I never really expected the Lakers to beat the Denver Nuggets, but I’m still always a little sad when LeBron James gets eliminated from the playoffs. At this point, a part of me is always rooting for LeBron, no matter who he’s playing — and not just because he’s the last great athlete who’s older than me.
Obviously, LBJ has flaws. He whines to the refs too much; he threw Daryl Morey under the boss when Morey criticized the Chinese government; and his politics veer to a pernicious type of liberal reliance on “benevolent leaders,” like in his focus on education:
But given how famous and how rich he got at such a young age, LeBron James is way more likable, reasonable, and normal than he has any right to be. And it drives people insane.
The latest controversy is the over the above quote the LeBron gave after the Lakers dropped the first three games of the series, about how “it’s just basketball.” People got mad about, as they do any time LeBron expresses anything short of an all-consuming, pathological need to win, the kind of monomania we associate with NBA greats like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. People accused LeBron of giving up or not caring…
Of course, all the mad people missed that LeBron was making a larger point of not letting pressure get to him and his teammates, and that LeBron dropped 30 in the next game, to at least push the series to a fifth game. More importantly, though, LeBron’s haters were mouthing pro-owner propaganda, suggesting that in order to do your job well, you have to wrap your entire sense of self-worth up in it. It’s a capitalist myth that success depends on an unhealthy obsession with success.
Successful people often can’t help but mouth platitudes that reaffirm this idea, because it makes what they’ve done sound more impressive, and their rewards more deserved. But it’s bullshit. And while I understand that’s not precisely the point LeBron was making, I appreciate that he doesn’t feel obliged to pantomime a kind of unhealthy obsession, as if he’s showing off for his boss.
Anyway, here’s everything from Undrafted this month…
The Steve Cohen Delusion (Part One)
We are now entering Year Four of the Steve Cohen Era, and so perhaps it is time to look back on some of the hysteria that greeted him when he first bought the New York Mets back in 2020. Ever since Cohen’s first press conference after buying out the Wilpon family, we’ve been hearing about how Cohen is going to turn the team around: “I’m not in this to b…
As of this writing the Mets are exactly .500 — a perfectly mediocre baseball team. Almost as if an owner’s wealth is NOT ACTUALLY a key to a team’s success.
Untapped Markets
It was clear going into Sunday afternoon’s game that the NCAA Women’s Final was going to set a viewership record for the sport (the old record having been set 39 whole hours before, all the way back on Friday night’s semifinal, which broke the record set during the previous Monday’s Regional Final), but the ultimate number was still shocking. The averag…
It will be very interesting to see how the popularity of the WNBA changes after the year that women’s college basketball just had….
Proletarianization Comes For the Starters
The big story of the first few weeks of this baseball season has been all injured starting pitchers. To name just a few big name starters who have already missed significant time with arm injuries: Gerrit Cole, Justin Verlander, Sandy Alcantara, Spencer Strider, Robbie Ray, Lucas Giolito, Framber Valdez, Shane Bieber, Walker Buehler, Brandon Woodruff, a…
Some thoughts on the spate of pitcher injuries around the league, and how they ultimately stem from capitalism.
Burning Through QBs at the NFL Draft
The NFL Draft starts tonight, and the smart money says that, for just the fourth time ever, the first three picks will be quarterbacks. If the Arizona Cardinals trade down, which seems like a real possibility, then quarterbacks could be the first four picks, which would be un…
I did not predict the Falcons taking Michael Penix Jr. when I wrote this, but it’s a perfect example of what I was getting at: A young potential superstar’s development and entire future completely compromised by one team’s moronic planning. How is this good for the league?
Over on the Undrafted YouTube channel, I finally wrapped out my series on the Steroid Myths. Check it out!