OT: Things that have happened since the last playoff run

[HisIceness]

A lot happens in 10 years. Post whatever you want here (sports, entertainment, personal life)

I'll get us started:

-Barack Obama was barely into his 1st term as president
-Donald Trump was still doing The Apprentice
-Roy Cooper was NC's Attorney General
-Pontiacs were still being made
-Social media wasn't as prevalent as it is now (Twitter was still kind of an unknown, Instagram/Snapchat/Tinder weren't around)
-iPads were not yet a thing
-CDs, though not nearly as popular as they were in the 90's, were still being sold in stores (I guess they still are but when was the last time you bought one?)
-Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Tom Petty, George Michael, Prince, Scot Weiland, Chris Cornell, David Bowie, and many others were still alive, and some were still making tunes
-Flip Phones were still common
-Shopping malls were still relatively healthy
-Texas A&M, Nebraska, and Mizzou were still in the Big 12
-Maryland was still in the ACC
-Jake Delhomme was the Panthers starting QB
-Cam Newton and Luke Kuechly were unknowns
-The Panthers participated in Super Bowl 50
-The Charlotte Bobcats were still a thing, and Robert 'Bobcat' Johnson was still the owner
-The Atlanta Thrashers were still in existence
-Who the hell are the 'Vegas Golden Knights'? And how the hell did they make the Finals in year one?
-When did Seattle get an NHL team?
-Shaq was still suiting up in the NBA
-LeBron was in his first stint with the Cavaliers
-The Lakers were still winning championships, and their fans were/are still tools (mostly, at least the ones that invade Charlotte)
-The Golden State Warriors went from awful franchise historically to dynasty
-Cleveland ended their championship drought as a city
-The Cubs broke their curse
-The Atlanta Braves left Turner Field for Cobb County
-The Browns are finally starting to look like a legitimate team
-The Bills made the playoffs
-Raleigh has undergone a big transformation. Downtown is now awesome and the city has started to become more of a food/music/beer hub than it was 10 years ago
-Durham has also undergone a major overhaul. They too have become more of a food/music/beer city
-Charlotte still has shitty traffic, shitty drivers, and shitty roads, but at least we have light rail!
-The Checkers were still an ECHL team playing at the Spectrum Center

Click to read more...

 

[Primetime8]

Cam Newton was known as the kid who stole a laptop and transferred from Florida*

 

[The Faulker 27]

My financial situation improved significantly.


Then I had kids.

 

[Dishface]

The Pontiac one really puts it a perspective for me. That feels like soooo long ago.

 

[Drivebytrucker]

Kelly Clarkson got significantly less attractive

 

[The Faulker 27]

Kelly Clarkson got significantly less attractive

And significantly more wealthy.

 

[AD Skinner]

My financial situation improved significantly.


Then I had kids.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Ha, my kids all reached legal drinking age in the time since the last playoff appearance.

 

[Sigurd]

Uber only started in March 2009, and Lyft wasn't around until 2012.

Lime-bikes and Lime scooters weren't around.

The United Kingdom didn't have Brexit yet.

No conflict in Ukraine.

No Syrian conflict.

China wasn't quite the behemoth as it is today.

The Arab Spring didn't happen yet.

The US still had the Shuttle program.

Tesla Motors and SpaceX were relatively unknown.

 

[AD Skinner]

Netflix was sending me DVDs in the mail

 

[VAcaniac]

Ive gotten a BA and MA since then.

Ive moved four times since then.

I texted my ex gf who I went to the last Canes playoff game w “Can you believe this is the first year the Canes are going back to the playoffs since we went?” “Jesus, thats crazy.”

 

[RibFrabcus]

I moved out, started driving, started working, played in 5 different bands that went nowhere, started playing hockey, moves to Raleigh, proposed, got married, moved back to Greensboro, and started a career.

 

[MinJaBen]

I received my doctorate, my daughter graduated from high school and my wife and I were billed more than a good 2nd lines worth of forwards in medical bills.


Good times.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Andrew Luck had yet to take his first career snap...

...for Stanford.

 

[Ahoy there]

You can no longer simply look down your pants when determining your gender

 

[hurricure]

I’ve gotten married and divorced haha

 

[Lempo]

You can no longer simply look down your pants when determining your gender

You don't *have* to any longer look into your pants to determine your gender.

"But, that's a penis."
"You're a penis."

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

Since we last made the playoffs:

• The Walking Dead premiered
  
• We stopped wearing comfortable jeans
  
• Osama bin Laden died
• iPads became a thing
• The entire southern stretch of 540 opened
• Wachovia became Wells Fargo and RBC became PNC
• 4G rolled out (and we almost made it to 5G)
• Unemployment topped out at 10%, then fell to its lowest levels in 50 years
• HD DVD was defeated by Blu-ray, which in turn has been all but defeated by streaming
• Blockbuster was defeated by Redbox, which in turn has been all but defeated by streaming
• Three of the four scientists in The Big Bang Theory got married.

 

[GoCanes2015]

The DOW closed at 7,975 on April 6, 2009

 

[Joe McGrath]

Rod Brind’amour was the captain of the hockey team still. That’s the easy one for me.

 

[CandyCanes]

Started the 9th grade
I had my first kiss
My family dog died
Got my drivers license
Graduated high school
Traveled all around Europe for 3 months
Had my first real life rated “R” experience
Moved to Tampa
Started my business
Adopted a cat named Taco
Graduated college
Moved back to Cary in my mom’s house
Started another business
Became an uncle
Then moved out of mom’s house to downtown Raleigh
Now we here

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

“Growing a playoff beard” is now something I can do during the playoffs. It’s not particularly manly or impressive but it’s hair. 10 years ago I was 15 and it definitely wasn’t hair.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Since we last made the playoffs:

• The Walking Dead premiered
  
• We stopped wearing comfortable jeans
  
• Osama bin Laden died
• iPads became a thing
• The entire southern stretch of 540 opened
• Wachovia became Wells Fargo and RBC became PNC
• 4G rolled out (and we almost made it to 5G)
• Unemployment topped out at 10%, then fell to its lowest levels in 50 years
• HD DVD was defeated by Blu-ray, which in turn has been all but defeated by streaming
• Blockbuster was defeated by Redbox, which in turn has been all but defeated by streaming
• Three of the four scientists in The Big Bang Theory got married.

Like the Pontiac one for whoever it was above, Wachovia is crazy to me.

 

[BrindAmours Army]

On the personal side of things:

I've graduated high school, undergrad, and law school.

I was diagnosed with insomnia, and then eight years later found I also have narcolepsy.

I've learned to dislike taxes more and more every year.

A few gray hairs have started popping up, though with those a few red hairs have also started popping up. Not sure what to make of the latter, as my hair has been dark brown since birth.

Not personal:

Princess Leia became a Disney princess.

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

The DOW closed at 7,975 on April 6, 2009

Here are the S&P 500 one-year returns following the date at which each of our playoff runs started:

• 1999: 9.48%
• 2001: -6.55%
• 2002: -19.96%
• 2006: 12.40%
• 2009: 41.17%

That being said, the league's longest playoff drought has also coincided with the nation's longest-ever bull market. Coincidence? Hmm...

Based on my analysis, I have every confidence that there are exactly two distinct possibilities for where the market is heading in the next year: either it will go up, or it will go down.