Strange world where Kyrie Irving leads Pistons to 2022 NBA title
By Dan Feldman
Last year, Jon Bois of SB Nation did something majestic – he created an NBA in NBA2K14 where the league was steadily filled with horrible players, draft class by draft class.
This year, he did the opposite:
"every player in this draft class is as large, strong, fast, and talented as the game will allow for. At the 2015 NBA Draft, the teams of the league will find nothing but superhumans.In 2016, I will feed them the exact same draft class of unstoppable immortals. And again in 2017, and in 2018, and in 2019, and … for as long as it takes to push every real-world player out of the league for good."
Bois tells a long and fascinating tale of the NBA’s evolution, though he lets the game dictate all facts without interference.
The Pistons make a cameo in 2022:
"I would imagine you have, or had, a friend you have never seen in years, and don’t expect ever to see again. The two of you built sand castles, or tried to build a skateboard ramp, or drank Beam out of a bottle in a glossy yellow-bricked dorm room. For one reason or another, you no longer do those things, or any things, together, and the reasons behind that are none of my business. Neither is this, but I’ve already barged in: the last time the two of you met, or spoke, you suspected it would be the very last time.To openly treat it as such — the last meeting of two people across all eternity — is a sort of a fraction of a death, and is too heavy for the moment: something that heavy would bust the framework, you would call from Dallas, and there wouldn’t be a last time. This is the quiet knowledge that it’s over, and the tense words that replace the processing of that knowledge.Kyrie Irving is that friend, and this is that time. He’s 30, and with the Pistons now. In a team otherwise entirely filled with Immortals, Kyrie starts at point, leading his team in assists and ranking second in scoring. He’s a foot shorter and five years older than everyone. He does not give a damn.He — the mortal — has led Detroit to the NBA Finals. On behalf of all of us, who dribble off our feet and neglect our marriages and cut ourselves shaving, Kyrie Irving presents one last goodbye to the Immortals.The Pistons win in seven games. Kyrie Irving leads with 30 points in Game 7.SCENE IV: KYRIE IRVING, MIRACLEThere is no reason this should have happened, but it did, and it will be remembered as our last act of majesty on this court. It is their game now.Kyrie Irving is never seen again."
The whole thing is fantastic. Read it if you have have an imaginative streak. Warning: It’s a time suck (because it’s so good).