It’s important to remember what the league was like in 2007 if we are to properly put the record-tying win total and divisional title in perspective--and move on in our retrospective. Of course, you have to suspend your disbelief that a six-game-over-.500 division title and subsequent disposal from the playoffs is the second-most exalted feat in franchise history (after that other one that ended with a *clank*)
Pre-season favourites in the Eastern Conference were, by consensus, the defending Heat and the perennially-contending Pistons. The Heat, having staved off the Dallas Mavericks with a start-turning performance by Dwyane Wade and a healthy dose of referee interference, limped into the ‘07 playoffs, barely, thanks to injuries to Wade and O’Neal (and the empirical evidence that Shaq was no longer Shaq -- he would be traded to the Suns for an unhappy Shawn Marion part way into the next season).
Detroit’s descent was more interesting if you prefer narratives about motivation and intangible intangibles. After a half decade of no-star, all chemistry “team” teams, peaking with the ‘04 championship, that nucleus was, evidently, slipping. The acquisition of Chris Webber, (and to a much lesser extent, Nazr Mohammad) was supposed to fill the void left by the cash-chasing departure Ben Wallace, and allow this Pistons incarnation to continue to contend. Detroit grinded out a mediocre (by their standards) 53 win season amid calls of complacency or in-fighting or chemistry issues. There was an assumption that the core veterans (Billups, Hamilton, Prince, RWallace, McDyess, Webber) would turn it on for the playoffs but a streaking Cavs team, led by an emergent LeBron James (and significant contributions by future Hall-of-Famers Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden and Sasha Pavlovic) plus a dose of whatever deity commissioned this, contributed to a downright dominant, if unimpressive, NBA Finals that saw the been-there-done-this Spurs barely break a sweat against Cleveland.
The rest of the East? An in-their-own-way intimidating Arenas/Butler/Jaimeson-era Wizards team; a lifeless Nets team that “upset” Toronto with a little veteran savvy from an otherwise disinterested Jason Kidd; a still-recovering-from-the-Malice Pacers; Isaiah-infected Knicks and the rest of the league (like, the Celtics and Sixers) putting on their best Tank Face for the Oden/Durant draft sweepstakes.
Within a year, Jason Kidd and Pau Gasol would be on new teams and pundits would declare the NBA dark days to be over.
So let’s remember, collectively, that in 2007, the Toronto Raptors exploited a power vacuum to temporarily rise from mediocrity to baseline competency. Pinning your wistful nostalgia on an award winning executive (and coach) only exacerbates our current pain. Free yourself from such shackles of the mind. Let us heal.
(The Autopsy to continue...)
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