This is when it stings a little more, like when someone pours peroxide on a basketball-sized wound that hasn’t healed.
Buzzer beaters. Drama. Fake fisticuffs. Incredible individual performances.
During the last week, all of these things and then some have gripped more than a few onlookers watching from their couch, local watering hole or better yet in the actual venue where it’s unfolding.
And it’s because months of games that can fail to keep one’s attention have finally given way to sport’s main event.
The NBA playoffs.
But while 16 cities bask in the postseason glow and have even the slimmest glimmer of hope to be standing alongside commissioner Adam Silver on a podium in June as champions, Charlotte and the Spectrum Center are devoid of the postseason fun.