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I can't take it anymore. The most overused statement in sports (especially in basketball) to explain away an organizations failures is "Well, they just haven't gotten lucky". So often, with the latest news about Rob Hennigan getting canned, I hear exactly that. From everyone. Everyone from personalities on our station, to national NBA writers, and from Alex Martins himself. The usage of the word "luck" has quickly shot to the top of my list of sports talk pet peeves.
Luck has nothing to do with it.
Good organizations with strong leadership and healthy management hire the right people. Those people then hire the right people. Then those people draft the right players. It's actually pretty simple. Look at the teams in sports that are successful every single year...the Patriots aren't lucky, they're smart. The Spurs? Some could say they got "lucky" when they drafted Tim Duncan, but they're the 2 seed heading into this year's playoffs...and he's retired. Where's that luck we were talking about? It's not there, it's good smart management and coaching. The Warriors are another great example, they're well on their way to going to their 3rd NBA Finals in a row, when did they get lucky? Did I miss something? They're core is Curry, Thompson, and Draymond Green. None of which were drafted in the top 5. In fact, Green wasn't even drafted in the 1st round. That's not luck, that's good scouting. They then added KD in free agency, not because of the "L" word but because the Warriors have created a fun/winning culture, behind good management, ownership, coaching, and leadership.
To further my point, if you consider "luck" as getting a top 3 pick in the NBA Draft, and having that player pan out, and turn into a superstar, then 2 teams in each conference got to the playoffs this year because they're "lucky". That's 4 out of 16 playoff teams that fit the criteria. That means that 12 teams in the post season this year in the NBA got there because people in their organization simply make good decisions.
Luck's got nothing to do with it.
- Kravitz