Playoffs etc. open thread: (draft) ball lie edition
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I personally like the construction of the current NBA draft lottery and like it when a long-odds team wins it — I don’t get why so many fans get so upset when some combination of total ineptitude and deliberate non-competitiveness don’t get rewarded. Alas, in Adam Silver’s revenge on me we have a long-odds winner that rewards total ineptitude:
The Dallas Mavericks have won the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes.
The Mavericks earned the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery on Monday night in Chicago. While they can certainly go a different direction, or deal the top pick away, the Mavericks are now in position to select Flagg in the NBA Draft in June.
Congratulations to Mavs fans, at least until Nico trades the pick for Blake Griffin or a Kobe Bryant poster or something.
It is well known that if you have any rooting interest, NHL overtimes are simultaneously the best and worst thing in sports:
why watch overtime playoff hockey when you can simply snort cocaine and ride a motorcycle out of a helicopter— Jon Bois (@jon_bois) April 17, 2014
I think the very worst way to lose, though, is the last-second buzzer beater. When OT begins, a fan is sort of pre-programmed with existential dread. To lose when you’ve mentally assumed OT is coming is even worse:
This is awesome and yet still makes me wince a little (especially for Draisaitl, just making an instinctive play while hustling back.)