In our league, it comes right down to the end.
Once it gets down to single-digit games, you know the season's end is approaching, and we're all pretty physically tired.
It's all about the playoffs for me. I don't care about the regular season.
If you can get your team to that point of being able to be in that playoff race mindset every week, that's something that most teams can't do.
There comes a point in every season for every team that you start to separate yourself, and you see the league do that every year.
You know that in the playoffs, everyone starts from zero. No matter what team you have to face, if you want to make it to the World Series, you have to get through two rounds against very good teams that are going to be hot.
October baseball is what it's all about.
We literally had all 10 teams alive for a playoff position in the final week of the season. That outstanding balance and those close races created a major surge in attendance in the last month of the season.
If you just look at the numbers, you pretty much have to get 10 wins to get into the playoffs, sometimes more than that.
I love being in a city that's playing October baseball, where you can just feel everyone captivated by the ball club, everyone walking around tired from staying up late, prioritizing baseball above all else. It's a great phenomenon.
Usually I'm nowhere near the playoffs. My last game of the year is usually at the end of the regular season in April.
It's always in your mind, because that's the goal - you want to definitely be in the playoffs. But at the same time, it's not easy to do. It's no easy task, and the challenge is to go out and try to clinch that, by any means.
I'm pretty sure everybody in the NBA wants to make the playoffs. Every player, every coach, every organization wants to make the playoffs.
It's the playoffs. Teams are gonna go on runs.
The most important thing is not the regular year, it's the playoffs.
I want to fight for the playoffs.
Everyone in the League wants to play in the playoffs; I am no different.
The play-offs are the sexy way to get promoted, playing in front of 90,000 people at Wembley, but you always want to do it automatically. If you come first or second, ultimately you've been better than the other teams over 46 games.
Whenever you're playing in the Championship or League football, you know there are play-offs at the end of it. If you miss out on the top two, it's a great alternative to play in a play-off final.
As the game enters its glorious final weeks, the chill of fall signals the reality of defeat for all but one team. The fields of play will turn brown and harden, the snow will fall, but in the heart of the fan sprouts a sprig of green.
