There is nothing better than the future. It's bright, exciting, and assumes limitless potential. No matter the challenge of the moment, the future always allows for unbridled optimism. In many cases, we live our life with that expectation, delaying instant gratification for the promise of tomorrow. For example, we don't buy sports cars we want today so we can have a lovely retirement. It's part of the DNA of raising kids. Almost every assignment we give our youth leads towards some attainable future goal. Take that away, and no child may ever take a calculus class ever again, much less clean their room.
Perhaps beyond childhood, nowhere is this promise of the future more enticing than sports. From fans to players to owners, nothing is more intoxicating then the prospect of a brighter tomorrow. Say your team finishes last in the division. Remember, next year will be better. And all of those inexperienced, error prone rookies? Think how good they will be next season. That's why sports fans love the draft. It's the future on display.
Perhaps no sports team is built more in that ethos than the NBA's Boston Celtics. Over the past several years, this basketball team turned delayed gratification into an art form. It all started in 2013 when Boston traded basically its entire roster to the Nets – including all-stars Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett – for enough first round draft picks to start an army. Boston sacrificed its then present for what would hopefully be a more glamorous future. Brooklyn did the opposite, giving away tomorrow for a shot at a title today. Anyone who’s ever seen a basketball knows what happened – the Nets tanked like Ishtar, players got old, and their future looked darker than a solar eclipse. Meanwhile, the Celtics had one top draft pick after another. But that wasn’t all for the Celtics. In 2014, Boston traded its franchise point guard Rajon Rondo to Dallas for, amongst other things, two draft picks in 2016. Then, just in case the future wasn’t bright enough, they parlayed the number one overall draft pick in 2017 for the number three overall pick that year and another first round pick in 2018 or 2019. And if that’s not enough, the Celtics also acquired all-stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, this past off-season. Which means that after all that prospecting, all that wheeling and dealing, for the Boston Celtics, the future is now.
And just like that, it’s not. Last night, Hayward fractured his tibia five minutes into his debut game for the Celts on opening night against the Cavs in one of the most gruesome injuries outside a horse track. It was so bad that it seemed like everyone in the building looked like they were either crying or about to throw up. You almost expected the trainers to put a curtain up around Hayward’s body while they worked. No one knows how long Hayward will be out, but let’s assume he’s no longer part of this year’s roster. Which means that all the work to build a super powerful roster, all the delayed gratification, it all disappears five minutes in game one of the season.
This is overly dramatic, I know. The Celtics still have a powerful roster, certainly in the top two of the Eastern Conference, depending on how you consider the newly configured Cleveland Cavaliers. And I doubt either Boston or Cleveland are deep enough to beat the Golden State Warriors, especially now with Hayward living on pain meds. But it does serve as an important reminder in sports – perhaps in life. It’s not uncommon to see a sports team bet the farm on an athlete – say an all-star quarterback, like the Broncos did with Peyton Manning. Or perhaps any number of star basketball players, like the Miami Heat did years ago with LeBron James. It’s usually a go-for-broke strategy. You trade the lion’s share of your roster and enough future draft picks to get you to the next millennium. The argument is that if you have a chance to win right now, you do it. At all costs. Even if it means that two years later, you’re basically playing with little leaguers. That’s what most team owners do. Win now, worry later. That’s what Brooklyn did when they gave the future to Boston, which, unfortunately for the Nets, didn’t work out. I suppose it’s better to have loved and lost.
The Celtics never wanted now. They traded for the future. Which is now. When Gordon Hayward collapsed to the floor on opening night.
Is there a larger lesson here? Like go ahead and eat that pile of cheese fries, because you never know? Or why bother going to the gym, when you can watch TV right now instead. That’s hard to say. Just know that the future isn’t always as great as you think it is.
Keith Strudler is the director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him on twitter at @KeithStrudler
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