It is sometimes not appreciated how new professional sports are as a dominant cultural phenomenon. For the vast majority of human history, sports have been overwhelmingly played by amateurs. And even in America, it is only in the past fifty years that this professional version of sport has become a route to wealth. Baseball, which has the longest professional sports history in the United States, illustrates this: the average MLB salary is an inflation-adjusted 3,000 percent increase since the late 1960s. Professional sports became big money only in the era of television, as a form of mass entertainment that does not require you to even go to the games to have a root interest, and for the multinational companies to sell your beer and trucks and sugar gas- added water.
This is not to denigrate professional sports or to suggest that the Olympics are more entertaining than the NFL. Pro-athletes who play the games do incredible things. Pro-sport is deeply enjoyable as entertainment, and as a human drama there are a few things that can fit it. But on a certain level, this comment from Seinfeld’s true observation may be: you root for laundry. The same player you loved in one uniform, whose strengths you valued and whose failures you dismissed as peculiarities of the trade, becomes nothing more than a hate movie, a traitor, who took the money instead of less playing while he was in the right colors.
But one thing we need to recognize is this: professional sport is not an essential good. It’s a luxury item. Americans have been content for most of our history with sports that now have little to no cultural impact. And what this pandemic has taught us is that in a world of great entertainment, if there is no entertainment, humanity will go somewhere else. The explosion of esports during the lockdown is just one example of that – Twitch viewers have exploded because the virtual arena never closed. Mankind is amused by competition of all kinds, and professional physical competition is but one variety of them. As it decreases in quality – as the performance slows down – they will switch to another and find a new way to rejoice and sing and bow. When the Super Bowl is over, turn on Netflix.
One thing you may not be able to get to is the NBA. If you go to the NBA website today, you will read the top story there: ‘NBA playoff games scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed, with players around the league choosing not to play at their strongest ruling still against racial injustice. Latest updates: Players demand change. If you follow the link to “Players request change”, no changes are mentioned, nor are they in the foreground. Yesterday, Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC tweeted “Well – there may not have been games, but game plans are coming”. I look forward to their solutions.
This is a performative act on the part of NBA players, designed to garner praise from media quarters while depriving their fans of the resignation they deserve. Sportswriters ride in part a misconception of athletes because they devalue in a winning way. The outcomes of games are not as important for them as for fans. They value drama and performance and good quotes – the thing who wins and who loses is subsidiary.
Fans generally like players because they are athletes. Writers love them when they become more than athletes, when they care about better subject matter. Surrounded by cooing media members who encourage political statements, some athletes may be enlightened to think that the world is different than it is. And then you get the problem of James Harden against Lebron James.
Of course, it was James’ silence that became so symbolic last year as an indication of his lack of courage over political issues that now plagues this braggadocio. Athletic Ethan Strauss has been at the forefront of his criticism of this, to the frustration of other sports writers, such as this Slate writer who recently interviewed him.
I think it’s completely obvious to people who are not in the bubble. You have your last downfall this past year after [the NBA’s response to Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey’s comments about] China. I mean an absolute free fall, where you lose double digits on the national ratings, double digits on the local ratings.
And yes, maybe you will never be able to prove to a T that it had anything to do with China, but that’s when the NBA hits the news for people who are not necessarily fully engaged. And I think if you talk to a lot of people who are not in the media, maybe people where their policies are not 100 percent in line with what is being evicted, yes, a lot of people are excluded by it.
I think it really does not take much imagination. I feel like I’m being put in a position in a way to just make it clear that gravity exists. And I think I would tell you, why would it not have an impact?
Expect this NBA strike, and it’s essentially a strike that could permanently suspend what’s been a terrible season ratings, to become an issue where vigilant sports writers try to use it to make drama in other leagues. The ESPN hockey writer was already expressing their disappointment last night that the NHL would continue to play as they are paid to do. It will be interesting to see if they try to badge the NFL in such a denial of their fans. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman are already calling on the NFL to boycott. At what end? Well, the political preference of the writers, of course. Little else is important.
Media already compares Lebron with Muhammad Ali. Ali, remember yourself, stood for imprisonment for his act of protest. Lebron faces no negative consequences. This is important. People turn on athletes when they refuse to play – sometimes out loud, but more often by simply turning to other things. And then the business sponsors and the people with television contracts start to become honored antsy.
But it is the fans who miss it the most. Yesterday, right after the Milwaukee Bucks announced that they would not be playing their playoff game, an older man named Larry called in DC Radio’s The Fan. ‘I thought I could get away from politics by listening to sports … but now … there is no escaping politics. I’m a Democrat, but they will make me become a Republican if they do this stuff. ”
“I feel I can get away from politics by listening to sports, but now there is no politics to escape.”
We hear you, Larry.
Audio credit to Chad Dukes on 106.7 the Fan pic.twitter.com/emD42kzCC5
The Federalist (@FDRLST) August 27, 2020
I hear you Larry. The times of great struggle in American history when professional sports brought us together more than it tore us apart were good. But for now, at least, those times are just a memory. We’ll see if they come back.
