Scarcity is complex and you can be a dominant NBA player without being 7 feet tall. But it sure helps.

Pags this whole schtick of yours is just how you deal with the anxiety, right?

My anxiety typically manifests around the coach. But my new mantra has been helping with that: “stop worrying and love the Thibs”.

You’ve got me there, Hubs. It’s funny, there are some areas in life where most people feel anxious, but I don’t. I’m a dynamite public speaker, for example, and I never fear confrontation (at least the verbal kind).

But something where I care irrationally about the outcome? Over which I have zero control? In an area where I have PTSD from getting let down over and over for thirty years? I turn into Ben Simmons under the basket with the game on the line.

Having an outlet makes these feelings more tolerable for me, at the cost of pissing off some of the people here who I generally like. I think some of y’all have come to understand that I’m not really a troll per se; my thoughts are always sincere even if they aren’t sane. I’m just a sad clown trying to cope with a terminal case Knicks fandom as best I can.

Like you said before your edit, if we do win tonight I’ll be as happy as anyone here, and I’ll gleefully pass the time until Game 5 gleefully reading Sixers fans’ lamentations in their subreddits and fora, all the while masturbating furiously.

My anxiety typically manifests around the coach. But my new mantra has been helping with that: “stop worrying and love the Thibs”.

This incredible old picture of Thibodeau rocking one of the best mullets I’ve ever seen has really helped me embrace him:

https://www.thescore.com/nba/news/1011650

Not to say that I ever imagined even in my wettest dreams that Mitch would morph from tree trunk to Giant Death Spider in the few days between the end of the season and the start of the playoffs.

May both last. If not, well I’ve snuck in my victory laps. What will be will be, as geo would say.

(Note that I’m not saying [healthy] Mitch is better than iHart. He is in some ways, he is not in a number of others. They’re actually a rather perfect tandem. I seriously hope we can keep them both.)

The whole gamesmanship with game time decisions seems silly (and Thibs has used it as much as Nurse). We know that Maxey and Embiid are playing, come on.

When has Thibs ever used it? One of my critiques of Thibs is that he tends to avoid this kind of thing, such as working the refs in post-game comments in the many times we’d been jobbed.

There’s only 3 guys on the roster who have a chance of staying in front of Maxey: Deuce, Hart and DiVo, in that order.

There could be four if we still had Grimes. 🙂