Measuring Success

It's interesting to have this conversation on the same week that Remap turns two. Given our job prospects to stay in media when Remap went under—a term also known as "zero"—there is no denying that Remap has been a success. We can pay our bills, pay friends and colleagues to work with us, and run unprofitable but undeniably fun live shows.

(One day we will figure out that part. Someone sponsor us.)

If someone owned Remap, they would look at our numbers and go "Hey, you don't seem to be growing exponentially." But success within a membership business it to establish a profitable floor and maintain it.

By that measure, we are absolutely a success. We have another year.

What is success for, say, the New York Knicks? And what does that have to do with Rob's time spent in gifted programs? And how does that impact how Patrick is thinking about defining success for his kids in an era of AI and bizarre job markets? Well, keep reading and find out.

Rob: Okay, Patrick, let’s see how far we get in this before this turns out to be about aging or the Chicago Bears.

So the Knicks-Pacers series is over after a few of the nail-biting finishes both teams have been known for throughout these playoffs and a final, commanding beatdown of a second half in what turned out to be the final game in the series that sent the Pacers to the Finals against the Thunder. 

But I’m more interested this week in how we evaluate Knicks coach and former Bulls HC Tom Thibodeau at this point and, maybe more importantly, what do you do with a coach like that and a team like the Knicks at this point? Because it’s undeniable that we’ve seen this before: Tibs shows up to a demoralized and rudderless team and slowly makes them a strong playoff contender, only for them to hit a glass ceiling in the playoffs. Suddenly his best players look a little slower out there, their shots at times a little flatter, maybe a little more prone to injury. It certainly seems like it’s the cost of his coaching style, where he leans hard on his starters and that dependency only increases as the stakes get higher. At the start of their series against the Pacers, as Indiana won two close games as the Knicks seemed to fade in the game’s closing stages, there was a lot of discussion around the idea of firing Thibodeau if the Knicks didn’t advance.

I’m not sure I have a strong opinion about the merits of that decision. I tend to think Tibs is a great coach and franchise repairman, but I can see why people believe that he’s not the mastermind you need to get a team to a championship. Here’s the thing, though: is not making the Finals a good enough reason to change the leadership of a team that’s been doing this well?

I don’t mean that Tibs deserves to keep his job whether or not he’s capable of coaching the Knicks to the championship. I mean that I’m not sure anyone should have any reason to think that a change you make to a conference championship runner-up is likelier to produce positive results than negative ones. Put another way, I feel like a team like the Knicks get to this point because with Tibs they have good processes and a good approach to the game. You fire Tibs because you’re not happy with the outcomes you got.

This has come up before when we talk about football. Do you want a Super Bowl team or do you want a team that’s pretty good year in and year out? I think you and I both incline toward general excellence more than a single shot at glory, though obviously that’s informed by years of hapless futility. But it also feels to me like at the highest level of a sport, among the real championship contenders, it’s really hard to isolate the factor that’s going to elevate one team above its peers. The margins are thin, and little things can completely derail expected outcomes. The Celtics got a little unlucky with injuries and then they got incredibly unlucky with Tatum’s injury (though that series felt like it was lost even before he went down). Should they have done something differently between last year and this one? How many teams have we seen in the last few years where it looked like they were right on the cusp and now they’re nowhere? Where’s that resurgent Kings team? What happened to the Suns’ championship window?

When you look at the Knicks and Tibs, do you see him as the obstacle to the team at this point, or is he the guy who raises the floor enough for a franchise to give them a chance to win the whole thing?

Patrick: I can’t find a link to the post, but someone pointed out the Knicks had the best NBA offense for the first half of the season, before dropping into the teens for the second half. That seems to vibe with Tibs’ approach, right? Pedal to the metal, all gas and no breaks. Which is ironic, of course, because the Pacers quite literally are a pedal-to-the-metal team in explicit construction and strategy, exhausting teams over the course of a game. The Knicks, however, didn’t seem to come alive until they were down 20 points and yet, would still slowly dribble the ball up the court. (They’re not as bad as the Celtics at this, however.)

I imagine it sucks ass to taste the ultimate prize and come up short. 

Remember, I attended the infamous “double doink” game in person, the culmination of the most successful Chicago Bears season since their Super Bowl (and collapse) in 2006. Dude, that feeling sat with me for a solid week. I went to bed legitimately sad! I could feel this weight on me for days. It was fucking embarassing! I take sports seriously but not seriously and the closest thing I can equate my emotional state to was feeling like I’d just gone through a teenage breakup. Now, the ordeal was more traumatic because that kick was literally in my direction, but the experience spooked me. What made that particular incident hurt was knowing it’d be countless years of sadness before anything like that happened again, and what do you know? The Bears have sucked shit since, as any Remap supporter is well aware.

I think what’s fun about the impending NBA finals is the confusion it’s going to cause. These are small market teams without faces people recognize. SG…who? But if you actually love basketball, it’s a really awesome matchup. (Even if I think OKC is superior and is likely to win in something close to a sweep.) But it’s also become clear across these playoffs that goddamn, the NBA needs to move on from the world of LeBron and Curry. It’s (nearly) over. I love them and am bummed they didn’t get to meet in the playoffs again, but watching those two is more about rooting against injury than expecting great basketball.

Also, man, it sucked to watch Jimmy Butler get injured and be forced to phone it in the rest of the way.

Bigger picture, I do think about this “what is success?” question a lot with my kids. I was very fortunate that my parents emphasized me being happy over me being “successful,” but I also had checks showing up in the mail for my writing at the age of 14, so I think they mostly just looked at me and were confused.