NBA basketball is a zero-sum game. You either win or you lose, and if you can help in the former you have value, and if you contribute the latter there’s always someone else a team can turn to.
And into that reality comes Toronto Raptors guard Norm Powell, an eminently likeable young man who has done fine things for the team in the past, but someone who just can’t seem to get out of his own way these days.
The sentimentalists want him to do well because he’s a good kid who’s been a good player in the past; the harsh realists know there can’t be a lot of time spent waiting to see if he does.