Saturday, January 26, 2008

A Message Board Reply I Never Posted

by Jason Jones

This is more or less a message to anyone who is less than polite/logical when posting on any message board (specifically a sports message board):

PostPosted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 4:45 am Post subject:

...hmm, how about Drew Gooden ALWAYS wearing LA Dodgers and OAK Raiders gear. That's not hypothetical, if you ask him, Drew is a Cali fan til the day he dies. No one has ever ripped him for it. Basketball is a team game, true. But, in this era of pro basketball, there are really only about 20 players who put up elite stats. Stats do matter to the elite players. Today if you're lucky you have one elite "stat stuffer" and a collection of players that hopefully play that "Team" basketball that you keep referencing. That is the contemporary NBA, whether you, me, or anyone else likes it or not.


If you honestly believe that "You ain't s&$%* until you win a championship" angle then maybe you should watch something else, like the Olympics. Basketball, Football, and even Baseball to some degree comes down to measured progress, and the idea of progressing or regressing in stages. If overnight in the offseason, every Cavalier player woke up and "Finally Got It", do you think they could just magically be better than the Spurs, Celtics, Pistons, Suns, etc. NO. Because it is a process. I don't think that you really believe there is one winner and everyone else is tied for last. That's just stupid, angry, bitter, crap. (Sometimes, your responses sound like you just need something to be mad about) And what is this s%$& again (I don't mean to sound cruel, but...) The Hood, Jew, Mobile Black QB's ruining the game?!? Are you kidding me? IRRELEVANT, you can argue your point and leave that s&$% out.

It doesn't prove or disprove anything to say, ..."because they're not from the HOOD." Let me guess, the common denominator in this whole thing is that Jurevicious went to Lake Catholic in the very non-hood of Mentor, Ohio, while Lebron's mother left him out like last night's trash to fend for himself in an environment he didn't ask for and was forced to live with a nice elderly white family ON THE OTHER SIDE OF TOWN (i.e not the hood). It's dumb to even include that in your thought process, dumb or at least a little bigoted. I'm sorry that 95% of the NBA (or any other league for that matter) isn't upper-middle class white boys who graduated from Ivy League colleges and work on their Masters degrees in marketing on plane rides between games and sit home with their wives playing chess just before then donate 70% of their NBA checks over to the homeless. It just seems that what you are looking for, you're not going to find in the professional sports realm. The players do NOT represent the city as literally as you've suggested. The players are paid employees of the franchise. They represent the franchise and its ownership. Which are completely different from the city -- as we saw 2 months before Lebron was drafted. There was an offer on the table for the Cavaliers to move to St. Louis if we didn't get the #1 pick. That isn't representative of the city.

We can try to attach ourselves to the team/organization, but as you once so eloquently put it, if you aren't getting a check from them, its not the same. Last point, which refers to the first point...if 25 million people say 2+2=5, that doesn't make it right. I won't use the word ignorant, but just because a truckload of people have the same opinion as you doesn't make you right. Clearly I do not believe anything I (or anyone who thinks like I do on this forum) say will change your mind. I am not here to change your mind, maybe just to suggest that once again, "It isn't your way is right and everyone else is wrong" You keep using words like PERIOD, and THAT'S WHAT YOU DO. Sports and more importantly in the context of this discussion sports debating, are never absolute. You may feel that there is only one way to approach s%#&, but there just isn't. There could be 2, or 5 or 37 different ways to look at it. You always come on here like, "Ok, Ok, now that you peons have had a chance to talk amongst yourselves, let Big Brother tell you what the real answer is". Sometimes you just have to let go and listen (or read with an open mind), you just might find that what you believed to be absolutely true just might not be. A lot of people over time contribute to the STN board and I don't agree with half of them, but I am at least willing to listen to reason and potentially change my mind.

Note to all readers, the previous reply is NOT directed at any one person (even though I admit I used OBG's reply to get started) Look, I don't mean to piss in anybody's cereal and maybe I am venting. But, it seems to me instead of sharing ideas and DEBATING, certain posts seem to force people to adamantly asset themselves as being an authority regardless of how much thought anyone else may have given the topic. If you go back in this particular thread, you'll see who really has offered up solid thought and logic-and you'll see the ones who are just angrily shooting from the hip. Myself not included. Clearly everyone else cares way more about this topic than I do.

_________________
BOO IF YA WANT, YA KNOW I'M RIGHT


No comments: