jammerbirdi
Joined: 23 Sep 2004 Posts: 21046
Back to top |
Posted: 09/18/17 2:53 pm ::: Kyrie on First Take |
Reply |
|
LOTS to unpack here.
Let me start with this. Blake Griffin. Blake Griffin knows that he isn't LeBron James. He knows he isn't Kevin Durant. He knows he isn't Steph Curry. He even, at this point, knows that he isn't Kyrie Irving. Well, just three years ago and change, Kyrie Irving wasn't even Blake Griffin. Blake was the Blake Show. Lob City was maybe the most exciting thing in the league. And I think the Clippers had been to the playoffs twice at that point.
Kyrie had never been in the playoffs. So in just a very short period of time he ihas gone from where he was to establishing himself as an almost singular talent at doing what he does. He is an NBA champion. He is will be immortalized for a clutch shot to win a game seven in the finals. He's now been to the finals three straight years. Everybody knows who he is. He enjoys now a level of fame reserved for those who have accomplished what he has and also for the spectacular way in which he's done it.
So my first observation is, that's it. That's what happened. The incredible success. 25 years old. And it's blown his mind clean out of his head. lol. I do think that lost somewhere in the tone deaf self-aggrandizing and artless dodging and everything else that interview will live in infamy for, I did understand his perspective on his situation better than Max Kellerman seems to.
Max, and every other human being on the planet, has a limited number of stories and scenarios regarding any particular situation and that's pretty much how we all understand the world, according to our own paradigm like thought structures. Just a theory anyway. That's why it's so important to really listen and hear and read etc., absorb perspectives other than your own. But Max brought what seemed like precious few scenarios for what went on that led Kyrie to his decision. He was stuck in just a couple of them and everything that Kyrie had done and was saying about it had to fit either in one or the other or at most maybe a third one. He just kept trying to shove this story into one of those cookie cutters in his mind.
So Kyrie, I thought, was right to try to point that flawed thinking out, as poorly as his young ass may have done it. Max tried to pigeon hole Kyrie. Kyrie was like, you're not really thinking or speaking about this entire world in the way it actually exists for those of us who must live and work in it. Max's forced questioning was superficial and according to a preconceived narrative and Kyrie kind of blew that up for him.
Stephen A. Hands down the biggest boob on television. There's really not adequate words coming to mind for how bad he is. He makes Wolf Blitzer look like Edward R. Morrow. What I've been saying for years, he's like a guy at the end of the bar shouting at the TV. His entire line of questioning was so innane, fan-like, all about personalities and hero-worship. Speaking of a limited blinkered perspective, this guys paradigm is the athlete as hero.
It took the female host, Molly, I don't know her last name because I so rarely watch this shit, to finally ask Kyrie a question about basketball, meaning the game. And he gave a great answer. It was the most interesting moment in the interview.
And then it was back to Stephen A. asking 12-year-old fan questions like who's better, Kobe or Lebron?, or Max looking like he doesn't understand how he got the clap or something.
Bottom line. The shit happened because a young man couldn't handle the amazing success he's had this past few years. He oozed that almost like a person drunk with it all. He might not be completely drunk with it. Like I said he was able to convey that there were many factors and it was all more complicated than a simple binary answer could ever explain. But he still was not of a rational mind, IMO. His mind has been blown. It's going to be very interesting to see what happens when the Cavs blow by the Celtics on their way to yet another finals. This one without Kyrie Irving.
|
|