According to an overused analogy, the 82-game season, which spans six months, is a marathon, not a sprint. Consider that comparison cruel in New England, where the word "marathon" has been forever marred in Boston after the atrocious attack that occurred during the city's most celebrated competition. In the aftermath of the bloody bombing at the Boston Marathon on Monday, the association took the appropriate action of canceling the Celtics home game scheduled for Tuesday. However, the league should have gone one step further and eliminated Wednesday's contest from the calendar as well, which was the Celtics last match before the playoffs start on Saturday. A one-day mourning period isn't long or respectful enough. The NBA regular season is unlike the renowned race: there was no reason to finish.
There's something a bit abnormal about attempting to get back to normal immediately. Life shouldn't stop, but it should take a prolonged pause. Instead, the Celtics, whose seeding was already set, were forced to leave and grieve on a jet plane and trudge to Toronto, where their 24-point defeat to the Raptors was just as irrelevant as the Raptors have been in 2013 (and really since '08). The Celtics didn't throw in the towel - they were too busy using it to dab their damp eyes. Their bodies were in Canada, but their minds never made it across the border, while their hearts, like those of all Americans, were with the 179 victims. In times of tragedy, sports can provide a reprieve from the repulsive reality, but not when that tragedy has transpired at another, higher profile sporting event. A different athletics cliche claims, "Every game counts." That ceases to apply when there's a body count.
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