoenix), they are not Curry, either in that they're not as talented or as much of a true leader that Curry has been.
I didn't mention this in the email, but my specific reasons for name-dropping Irving and Booker were because they were Durant's two most prominent teammates when he played for Brooklyn and then Phoenix, respectively. Irving is as talented as they come, and a true 1A player. But he's not a leader. He strikes me more as a guy who likes to come alongside and is willing to take the last shot, but doesn't need it. He also doesn't strike me as a guy who needs to win multiple championships to achieve validation as a great player. He won his one. He probably wouldn't mind winning another, but he prefers to be in an environment that works for him personally, and that is higher than other considerations. He sure as heck doesn't seek to be considered a better player than Curry. Booker, on the other hand, is a leader and a team player, also as a 1A or a 1B. But what holds him back is his talent doesn't scream "clear #1" in the way Irving's still could. If he were to join forces with Curry, he would clearly be the #2 behind him, not a 1A/1B situation. Whereas, if Irving teamed with Curry, it would be a 1A/1B situation. I think that's what I was trying to say earlier. Unfortunately, one of my friends is a fierce vaccine advocate (and I'm not), and so on the basis of Irving rejecting the COVID shot, that alone docks his stature in my friend's eyes. As such, I didn't mention this part in the email because I have no desire to start new debates.
I do think we are at yet another "turning of the guard" in the NBA. LeBron is about to retire (whether now or next year is still up for grabs), and both Curry and Durant should be gone in the next 4 years or less. We are now at the point where even the legacies of athletes such as Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Embiid are starting to be set, especially in terms of which ones had the better careers. And the new crop of young players such as Doncic, Tyrese Haliburton, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, and Tyrese Maxey, among a few others, are starting to really take over. And that's not accounting for the newest generation, folks like Victor Wembanyama, Cooper Flagg, and now VJ Edgecombe.
Baseball, meanwhile, is in the middle of one of the greater generations of players in their peaks. Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge are in their primes, and although Mike Trout is past his prime (he's had injuries the last several years now), he's having a great start to the season this year, even if his team isn't. Moreover, because they're my team, the way the Chicago Cubs have been playing -- and winning -- makes me happy. First, with the World Series drought extinguished, there is no longer any talk of any curse when they have lost some games, neither is there any "victim mentality" talk associated with said failures. Second, they play fundamentally sound baseball, no longer swinging at pitches outside the strike zone willy-nilly like they had done for a very long time, and are roping together hits as a team even while still hitting homeruns. What is most interesting, however, is that they have not avoided adversity. Quite a few of their pitchers have been injured, including a few of their best who are out for the rest of the season. But it's been "next man up," and even their pitching staff is delivering. They may not have a #1 starter right now (which will be important for playoff baseball), but at least for getting through the regular season, it should be fine. It will be interesting to see if they try to acquire an ace starting pitcher at this year's trade deadline at the end of July.
And although football is currently in its offseason, last year's Chicago Bears team has proven to be a revelation. Their starting quarterback, Caleb Williams, just completed his second year in the league, and I would daresay he is already one of the best quarterbacks in franchise history, which is sadly more indicative of the team's sad history when it has come to starting quarterbacks more than William's talent. But having said that, Williams is quite good. Not only so, but he's got the mentality to back it up. He doesn't shy away from the big moment. I actually thought the Bears had a chance to go to the Super Bowl because of how talented and fearless they were as a group. They lost in the second round to the Los Angeles Rams, but that's because they simply were beaten.
That is a welcome change from what has often accompanied Chicago sports teams, whether the Bears or the Cubs or any other team: when our teams have lost, more often than not historically it was because they defeated themselves, rather than because they ran into a better team. That's a welcome change and honestly my third answer to prayer. Yes, I want to see all Chicago teams win again, especially since I've never gone to a parade and be part of the celebration. But more than that, I just want to see quality games played. If any of our teams lose because a better team beat them, fine. I can live with that. But as long as they consistently put together a quality product and create lots of great memories along the way, I know that the championships will follow eventually.
I look at the Los Angeles Dodgers and see what they've been doing. Currently they are back-to-back World Series champions, but they've been winning their division every year since 2013 (except for maybe 1 year). They didn't win their first championship of the current era until 2020, and they didn't return again until 2024. But through it all, they kept developing their organization, developing their major-league team, developing their farm system, and developing their coaching and front office teams, and eventually it paid off. That's the key: run your organization well, treat everyone well, and put out the best product you possibly can for as long as you can. Sure, most organizations will say that they do that, but there's a point where talent and effort generate more fruit (so to speak) than effort alone.
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