Ah, how the mighty have fallen

With Boston AND UNC losing their basketball games today, I felt compelled from the fandom of which I hail to write a blog.

Let's start with the Celts. The team that everyone thought they would beat the 1995-96 Bulls record of wins in a season of 72-10. ESPN was the first to put up one of their gimmicky "Chase for the Record" graphic after every Boston highlight, which by the way, led SportsCenter practically every night. 19 wins in a row! They can't be stopped! This just in: Since Christmas, the Celtics have lost to the Lakers (92-83), Warriors (99-89), Blazers (91-86), and, tonight, the Knicks (100-88). Throw out the Lakers, and these teams have a combined current record of 43-57. Even if you throw the Lakers in it's only 69-62.

So what if the Lakers are the favorite in the West, and the Warriors and Blazers are on the rise. You lost to the friggin Knicks! I went back to the magical '95-'96 season and came up with these nuggets: Their worst losses were (by record) to the Raptors at 21-61, and (by score) to, oddly enough, the Knicks with a 104-72 final. The winning percentage of the teams they lost to was .546 (403-335), and in each round of the playoff they faced a team they previously lost to and beat each one handedly (Mia 3-0, NYK 4-1, Orl 4-0, Sea 4-2).

So stop. No NBA team will ever be as good as the '95-'96 Bulls.

Onto UNC Tarheel basketball. Every analyst I've heard has UNC as the national champ. Some are saying this is the best team ever. Not so fast. BC better get some respect in the polls after running their record to 13-2 with a 85-78 over the now 13-1 Tarheels. Reigning POTY Tyler Hanbrough wasn't exactly contained, going for 21 and 9, but his supporting cast wasn't explosive as they usually are, with UNC averaging 94.8 ppg.

I'm not saying they still can't win the NC running away, but please stop all the "best ever" talk. But it's not just with this; it seems like every time there is a moderately dominant team in a particular sport, the "experts" always want to pick them as the best team ever. USC football comes to mind, particularly because they are the worst case. Pete Carroll always has the best recruiting class, a Heisman quarterback, blah blah blah. Then they go out and lay an egg. In every year they do win it all, everyone wants to pick them as the best ever. Now I can't fully back up a claim for my particular best team ever, because I'm not the biggest college football buff, but I can point to the 1932 Colgate Red Raiders, who went undefeated, untied, and unscored upon.

My point is to not be over-zealous and proclaim any team the best ever in any sport, especially when we are only about 1/3 of the way through the season, because there are expert who aren't alive anymore that can probably make a valid case for a team from yesteryear that is better than a team from today.