Fans are often, by definition, not capable of objectivity. This applies to ourselves here in BBS-land as much as anywhere, and is most notable in the extremes to which we are capable of regarding our beloved Rockets. One win can have us crying Championships!, where one loss can have us calling for the coach's head. This is equally true for our ability to alternately dish out blame and/or excuse our poorer showings, especially over time. Case in point; last year's poor season has, by and large, been pretty well writen off as being the result of injuries. Further still, we have ofetn cried foul when outside sources have failed to see the obvious reasoning behind our conviction; when off season predictions didn't make as much out of our injuries, we felt slighted. When our team's likelyhood of success was discounted due to our poor showing last year, many of us ( be honest, remember who you were) thought it very unfair, and smugly foresaw our critics eating crow when a healthier squad came flying back this year. But an odd thing happened this year; the Toronto Raptors had a year which makes ours last look like a walk in the park, and many of us here, who should know better, have been blythe to simply dismiss their injuries as an 'excuse'. This despite a few facts; 1) The Raptors this year lost an incredible 519 games due to injury...almost 40 more than the previous NBA record, held by the 1996 Boston Celtics, and far and away more than we lost last year. They at no point this season suited up the full 12 man squad for a game, and often played games with only 7 players active. 2) The Raptors have made the playoffs for 3 consecutive seasons prior to this one, something the Rockets have yet to do even once in that span. 3) Despite the comments of some in here earlier in the season, the Raptors' injuries have not been to players less significant than ours last season; Vince Carter missed 39 games compared to Francis' 25 a year ago...Their starting center missed the entire season, as did his backup...Antonio Davis missed 29 games...Their projected 6th man, or starting SF, depending on who you asked at the time, Lamond Murray missed the entire season...Their backup pg played in 29 games...On several occassions they had starting line-ups of at least 3 of 5 players who were on 10-day contracts. And yet, amazingly, people in here are writing off the Raptors in general, and Vince Carter in particular, in much the same way we objected to last year when it applied to ourselves, despite them having been through a far less fortunate season. This amazes me...I have often noticed how virtually every 'outside' review of the Rockets gets slammed for 'hating' us, being ignorant, or stupid when they give us less credit than we feel we deserve. We roll our eyes at their complete lack of understanding....yet when the Raptors had more injuries at the All-Star break this year than we did in all of last year's 'disastrous' season, we didn't let it faze us in our dismissal of them as a team. It has become common in here to write of f Carter as a has-been, the Raptors as a team in need of dismantling, and to make nary a mention of a factor which, a year ago, would have been the 1st word out of every poster in this site's lips when the record was mentioned. I know we are fans, and as such not objective...but you think, when it comes to injuries, we would be a little wiser, a little more sympathetic to their effect on a team after last year than we have been...and maybe the fact that we haven't, coupled with the fact that, although pretty healthy, we failed to dissapoint many of our 'ignorant' critics might just let out a little of the air from our protestations against some of our critics in the future. Maybe....maybe not.
