Schayes: Pardon Me, But Miami-Indiana Meant Next to Nothing

Today’s big story is last night’s game between the Pacers and Heat for early bragging/validation rights.

And the boss was not happy with what went down at the end, with the officials swallowing their whistles as LeBron clearly fouled Paul George on a game-tying 3-point attempt by Paul George just before the final buzzer. The Joey Crawford conspiracy theories will only continue to grow from here.

Those are the only viable teams with a chance of winning the Eastern Conference, and the media needs something to talk about for the next four months. The Omer Asik stuff gets old after a while, you know?

So this game becomes a massive story (even though it’s not) about a building rivalry (LeBron James just said there are no real rivalries anymore) to determine dominance in the conference (it’s really just another game).

Who wins is very important to the media. But as I stated in an earlier column about “statement games,” it doesn’t mean squat come playoff time.

I think the bigger issue is that with six months to go until the NBA Finals, so many teams are out of it. In the East, only two of 15 teams have a chance of reaching the Finals. Barring a series of catastrophic injuries, it will be Indiana vs. Miami in the conference finals.

With a laughable three teams over .500, 13 teams are still in the hunt for a playoff berth. But no one really considers any of these teams contenders. The most interesting thing to watch is whether a team will actually win a division with a sub- .500 record.

The Western Conference is considerably stronger. There are a dozen teams with at least enough of a shot to keep things interesting. But how many are actually title contenders?

I think after Oklahoma City and San Antonio, three others – Portland, Houston and the Los Angeles Clippers – may put together a hot streak and contend. As long as you are close, fate may intervene. A hot streak, a key opponent injury or some other unforseen factor may propel one of these teams to the top.

But what about the other 23 teams?

What happens when you have 60 games to go and you are out of it already with no realistic chance to make the playoffs? Sixty games! That’s a long time when you are playing out the season.

This season, the Utah Jazz in the West and the Milwaukee Bucks in the East have been no-hopers from Day 1. They never were in the hunt, never competitive. The Jazz started 1-14 with an eight-game losing streak. The Bucks started 2-13 with an 11-game slide. Those starts can kick the crap out of your enthusiasm for practice and the next game. It’s certainly a buzzkill for the fans and media.

“We’ll get ‘em next year” will only take you so far. When you are watching college freshmen play, looking forward to the draft and it is only December, you’ve got problems!

One thing to keep in mind is that virtually no NBA players have ever had a losing season before reaching the league. It is rare to have a player of NBA quality who has played on a bad team. Many players – even those on good NBA teams – lose more games their first season than they have their entire high school and college careers combined.

In my first season with the Jazz, we finished with a record of 25-57. In the seven preceding years of high school varsity and college ball, I lost a combined 32 games.

We started the season with promise, going 8-8 the first month. Then we hit the meat of the schedule and went through a 6-23 stretch, dropping us into the cellar. Then the wheels fell off.

At that point, every team we played seemed to be fighting for either a playoff spot or home court advantage. So instead of taking us lightly, they viewed us as a must-win game and played us hard. Our next stretch was 1-22, including 18 straight losses. That’s four losses a week for over a month.

That’s a long month.

Add that we were the smallest market in the league with few fans coming to games. The fans that did come rooted for the visitors. We were like the Bad News Jazz.

My first coach, Tom Nissalke, was fired 20 games into the season. He was replaced by general manager Frank Layden. Frank’s main talent was telling jokes and keeping the fans entertained. Fortunately, he was very good at that.

So how do you keep your head in the season and play with purpose? What keeps the team from just going through the motions? We were not a particularly young team or a typical rebuilding team. We just weren’t a very good team.

We continued to play hard, but as you can imagine became very frustrated at times. I was a developing rookie and was not a starter. I thought that I should have been starting and frankly it took tremendous will power to keep a positive attitude.

We had acquired veteran forward Bill Robinzine, who was not used to playing on losing teams and did not take it well. He did not get along with Layden and they fought mightily.

One monumental locker room screaming match blew up when Frank cursed out Bill for being out of shape and yelled, “You couldn’t guard my a**hole!” Coming from a guy who was a couple of hundred pounds overweight at the time did not sit very well. But losing every game will do that to you.

In the bad luck department, another teammate named Ben Poquette played nine years in the league and always seemed to be traded to bad teams. In all of those seasons, he made the playoffs only once, losing in the first round. Fortunately, he was a great attitude guy and a calming influence, which we needed.

At the end of the 18-game losing streak, there were just 10 games remaining. Our only motivation at that point was to play the role of spoiler. Finally I got the starting job at center. We were playing Kansas City, and I wanted to win in the worst way. I had endured a difficult season in many aspects. While I liked my teammates very much, I was not popular with the fans and was frustrated by not starting.

This was my chance to make a lasting impression. I played well and we won the next three games and six of the last 10. Most of these came against teams fighting for the playoffs. It was a real feather in my cap and put me on the map as a starting player in the league.

The season finally ended – with a win – and the players got ready to leave town like roaches when the lights go on. We all took turns meeting with the coach. One guy had his car packed and running in the parking lot. He was gone before the echo died!

The lesson is that hardship is an opportunity to show what you are made of. You can fold up and sulk or make the most of it. I used that time to work hard every day, show my leadership skills and establish myself as someone who could be counted on even when things were bad.

It paid off for me in the long run, but it wasn’t easy. It takes tremendous will to keep positive during a season like that. When you are out of it before the New Year, the regular season can be awfully long.

I played 18 years. I had 13 great ones, two good ones and three miserable ones. I can’t complain, but the miserable ones can be tough.

What’s the old joke? If I had a month to live, I’d like to play on a bad team. Every day would seem like a year.

Danny Schayes is a retired 18-year-veteran of the NBA, a professional broadcaster and soon-to-be-published author now penning NBA columns for SheridanHoops. Follow him on Twitter.

MORE FROM DANNY SCHAYES:

WHAT IT’S REALLY LIKE TO BE TRADED
HAZING: IT’S A LOCKER ROOM, NOT AN ENCOUNTER GROUP
A STATEMENT ON “STATEMENT GAMES”
WHY PRESEASON TRIPS, NEAR AND FAR, CAN BE ONEROUS
THE NEW ANALYTICS: FOOL’S GOLD?
10 PREDICTIONS FOR THE 2013-14 SEASON
WHEN ROOKIE HAZING WENT UNDERGROUND
CAN CHRIS PAUL LEAD THE NBPA BACK FROM THE DEAD?
ADAM SILVER NEEDS TO EMBRACE THE NBA’S LIVING PIONEERS
THE FRANCHISE PLAYER IS AN ENDANGERED SPECIES
WHY THE CHAMPIONSHIP FORMULA ALWAYS WORKS (UNTIL IT DOESN’T)
HOW DO HEAT COMPARE TO GREATEST TEAMS EVER?
ON NBA COACH OF THE YEAR, AND COACHES IN GENERAL