Just the other day, I was in my doctor's office, awaiting a physical exam. While waiting, I did what most people do when they are in doctor's offices: I read mediocre journalism. As I was sifting through the enormous stacks of Sports Illustrated issues, I came across the one pictured above. It bothered me.
At the time, I was surprised that I was so bothered by it. And today--five days later--I'm even more surprised that I have remained bothered by it to the point where I would write up this brief post.
As time passes, I can't help but see something really insidious about outlets like SI and ESPN continuing to glorify/romanticize/hype athletes at such a young age--at an age where sports should be a component of their maturation, not the component of their maturation.
This past March, when, apparently, everyone was going mad, ESPN devoted hours and hours and hours of coverage to the tragedy that was Fab Melo's inelligibility for the NCAA tournament. At the time, the endless vortex of metacommentary focused simply on the question of WTF will Syracuse do?!? How will the basketball team, the tournament, mankind carry on in the face of such a devastating blow to Western culture? The tiny little factoid remained absent from the (initial) conversation? Melo's academic record.
Yeah, I know that privacy laws limit what information can be revealed about these "students," but I don't think--and I could be wrong--that stating "academic ineligibility" as a reason in a press release violates privacy. Correct me here if I'm mistaken.
These days, I follow sports, NBA basketball in particular, quite closely. I also, in some contexts, identify as an athlete. All of which is to say that I'm not kowtowing to the logic that is endlessly parroted in many academic circles about how athletics are hegemonic and marginalizing and exploitative, etc. Sure, they are those things. However, they're also entertaining, and, as we've discussed before, the discipline that it takes to become a powerful low post presence or an accurate QB is at least on par with the discipline that it takes to produce one or two or three (or so) monographs.
Nevertheless, the above SI cover bothers me. At best, it is merely another part of pro basketball's inane hero worship. At worst, it is exploiting this young man and blanketing the discourse around him with all kinds of implied racial essentialisms.
Also, last night aside, LeBron James is not that good. When he wins his 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or whatever championships, we can talk about how he reinvented the game when he entered the league a million years ago when God placed him on this planet to play basketball for a decade or so before winning anything. Until then, can't we think of other things to say about Jabari Parker?
Better yet, can't we just leave him to himself and not say anything about him at all?
I can't get past the fact that now I know of somebody who watches the NBA.
ReplyDelete"At worst, it is exploiting this young man and blanketing the discourse around him with all kinds of implied racial essentialisms."
ReplyDeleteWell yes. I do wonder, though, if we have the same reactions to, say, those 14-year-old gymnasts or 7-year-old violin prodigies. I'm wondering if we tend to freak out about young black athletes because a) we assume they are poor and therefore that they are very likely without the tutoring, homeschooling, etc. that prodigies in other income and educational brackets get, or 2) they really are disproportionately likely to come out of disadvantaged backgrounds and be exploited.
For the record, I'm anti-prodigy in general, whether that means child modeling or chess championships. Young people need to pursue what they love without a huge spotlight shining on them and without being a conduit for other people's profits.
It amazes me that kids like this turn out even halfway human. I would have become some kind of monster if I'd been the center of attention since middle school (or even earlier), recruited to play high school sports at a private school, spent a year as the star of a division one college team, then signed a multi-million dollar contract with the NBA.
ReplyDeleteDrugs, groupies, and all the rest of it would have killed me.
The fact that LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, et al, are even alive and functioning says something positive about them. I still remember what I was like at 18 or 19, and I KNOW that I couldn't have managed that kind of fame and fortune--whether it's deserved or not.
I don't think they manage themselves, Philip, the franchise takes care of that too.
ReplyDeleteYes, but say what you will about LeBron, he's financially pretty darned savvy. He dumped the family hangers-on who were mismanaging his assets and is now, I gather, a pretty successful investor.
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