The Mavs Raising A Banner To Honor Getting Absolutely Demolished In The NBA Finals Is Certainly A Choice

Elsa. Getty Images.

Welcome to the new NBA season everybody! It's banner and ring night tonight in the City Of Champions to kick off the new year, a tradition that comes as a result of being the last team standing. There's truly nothing like seeing your favorite team get their ring and then join together and raise a banner to the rafters to live for the rest of time. I've been fortunate enough to see it twice in my lifetime and I don't think I'm being dramatic when I suggest that this picture below is how every single Celtics fan is going to feel today

It's going to be emotional as hell. The 16 year wait, Al Horford having his moment, the Jays being solified as Celtics legends forever, it's all going to be incredible.

When it comes to raising those banners, the Celtics are one of the few franchises that only do something like this on two occasions.

1. A legend gets their number retired

2. They win a championship

That's it. Anything else is not worthy of the honor of being raised to the rafters. No division banners, no Eastern Conference Finals banners, (hopefully) no In Season Tournament Banners, just the real deal. It helps set the tone that the only thing that matters in the organization is the title. Every second of every day is about raising a championship banner and a championship banner only. If you finish the year with anything other than a championship banner, the season was a failure. It doesn't matter how many games you win, it doesn't matter how deep in the playoffs you went. If you don't win, you don't raise a banner.

Sadly, not all franchises feel this way

What in the 2014 Indianapolis Colts is going on here? Congratulations on……2nd place? Who cares what happened in the Finals when you can just celebrate making it? There's something funny about another team from Dallas having to celebrate non-title banners, and frankly, I can't believe they would think to do this/then put the video out on social media.

I know Mavs fans are still down horrendous after what took place in June, but no serious Mavs fan can like this or think this is a good idea right? Do 2nd place finishes really need to be celebrated? Cool, you went on a run in the playoffs behind some unsustainable hot outside shooting in the earlier rounds. That's great! Then, once they faced real competition (who was missing their 3rd best player) the Mavs got absolutely dog-walked. I'm not sure what else to call a series in which the Champs lost a game on purpose just so they could win and celebrate on their own floor. At no point in that Finals were the Mavs a threat, but let's hang a participation banner baby!

Have some shame. 

I get that there are some franchises out there who have never won a title and raise these other banners because it may be the most they've accomplished to date. Not something I would want my favorite team to do, but fine. The Mavs are not one of those franchises. As you can see, there's a 2011 NBA title banner right there. To put what is essentially a cuck banner right next to it is something that would make my skin crawl as a Mavs fan. Now every time a fan looks up there they're going to be reminded of this

which now the more I think about it, I kind of like it? So maybe this is a good idea? Not for the Mavs as an organization or their fans, but for anyone who wants to relive the 2024 Finals this was very thoughtful of them.

I simply don't understand the logic of a move like this, especially with how the final round went. If you're so deadset on honoring a team that came up short, put this shit up in your practice facility or something. That's still lame but at least it's out of the public's eye and you most certainly DO NOT put out a video celebrating it. All you're doing is opening up yourself to be trolled online and have people talk about how much of a joke your franchise is. If that was the Mavs' goal, well then they succeeded!

I'm sure there will be some pushback on this, but deep down those people know this is embarrassing. If you would ever want your favorite team to hang participation banners or anything other than title banners, I guess we'll just never see eye to eye. 

Where I come from, the only thing that matters and deserves celebration is being the best. 

Joe Murphy. Getty Images.