If there is a god, he must have a wicked sense of humor. The Dallas Mavericks have won, against highly unfavorable odds, the NBA draft lottery for the number one overall pick in the upcoming draft. This, only a short month and a half after the same team traded away their top five franchise star (Luca Doncic) for essentially peanuts. The dissatisfaction from Dallas fans then was bilabial. I guess karma really doesn’t exist!
The tar-and-feathering of Nico Harrison - GM of the Mavericks - ends immediately, right? Vindication for trading away a generational scoring talent in Doncic, but who can’t get in shape, and who can’t play defense? I’m not sure you can use that word when the reward is down to pure luck. Nevertheless, the Dallas franchise now gets to pick another, much younger, generational talent to replace Luca (Cooper Flagg). Are we sure this isn’t the Matthew principle at work?
This goes to show much much luck is involve in our successes and failures. I mean, isn’t the fact that we even exist at all is down to some goldilocks equation involving the position of the earth vis a vis the sun and the moon? Should the earth’s axis tilted slightly differently, then all of this would be nothing but less than a dream.
Look at the Golden State Warriors, currently deep into the NBA playoffs. The team is likely to lose the series to the Minnesota Timberwolves because transcendent star player Steph Curry suffered a freak non-contact injury in game one (of seven). Two Super Bowls ago, the 49ers defense was never the same after linebacker Dre Greenlaw suffered a torn achilles while getting on the field. Bad luck can absolutely ruin your day, no matter how good you actually are.
On the flip side, you can be less envious of successful people because there was likely a ton of good luck involved. This isn’t negating their hard work: you still have to put yourself in positions to leverage fortune positively. Even the couch potato needs to get off his ass to buy a lottery ticket at the gas station.
Dallas Mavericks fans must be feeling all sorts of mixed up right now.
Drip.