"Cinderella Team" Discussion

I've been thinking about this recently: How sports teams become recognized as Cinderella Teams.

A Cinderella Team is a team that has defied all expectations and found success. Expectations may be low because a team may be young and inexperienced, or it may be the case that the team's star player(s) have been injured. And success can be liberally defined as to capture the true surprise of the team's performance, usually in reference to its expectations.

In American team sports the final game or series is the championship game or series, and their are semifinals with different names in each of the four main sports.

In the baseball season that ended last October, and the basketball season that just ended, in the case of each those seasons started in 2017, one of the semifinalists in each could have been considered a Cinderella Team.

In baseball, one of the American League contenders for the World Series was full of rookies and young players and performing beyond their expectations. 'Ahead of schedule' they call it. In the future the expectations would be high, but not for that particular season.

In basketball, one of the Eastern Conference contenders lost their two best players to injury and were lead by young kids, rookies, and a grizzled veteran.

In each case the team pushed their opponent to a decisive game 7 in the best-of-seven series.

In baseball that team was the Yankees and in basketball that team was the Celtics.

NEITHER OF THOSE TEAMS SHOULD EVER BE CONSIDERED A CINDERELLA TEAM.

The Yankees and the Celtics each hold the record for most championships in their respective sports, and have had different stages of wild success over the years. Some of the most iconic players ever played for these teams.

And yet both seemed like Cinderella Teams going into their respective championship series, 'playing with house money' another cliche goes.

But, neither the Yanks nor the Celtics should ever really be considered a Cinderella...