That was a hell of a victory celebration, evidently. Before anyone gets too angry at Messi, we should remember that he probably didn't drink that much; he can't weigh more than 120 pounds or so, so it probably just took a couple of sips from the Champaign bottle to leave him in such a state.
At the risk of sounding like I am in favor of public drunkenness, I think one thing that European soccer does that the American leagues could learn from is that it embraces its inner-teenager. If the Messi thing happened with Dwight Howard, he'd probably get suspended a couple of games. People score touchdowns in football, and the reaction from the announcers is, "Act like you've been there before". Why not act like you're excited to have scored? Who is turned off from football because of a spontaneous celebration that goes a little overboard? The fact that glaring in basketball is banned is just emperor-has-no-clothes stupid; from Mike Tyson to Mike Singletary to Michael Jordan, intense stares draw us in. They make a game memorable.
The NFL's extracurricular lawlessness is worrying, and although I'm not sure anything has happened in the NBA warranting a ban on glaring (no, the Palace brawl doesn't qualify), I understand that the NFL and the NBA are reacting to what they see as real problems. But the response to that shouldn't be to lock all expressions of competitiveness into a vault. As Marvin Harrison demonstrates, being classy on the field doesn't mean that one is an angel off the field. (And Terrell Owens proves the opposite.) Sports don't need to be more buttoned-down. Athletes who've spent their entire adult lives on playing fields certainly don't need to be corporate.
4 comments:
Glaring in the NBA is perceived as too racially threatening. One of Bill Simmons' (innumerable) constant themes is the importance of the Kermit Washington-Rudy T punch, which, combined with the 80s drug problems, supposedly threatened to drive white folk permanently away from the NBA. The Artest brawl should be seen through this prism as well. Glaring fits in pretty well. It's one theory, anyway.
Yeah as far the reasoning, I think that's all correct, I just think the NBA is overreacting. Throwing the baby out with the bong water, if you will. As far as driving away mainstream America, I also think the danger of that is a little overstated too. Actually, after I wrote the post I listened to the Simmons-Bucher podcast and they were talking about moments that are obviously not going to escalate, the most famous of which is the Spurs-Suns series that hinged on the Nash bodyslam and subsequent suspensions, but that the rules dictate suspensions and the league shows no wiggle room. Bucher's explanation is that Stern's not an athlete and lacks the innate sense of when things are going over the line. I don't know if that's true (and I thought it was weird how he kept calling him David like they were cousins or something), but I do think they are mis-drawing that fine line between healthy competition and dangerously aggressive play.
Yep, Simmons position that the NBA needs relax a bit wins that debate hands down. And Bucher's intimations of personal familiarity with Stern et al are a little weird. It's a form of argument-from-authority, which generally doesn't fly with Simmons. Sports Guy has a bit of Ricardo Aleman "I write too much and inevitably repeat myself" syndrome, but his arguments almost always at least attempt to be fact-based.
Bucher's a bit abrasive on the podcast, and I don't really know him from anything else. Every comment he made sounds like it's aimed at winning a barroom argument.
As far as Simmons, I see the Alemán comparison, but I think his biggest tic is to squeeze anything he sees into a predetermined trend. Kind of like Malcolm Gladwell. Their email exchange was just an orgy of that kind of stuff. "Inliers"? How the hell did they drop so many words on such a contrived idea?
But as much I as I pick apart his idiosyncrasies, he's the only sportswriter whose work I always look for. And maybe Dan Rafael, but for different reasons.
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