1st Order, 2nd Order, Last Place Rockets

The Not As Big AristotleRockets fans want the Rockets to win. Rockets fans know the Rockets need to lose. Losing brings the delayed gratification reward of a chance at a higher draft pick, and thus, a chance at far less losing in the future, if all goes well.

But we want to see our team win.

We have here an interesting philosophical quandary, with a clash of the normal sort of first order desire - to see the team win, against knowing it needs to lose. But we ought to want the second order desire, for the team to lose. (It’s almost immaterial, in terms of our desires, whether or not the team can win.)

It’s like wanting a pizza, but desiring to want a pile of kale. It’s hard to overcome that…