SBNation Project: NBA Word Association

So, our SB Nation community of NBA bloggers were recently polled for their one-word(usually) opinions on every NBA team. One word, one team, no other rules or suggestions for format.

For a lot of us, it can be difficult to get an accurate understanding of what other people think about our team. We have a tendency to insulate ourselves in our opinions, because why would anyone ever have a bad thing to say about our wonderful team, right? So, exercises like this give us a tiny snapshot of what a well-informed, passionate group thinks of when they hear "Dallas Mavericks".

Here were the responses for Dallas:

rich

Cubes

Plan-B

Dirk (x3)

Flailing

Rowdy

Cuban (x3)

spendthrift

window

swan song

money (x2)

Flukes

goingdown

WINNERS

Cubans

NBA front office loves smoking its Cubans

Nowitzki

Leadership

Searching (mine)

Graying-about-the-temples

Ego

German

Aging

Ok, so most of responses focused on either Dirk or Mark Cuban, but they also mention money and aggressive spending, which I admit I considered good until I was later informed those words were intended to be taken negatively.

There are some other, more overtly negative comments, which I think are understandable given the less than spectacular title-defense season, but I think a lot of the time these associations come from the last image in our head, and can be changed quickly.

According to the spreadsheet we were given, 7 of the 28 comments were negative, 25%. For some perspective, 20 out of 28 comments for the Knicks were considered "negative", and 24 of 28 for the hapless Bobcats.

Some of the most common responses:

7 times

"Old" for the Boston Celtics

5 times

"Bullets" for the Washington Wizards

4 times

"Jordan" for the Chicago Bulls(also two Michael's and an MJ)

"Russian" for the Brooklyn Nets

3 times

"LOL" for the Charlotte Bobcats(lol)

"Kaaaaahn" for the Minnesota Timberwolves

"injured" for the Portland Trailblazers

"White" for the Utah Jazz (yikes)

"Foreign" for the Toronto Raptors

Funniest responses:

"The-South-After-The-Civil-War" for the Orlando Magic

"FINGERGUNZ" for the Washington Wizards

"Mardi Brow" for the New Orleans Hornets

"Who?" for the Detroit Pistons

I think the message to take away from all this is...thank goodness we're not Bobcat fans.