The Friday Five: Enjoying the Playoffs (When Your Team Is Out)

It’s Friday, already? It is indeed, which means it’s time for another edition of The Friday Five! For anyone who’s checking out The Friday Five for the first time, this is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to basketball video games, the real NBA or another area of interest to our community, either as a list of five items or in the form of a Top 5 countdown.

If you’ve been keeping up with the results of the 2013 NBA Playoffs, you’re no doubt aware that my favourite team, the Chicago Bulls, have been eliminated in the second round in five games at the hands of the defending champion Miami Heat. As such, I’ll be looking for other ways to enjoy and maintain my interest in the rest of the postseason. If you’re in a similar position, here are five suggestions for you to consider.

1. Cheer against whoever eliminated your favourite team

A pretty obvious one, I’ll admit. They’re the ones that knocked your favourite team out of contention for the NBA championship (regardless of how slim their chances were in the first place), so they’re pretty easy to dislike and cheer against. Sure, your team isn’t going to have a chance to hang a banner in their rafters but as long as the team that officially put an end to their season doesn’t have that opportunity either, it’s all good.

With the increasingly intense rivalry between the Bulls and Heat, I’ll naturally be taking this approach. No hard feelings, Heat fans; it’s very likely that you’re going to enjoy watching your team win the championship again anyway, but I’ll be hoping that any other team still competing in the 2013 Playoffs will find a way to overcome the overwhelming odds.

2. Support the biggest underdog that’s still in the Playoffs

This approach can work together very nicely with the one described above. It’s similarly straightforward; cheering for the underdog has always been a popular option when you’ve got no loyalties to any of the other competitors. After all, it’s exciting to see teams overachieve and always makes for a feel good story. With all their injuries, the Bulls were defiant underdogs this year after owning the league’s best record each of the past two seasons, but the clock has obviously struck midnight.

Of the teams still standing, the underdogs would have to be the Indiana Pacers and Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies are a workhorse team that have had a fine year and should at least give the San Antonio Spurs a competitive series in the Western Conference Finals. The often overlooked Indiana Pacers currently lead the New York Knicks 3-2, but were the third seed in the Eastern Conference and certainly would not be favourites to win if they end up facing the Heat.

3. Cheer for whoever eliminated your favourite team

“Really?!?”, I hear you incredulously ask. This is certainly an unorthodox approach, but depending on how bitter the rivalry between the two teams is, it’s an approach that may work for some fans. I’m certainly not about to advocate being so fickle as to abandon your favourite team and bandwagon the one they lost to, but in certain circumstances, it’s one way to be gracious in defeat while maintaining interest in the rest of the postseason.

That’s actually how I felt in 2006 when the Heat ousted the Bulls in the first round and went on to win the championship. I was glad to see them go all the way when the Bulls obviously were not going to be able to, mainly because I wanted to see Alonzo Mourning and Gary Payton finally get a ring. Needless to say, I don’t quite feel the same way this time around.

4. Hope for the most interesting outcomes and stories

It goes without saying that the outcome we’d all ultimately prefer to see is our favourite team holding the Larry O’Brien trophy aloft at the end of the Playoffs. Since only one of the 30 NBA teams is going to be in that position come June, fans of the other 29 teams can at least hope for hard fought, seven game series, memorable performances by star players and the most interesting matchups possible.

The remainder of the 2013 Playoffs has the potential for some very interesting matchups. An NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat would be a good one, pitting one of the most successful franchises of the past fifteen years against the defending champions. Something would have to give with an All-Star trio looking to win back-to-back in a third straight Finals appearance, taking on a team that is one of only two clubs to appear in at least four NBA Finals series and win every single time (the other being the Chicago Bulls).

It may not be the most glamorous matchup, but I’d actually be interested in seeing an Indiana Pacers vs. Memphis Grizzlies Finals series. Aside from the fact it would be two underdog teams making it through to the championship round, we’d also be guaranteed to see an NBA team winning their first ever title. The last time that happened was 2006, when Miami and Dallas clashed for the first time.

5. Play video games or watch some old games on DVD

Yes, when all else fails, there are basketball video games. In basketball video games, you can create your own reality and what better place to start than rewriting history for a Playoff series that didn’t exactly turn out the way you would have liked. Once you’ve had the cathartic experience of handily defeating the team that your ended your favourite team’s season, you can return to the real world and enjoy the rest of the Playoffs.

If that doesn’t work, pull out some DVDs and watch some old games where your team enjoyed a little more success. This is particularly effective if you’re a fan of a team like the Bulls, who did actually win not one, not two, not three, not four, not five but six NBA championships. And with that, I’ve managed to obnoxiously cram a reference to the Bulls in every item this week, even though they’re done until October.

How do you enjoy and maintain interest in the NBA Playoffs when your favourite team has been eliminated, or didn’t qualify in the first place? Let me know in the comments below and don’t forget that you can discuss the latest news and results from the 2013 NBA Playoffs in the NBA & Basketball Talk section of the Forum. Thanks for checking in, please join me again next Friday for another Five.