NBA is a joke. Celebrate the losing team

What's wrong with celebrating a great performance? He shot 50 percent, he drove, rebounded, passed the ball. He's a young player on an undermanned and injury depleted team. He did something very few players have ever done and he's still how old, 21?

the real Jack Handy wrote:

Devin Booker gets 70 pts in a LOSS. 21/40 from the field

Suns lose to Celtics 120-130

WTF

Wow - you're dumb. I can think of 10000 instances in other sports where people were celebrated for not winning.

the real Jack Handy wrote:

Devin Booker gets 70 pts in a LOSS. 21/40 from the field

Suns lose to Celtics 120-130

WTF

Here's the thing: I remember the never-ending criticism Kobe took for scoring 81 in a come-from-behind win where almost all the points were absolutely necessary to his team, which was in the playoff chase, winning the game.

Now Booker, a great second year star, gets 70 in a loss with points 55-70 coming in garbage time and he gets shellacked by critics.

The problem with the NBA is people like you who dislike whatever the players do for reasons that have little to do with logical consistency. Hoosiers isn't going to break out on court any time soon, nor should it.

Look... this is a running website. Not only do runners generally celebrate losses, but they are so certain of a loss that they create a new goal for themselves of just doing better than they ever have. I mean... just saying.

The suns season has been over for months. They're a bad team.

This is a bright spot for a young team at the end of a long season.

Let them be excited. 70 is a crazy number.

You realize that our sport celebrates losing performances way more than just about any other sport, right?

Alan Webb didn't win when he set the HS mile record. Clayton Murphy didn't win the OG 800m. Most of us didn't win the races where our PRs were set.

a 21 or 22 win team is still trying hard and showing support for its teammate when it is tanking time--if they are ahead of the Lakers in wins (I think they are up one on them now) at the end of the season, they have that much lower a chance to get a future superstar from the #1 or #2 pick in the draft. So, they have a lot of reason to fight with each other and surrender, but they aren't doing either. Give Booker some credit. I don't think a team should be fouling just to get a guy more points, but that has happened in the Chamberlain 100, the Kobe 81, this one, and others.

nba dude wrote:

The suns season has been over for months. They're a bad team.

This is a bright spot for a young team at the end of a long season.

Let them be excited. 70 is a crazy number.

I agree. I'm not the one who has a problem w/ Booker getting 70.

What about when an NCAA cross country runner wins the race as an individual, but their team doesn't podium? Is that bad, also?

This is the equivalent of criticizing Alan Webb's loss when he ran 3:53

the real Jack Handy wrote:

Devin Booker gets 70 pts in a LOSS. 21/40 from the field

Suns lose to Celtics 120-130

WTF

I think this is an exciting period in the NBA.

Actually he's only 20. He's the age of most college sophomores. And the Suns are garbage and would have lost by a lot more had he not scored 70 on high efficiency. Like someone said earlier this is sort of like Alan Webb running a 3:53 in high school. Didn't win but still an amazing performance at a young age.

the real Jack Handy wrote:

Devin Booker gets 70 pts in a LOSS. 21/40 from the field

Suns lose to Celtics 120-130

WTF

And the score was 130-120. You don't seem like a real sports fan.

I watched Devin Booker closely two nights ago against the Nets. While the game was close in the first half, he looked great, playing under control, penetrating the Nets' defense and hitting a lot of mid-range jumpers and drives. In the second half, as the Suns fell behind, he started chucking the ball like a madman, firing up three pointers off-the-dribble while guarded and falling out of bounds. He ended up 9-for-26, which isn't great, but it was clear he either had a green light from his coach to shoot anything anytime or he was just going to do it regardless.

I'm celebrating this thread and its a complete failure.

Macdaddy wrote:

the real Jack Handy wrote:

Devin Booker gets 70 pts in a LOSS. 21/40 from the field

Suns lose to Celtics 120-130

WTF

Wow - you're dumb. I can think of 10000 instances in other sports where people were celebrated for not winning.

#1 is running for simply finishing in umpteenth place, or setting a new PR on a course. #2 is golf with its 19th watering hole.

Didn't we celebrate when Leo Manzano came back in the olympics to win the medal?

As someone who worked in sports media for 15 years, here's a big thing I learned: the players don't live or die with each game like the fans do. It would be totally impossible for a pro athlete to keep their sanity if they did. That's not to say they don't love the game any less or don't give their all during games, because they do. Pro sports are games of failure, and if you don't let stuff go quickly you won't be around long.

A baseball team that wins 100 games still loses two months worth of games during the season, and most NBA teams lose more games in a year than players did in their high school and college careers combined.

The players did their best to win the game, but it's just one game out of 82. They get on a bus, get on a plane and go to the next city. The Suns have 1 win in their last 10 games and are in the midst of a brutal East Coast road trip, so they weren't "celebrating" losing, they were just happy to see a teammate have a historic game. Whether anyone likes what he did or how the Suns got him to 70, he did something only five other people in the history of pro basketball have accomplished. I say if you don't recognize such an effort you are a crappy teammate.

He is the youngest to ever score 70. It is only the 11th time ever that 70 points or more have been scored in a basketball game.