"It ain't despair that gets you; it's the hope." -- Todd Snider in "Big Finish"
The 2012 NBA Draft told me a lot about myself. I had studied this draft for months because I love drafts. I do this every year for all drafts because our teams always suck. Our teams all suck, but drafts hold that promise of the next team. This next team that doesn't exist and might not suck. That's my favorite team. Teams in reality lose. During the draft, the Browns and Cavs (and Indians, kinda) can be front and center, bring hope and cannot lose. This is all appealing.
But then the 2012 NBA Draft happens. Much like the 2012 NFL Draft, I disagreed with what my team did. I hated the pick. We lost the draft! How is this possible?! I just said that we can't lose it!
As time passed, after sending my usual barrage of snarky tweets out into the world, I finally breathed and examined my thoughts. Why am I mad exactly?.... Well, we traded three of our picks for a white stiff center named Tyler. .... But I kind of wanted Tyler before the draft started, and I felt we should use all of those extra picks to move up and take a guy like Tyler. ....So that isn't it .... Well we took Dion Waiters at No. 4. That was a terrible pick and it made me just hate on everything .... But I kind of wanted a Waiters type player before the draft. I wanted an explosive, athletic wing that is tough and plays hard .... And the analysts were all in love with this guy, so shouldn't I be happy?..... Well, I wanted two SPECIFIC wings; I wanted Bradley Beal or Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. .... But those guys were already picked. ....So how is that the fucking Cavs' fault? Because they didn't trade up? .... Maybe..... But maybe they couldn't. ....
So let's get this straight: The guys I wanted were gone and the Cavs filled the two biggest needs of the offseason the best way they could among the available players and assets they had. And I was mad? Cleveland sports give me enough to be mad about, do I really need to be manufacturing another one? If I walked into this draft with no preconceived notions, I probably would have felt satisfied.
The problem is the set point. Let me explain the little I know about set points and pretend I'm smart: If I tell you a random number - like 70 - and then I ask you a dumb question that you don't intuitively know - like what's the percentage of commercially successful Adam Sandler movies - your answer will be relatively close to 70 percent. If I tell another person a different random number - like 10 - and ask the same Sandler question - that person's guess will be closer to 10 percent. Even though that random number has nothing to do with anything, your mind uses it as a set point, whether you know it or not. This is true because I just read it in a book.
Essentially: People are stupid. I spend all year reading mock drafts, "studying" the available players for my teams, and taking in the thoughts of the "experts." Who might my team take? What are our needs? How will PLAYER X fit these needs? Even if it's all based on nothing -- having rarely watched any of these guys actually play their sport -- I am internalizing all of this shit. It could all be written by an autistic first grader, but it is establishing a set point. THE CAVS MUST TAKE MKG OR BEAL. IF THEY DON'T, THEY SHOULD PROBABLY TAKE HARRISON BARNES. BARNES. HARRISON BARNES. BRADLEY BEAL. MKG. MKG. MKG. MKG BARNES. BEAL. BARNES. BEAL
....
....
WHO THE FUCK IS DION WAITERS?!?!!?
The anger isn't based on anything. I just hadn't read his name a million times. At this point in reality he's really no different than MKG or Barnes - they are all unproven rookies with upside - but I read the names Beal, Gilchrist and Barnes a lot. Set point. Waiters was too far past my set point. It's disturbing that I didn't even really want Barnes. I didn't like what I read about him. But I read about him, so that's what really mattered, in the end.
Here's another problem: All of these draft dreams create unrealistic expectations, which then become their own set points. I've already dreamed of the possibilities of these future teams and what they can achieve -- again, based on nothing other than my desire for these futures to happen -- and so when they logically do not happen, I am pissed. Always. Set point. What ends up happening, sometimes, isn't really that bad, but it didn't hit the high bar that I set. It fell short of the set point.
Alls I'm saying is Cleveland sports suck enough already -- we don't need to make things worse.
Our day dreams and visions of grandeur are counter productive. We have the highest set point on our minds at all time -- a championship. We are fucking obsessed. And when our teams reasonably do not live up to that (because all teams other than one do not live up that every year) we feel bad. We pat ourselves on the back because we're always "waiting for next year" and "always have that hope" and we are "believeland" but that's our ultimate problem because it's manufacturing a false reality, based on nothing, that will inevitably leave us more depressed than we would have been if we were just realistic.
Don't hope for tomorrow. We will suck. Get it in your heads. Set points.
... Who knows. Maybe someday we won't suck and then it will exceed this low set point and we'll be jacked up about it. ... Yea, someday we might have a team that puts it together and wins us a championship. .... Hmmmm, I bet Dion Waiters and Kyire Irving, given enough time, could get there...it's definitely a good foundation....add in another draft ...hmmmmmm....
Go Teams.
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