One of the great NBA seasons, swear to it
How do I know this is one of the great seasons? Because it aligns perfectly with the worst.
Parity reigns, the NBA is on track for a season without a 60-game winner. Milwaukee’s recent outburst has the club on pace to hit 59 wins, nice, which would leave the NBA with its lowest league leader since the 2000-01 San Antonio Spurs paced the NBA with a 58-24 record.
The 2000-01 season sucked and I should know because alone in a basement apartment I watched damn-near every second of it. The 2000-01 season was the first time the NBA went without a 60-game winner since the league’s other shittiest stage: 1975-76 through 1978-79, when music peaked, but not the NBA.
In each instance the relative swoon represented a break from an era, the most the league could do with its pre-boomer orthodoxy (before Magic and Bird hit in 1979), and the least it could do with its boomer orthodoxy (the Larry Brown-ification of coaches by 2000-01).
Considering 2022-23’s outsized shooting numbers, shouldn’t this turn represent the same? The last of Whatever We’re Doing Right Now? An end to an era?
