Hākinakina

5 BURNING QUESTIONS

Oliver Dunn

5 Burning Questions Heading into the 2022-23 NBA Season Welcome to the shameless rip of a true classic, pulled from the front page of ESPN with such little nuance and editing its unoriginality could crash Turnitin. With NBA Media Day reminding us how close we are to opening night and how good Ben Simmons’ NBA player cosplay is, it’s time to ponder five super spicy questions burning inside the brains of basketball junkies the world over.

Who’s poised for a breakout season?

Last year Ja Morant took another leap, which makes sense given his ability to actually leap, securing All-NBA second team honours thanks to his insane and oftentimes reckless explosiveness (shades of prime, Derrick Rose). This year’s breakout might be just as vertically impressive with YouTube mixtape sensation turned All-Star Zion Williamson set to return after a year away. If the reports of his summer workouts are true and Williamson can find a pair of sneakers able to withstand the force of a million exploding suns, there’s a real chance he picks up where he left off. There’s also a real chance he finds himself on the injury report again, after missing 141 games through the first three years of his career. In that case put some money on Tyrese Haliburton.

Will the Lakers figure it out?

Probably not. It’s painfully clear the Russell Westbrook experiment has failed, thanks to his unwillingness to adapt his game even 10%, a stubbornness that once averaged a tripledouble now rapidly poisoning his basketball IQ. Perhaps with his contract expiring, paired with LeBron’s extension, the Lakers might finally have a tradeable package of Westbrook and picks. But the return means absolutely nothing if Anthony Davis can’t stay healthy and LeBron loses even half a step.

Who will win MVP?

with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokić and Luka Dončić all coming off strong EuroBasket campaigns. Most sports betting sites have Dončić as favourite, unsurprising given his outrageously productive first four years in the league and the voter fatigue likely hanging over the other two. If Dončić can lead the Mavericks to an impressive regular season without Jalen Brunson, perhaps on the back of some real offseason conditioning, it’ll be hard to argue against the unguardable Slovenian.

Are the Nets contenders?

At first glance Kevin Durant and his cast of unknowables seem like the furthest thing from a championship team after suffering a first-round pantsing via Boston and wearing the sash of ‘noisiest offseason’ despite doing basically nothing. There is however the incessant feeling that any team with Durant is playoff dangerous, doubly so with an ‘unplugged’ and available Kyrie Irving and a Ben Simmons with even 80% of his playmaking and defensive genius. Sadly the Nets remain a true random generator thanks to the impossibility to predict a single thing any of their stars will say or do.

Who will be the most fun team to watch?

Let’s not dwell on potential wins and losses just yet and instead consider which team will dominate social media with obscene alley-oops and late game heroics. Memphis is always a safe bet for most fun thanks to spine tingling highlights from Morant the Fearless. Minnesota boasts a wealth of veracious fast breaks provided by ultra-athletic and recently ignorant Anthony Edwards. Chicago always keeps a handful of slam dunk contest winners on their roster alongside King of the Fourth Quarter DeMar DeRozan. And then there’s the raw potential of younger teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder and Orlando Magic, filled with fresh legs hungry to make a name in the league. Most teams are a sneaky solid pick depending on your preference, apart from the Utah Jazz.

NEXUS

HINENGARO 健康 I am not a hippy. I know hippies, and most of them are okay, but I have an aversion to tie dye and I prefer to buy my flowers from a supermarket. Thank you very much. Also controversial opinion, but the Beatles are overrated and John Lennon’s Imagine is a terribly boring song written in the throes of a drug high. Okay, now that we’ve established my discursive stance, let's lead on to my real point, which given the above statements may seem surprising…

All you need is love.

While that statement alone should be enough without being followed with an exhaustive column for evidence, this isn’t just some hippy concept where we need to drink from the Kool aid. Connection is vitally important to our mental health. We need to feel that we belong. Once again I have to tip my cap to te ao Māori with the broader context of whānau. Whānau is anyone you consider a supporter. Aroha isn’t just your partner or significant other (what’s an insignificant other?) but the love you have for your blood relatives, the love you have for your adoptive relatives, the love you have for that person who gave you that good advice, or that love you have for the dude that you sung that sea shanty with when you were both on the piss (hey bro). The love you have brings you all together to defeat the demogorgons and close that interdimensional portal (I’ve just finished Stranger Things and already have withdrawals). We need that. Aroha, not demogorgons, although they would be good to feed trash and meter-readers to.

That’s why we have so many songs about it. Blues Brothers, Huey Lewis, Haddaway (What is Love, Baby don’t Hurt Me), Hospital of Death – they’ve all written about love. Men couldn’t handle saying they love each other when they’re with mates so we even coined the term Bromance so that it seemed homoerotic, but not homoerotic enough (think WWE not Queer Eye). Paintings have been painted in the name of love. Helen of Troy was described as the face that launched a thousand ships, not because she had the most vicious of headbutts, but because men would go to their deaths because they were so in love with her. Shakespeare wrote smutty snuff porn highlighting its power. People have protested, been beaten, and in many cases died for the right to love the people they want to love (isn’t that crazy that people have had to do that). It’s a powerful driving force that gives us our humanity.

What I would like to see though, is this aroha recognised in our workplaces. I’m not talking free love in the office, although if you’re into that I won’t judge. Many large organisations proudly boast their values (I’ve worked for four of these organisations), organisations that have people who love their jobs and love the mahi that they do. But recognising this as specifically aroha in an organisation's values is largely absent. Why? Because we think it sounds too much like the hippy bull-shit I mentioned earlier? If aroha is our strength, is our humanity, let's recognise that and hold organisations to account when they don’t act out of love. Love can be a force to drive political and structural change.

Just don’t call me a dreamer, or tell me I’m not the only one.

Call me a Love Jedi.