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…
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.
It will be very interesting to see how the popularity of the WNBA changes after the year that women’s college basketball just had….
Some thoughts on the spate of pitcher injuries around the league, and how they ultimately stem from capitalism.
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!