Black Friday: The State of Professional Sport as a Social Commentary
August 22, 2007 | Filed Under A Day in the Life, Basketball Discussion | Leave a Comment
If sports, with their respective stars serving as our role models and leaders, are indeed only more interesting microcosms of our society, as many people consider them to be, I’d have to say that we in North America are all in a pretty bad state at the moment.
To say that Barry Bonds’ historic accomplishment of surpassing Hank Aaron’s all-time MLB home-run record was overshadowed by his alleged use of illegal performance-enhancing supplements would be the understatement of the year. The NFL’s “next flagship talent,” speedster Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons, has probably played in his final game due to his involvement with illegal dog fighting activities. The NBA’s recent return to respectability, primarily due to super-commissioner David Stern’s work over the past decade as well as the sudden emergence of an influx of fresh young talent (Amare Stoudemire, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade), is now suddenly lost in the mix as the rest of the sports world casts a watchful eye over former NBA official Tim Donaghy’s courtroom drama following a scrutinizing investigation into the past few years of his once-personal life over the suspicion of illegal involvement within betting circles.
Then there’s always the fact that consensus “best basketball player in the world” (Kobe Bryant) is once-again engaged in a full-time media circus himself, involving contradictory & vague off-and-on media spats imploring the LA Lakers organization to trade him at any cost, and NOW. And judging by the Miami Heat’s stunning collapse last season (they were swept in the 1st round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs by a far inferior Chicago team, if you’ve already blocked out that memory as I have), its safe to say that neither the biggest figure in the sport, self-proclaimed shogun Shaquille O’Neal (his own article is coming), nor the newly-crowned “second-coming of Jordan” in a humble but dynamic 2006 NBA Finals MVP Dwayne Wade truly has any impact on the game’s image and reputation.
Need more proof? In today’s NBA headlines: Former Minnesota Timberwolves Forward Eddie Griffin Dead at 25, Heat’s Posey to Plead Guilty to Reckless Driving, Wizards re-sign Blatche Despite His Legal Woes. Does anybody else see a problem with this culture we inspire and immerse ourselves in?
Griffin, who by all accounts was a kind-hearted forward with athletic gifts foreign to most other professional basketball players, died at age 25 after crashing his SUV into a freight train. No identification could be made of his identity from the charred remains found in the totalled vehicle until his lawyer was able to find an elusive set of dental records to match those of the corpse. He had battled alcoholism and had been involved with a long list of legal problems prior to his crash, but despite all of his past colleagues’ efforts to support and elevate him,
The Michael Vick storyline probably suits this discussion even more, as over the past few years Vick’s unique talents & charismatic ability on the field had led many insiders to proclaim the next big star in the NFL, one of the world’s most profitable sporting leagues backed by some of the US’s biggest media conglomerates. Just how many of you would’ve given an arm and a leg for the chance to be such an athlete, even for an instance? I know I probably would’ve.
I’ve built myself based on the old/true-school, so for me I’d choose to trade my set of unique life experiences for a chance to be Hakeem Olajuwon in the ’94 NBA Finals, battling long-time nemesis Patrick Ewing in a defensive-minded throwback 7-game series. Shit, I’d give up all of my photography work to again live as “The Dream” for a moment in sporting history, as a jubilant Olajuwon in the prime of his career as he swishes a three-pointer from the corner late in the game to signify a complete and utter dominance of an upstart Orlando Magic squad that boasted a young but inexperienced beast in Shaquille O’Neal the very next year in 1995. (In the 4-game Finals sweep, Olajuwon averaged something ridiculous like 33 points, 12 boards and 6 assists while defending the 300-pound O’Neal each game – on another note, are there still complete, TEAM-oriented players like him anymore?)
But see, this is where the subtle point arises. Would I trade my life for that of an NBA superstar today? I probably still would, but it wouldn’t even be close to being the same discussion in my head if it were about an exceptional athlete and all-around citizen of 10-15 years ago instead (think a young Trevor Linden, anyone?). For, even as a casual observer and distant outsider from the professional sports circuit, I know that the media frenzy surrounding our professional sports is at an all-time high, even if spectator interest in these same sports have actually waned in recent years.
Can you just imagine what it’d be like to have to deal with ruthless media sharks 365-days a year as Kobe Bryant following his legal issues, his former issues with his coaches & team-mates alike, as well as the speculation around his on-going trade-demands? Sure, the money given to athletes nowadays is absurd – but isn’t it a telltale sign of problems within when sports announcers actually point out players who are happy to play their sport, who play “for the love“, versus the other 80% or 90% who end up as disillusioned “professional athletes” who don’t do their respective “jobs” properly?
At a glance it’s easy to point the fingers at these perfect figures we’ve created in our collective minds, these transcendent athletes with extraordinary physical ability, thrown on a pedestal and worshiped/hated/loved/destroyed. After all, their lives are perfect – so HOW can they screw it all up?! Well, increasingly, it seems that we as an alienated society have forgotten that we are all only human. We all make this mistake in our expectations of public figures, especially wealthy celebrities, but are we now crossing the threshold towards an increasingly-dangerous sporting environment?
The majority of our generation’s youth is largely confused by the shiny lights & “trend-setting” marketing propaganda our generation’s minds have cleverly thought up, yet, as a collective, it doesn’t seem like we are all that worried. Some of my closest friends (as well as my own girlfriend) are enthralled by The Hills, a “reality” TV show dedicated to following a unique collection of sad mindless mishaps born into fortunate situations. They might as well all be cast of alabaster, plaster or plastic given the level of personality they exhibit anyhow. I’m probably pissing off a lot of people by saying this, but The Hills definitely one of the stupidest TV shows, books, movies, or any other “works of art” I have ever encountered. Oh yea, and it’s ridiculously popular right now too – (dot dot dot, I, in my sane/insane frame of mind, can’t explain this phenomenon at all).
My point is, in this type of setting, is it really all that surprising that even those seemingly more fortunate than the norm are struggling to find themselves? Is our way of life healthy? Does anybody even care about the actual welfare of our athletes and celebrities, or even of ourselves?
I don’t know the answers to these questions, but there’s no need to mistake my angst for righteousness, as I doubt anybody else truly has a clue anyhow. For now, I’ll be content to live day-to-day, planning for the future and aware of my past, working as hard as I can along the way. Fitting eh? After all, this is all any of us not with a 3-letter moniker (beginning with G and ending with D) could ever do, anyways. Unless you don’t believe in – AHH, you don’t? (Oh, no – you didn’t just do that, Kevin…) Just messing, I guess I’ll leave that as a separate subject to address another time. =)
PS. I haven’t written seriously since high school, but I’m glad that words still spill out when they need to, I just hope that most came out in the correct order =) Thank you for reading, feel free to leave me your thoughts/criticisms on both the subject matter as well as the writing itself.
Early thoughts on the 2007-08 NBA Season..
August 11, 2007 | Filed Under Basketball Discussion | Leave a Comment
The fact that I know this probably tells you something.. but there’s 80 days til the NBA season opens up with Greg Oden and the new-look Portland Trailblazers tipping off against the reigning NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs.. also on opening night, the new-look Houston Rockets ft a probable starting lineup of Steve Francis, Tracy McGrady, Shane Battier, Luis Scola (think a smaller, more mobile and more rugged version of Vlade Divac) & Yao Ming get to take on the LA Lakers (who might also be sporting a new look – without Kobe Bryant) as the 2nd part of the TNT doubleheader..
there’s still a ton of time during the off-season for additional moves to be made, but as it stands – this has already been the most surprising off-seasons in recent memory.. the Boston Celtics have transformed themselves from being perennial losers to an instant contender with their drastic roster overhaul.. GM Danny Ainge pretty much saved his job (temporarily) by selling off all of his expiring contracts and underdeveloped-but-talented youngsters for all-world players Kevin Garnett & Ray Allen.. throw in a guaranteed 20-5-5 (worst case scenario numbers) with Paul Pierce and you can see why the NBA’s most storied franchise has all of a sudden become relevant again for the first time since their dynasty in the mid-80s.. Eddie House and underrated rookie Glen Davis can come off the bench and provide a spark, Scot Pollard and Kendrick Perkins should have enough weight (and fouls) to throw around against most teams’ bigs.. as long as Tony Allen is healthy, he should have enough athleticism to fill up the remaining wing minutes backing up Allen & Pierce.. then throw into the mix, potentially, the greatest 3-point shooter in NBA history in Reggie Miller coming out of retirement at 42? :/ k, well the last point should strike you as being odd, but as one of my favourite players of all time, Reggie Miller deserves a chance if he decides he’s still able to compete as a role player on a championship contender..
also in on the coming-out-of-retirement act, Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway has decided to give it a shot at age 36 with the Miami Heat.. i understand the Heat don’t have a lot to lose in giving a former 3-time NBA All-Star a non-guaranteed contract, but considering the fact that they’ve already lost sharpshooters Jason Kapono and Eddie Jones to free-agency (with James Posey likely to follow suit shortly), it hardly seems like 05-06 World Champs have upgraded since last year’s disappointing finish – being swept in the first round of the NBA Playoffs by an upstart Chicago Bulls squad in convincing fashion.. but hey, as a Miami fan, there’s always hope that a healthy Heat squad can get rolling at the right time and surprise a lot of teams in the East..
oh yeah – Allan Houston at age 37 also wants to make a return. last I checked no NBA teams had shown confirmed interest in the ex-Knick.. surprised? hardly, but with the way things are going this off-season, nothings impossible in the “new-look” NBA :/
PS. Josh Smith says he’s been focused this summer – if it’s true, it’ll be scary. Same with Luol Deng aka the boring-est player to watch, but possibly the most annoying player to have to defend in the NBA.
A 2-Time MVP’s Approach
May 7, 2007 | Filed Under Basketball Discussion | Leave a Comment
That’s what the reigning 2-time MVP Steve Nash looks like when a game gets tough.
After colliding heavily with Parker, he stood over the French guard for a few minutes checking if he was ok. When the camera finally panned to Nash himself, blood was gushing down his nose and dripping on his uniform.
“I know we hit our heads really hard, and he looked like he was really hurting, so I just wanted to make sure he was ok – that’s it, really.”
Umm, pretty calm words when Nash’s cut ended up being so bad they weren’t able to stop it and he missed 45 valuable seconds in the game’s final minute as the Suns’ tried to mount a comeback. Note: After suffering the injury, he did play for a few minutes and hit a big three with 2 minutes left, before the refs finally took him out for continuing to drip blood onto the court. Here are some random quotes from his post-game press conference – see if you get the gist of his message to his teammates:
“We just gotta try to learn from this one, and come back and play a great game Tuesday.”
“There was nothing I could do. It was obviously frustrating, but it was really out of my hands. I was just gonna try and be positive for my teammates.”
“I think we just gotta be a little hungrier. I thought some of us just didn’t have the fire it took to beat a World Championship team, that’s not giving yourself a chance. We gotta play a little harder, a little more desperate.”
“For us to overcome them, we jus can’t give them an inch.”
“I just don’t think we were hungry enough, and you gotta congratulate them – they made shots, maybe that’s coz we didn’t make that extra effort every single possession.”
Then, when directly asked by some stupid reporter who hadn’t caught on about the Suns’ tendency to relax, he simply said, “How many times can you talk about it? We just have to have a bigger heart and continue to push through these invisible barriers that seem to pop up. I don’t know what they are, but sometimes we just don’t play as hard as we should.”
Game 2 should be fun to watch. Amare needs to play with more aggression to maximize his athletic advantage over Tim Duncan. If he can’t bring it, I’d play Kurt Thomas to bang with TD all game long. Shawn Marion needs more of his reckless abandon in attacking the offensive & defensive glass – he stood on the perimeter a few times as Suns’ hoisted up 3s tonight, and that rarely happens when he’s on his game. I’d like to see Barbosa create only on fast-break situations, and act as a finisher with either spot-up 3s or pick-and-roll drives to the hoop – just can’t say his decision-making ability is up there with Nash’s yet.
Nash’s line for Game 1: 11-18 from the field (61%), 2-4 from the 3-point line, a perfect 7-7 from the charity stripe, and a healthy dose of 8 assists despite a Phoenix offense that saw much less movement & rhythm than we usually see.