tinysands
2006-09-01, 02:39 PM
Beyond Good and Evil
BY Barry Provisar
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/inthemeantime/contentview.asp?c=183633
In football and baseball, hate is nearly as boring as love. Your team's players command a soft place in your soul, followed by others around the league who fit your sensibility. The standard for evildoers stays consistent: outspoken prima donnas prone to cancerous antics. While some noble souls might argue for Terrell Owens, Barry Bonds, Keyshawn Johnson, or Milton Bradley as "misunderstood," for the vast majority of sports fans these are the league's villains.
As with almost all things in this life, the NBA makes it a hell of a lot more thorny. The parameters of love translate evenly, but who a basketball nut chooses to revile comes down to his perspective on the game. For about the last five seasons, the Association has been rocked to its core by the so-called "Style Wars." While the worse may be behind us, still many identify themselves as partisans of either "the right way" or hip-hop-inflected dynamism.
For a certain type of fan, the Spurs, Jazz, Larry Brown and the Pistons embody basketball at its finest; the other faction embraces prophets of lightning like Iverson, McGrady and Amare Stoudemire. Right wayers abhor Iverson, Artest, Melo, and pretty much anyone who drops over thirty on a regular basis or haunts the highlight reels. Those hell-bent on progress curse Bruce Bowen (http://www.chinaspurs.com/players/bruce_bowen), Shane Battier, and Ruben Patterson, despite the presence of Bowen and Battier on Team USA.
Yet there are exceptions to this deadly stalemate. There are some players so wretched that both camps despise them, usually because they have somehow managed to betray both. Significantly, however, is that each of these cases is unique, the result of unique journey to infamy.
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/content/img/f183633/Doug_Christie.jpg
Doug Christie
Although technically just out of the league, there's no avoiding the inclusion of NBA rot's patron saint. His relationship with overbearing, maniacal wife Jackie is a walking bachelor party put-down, a study in blank, spineless surrender no matter what your gender. In fact, so odious is the Christie marriage that even his reputation as a defensive specialist suffered in the eyes of the purists, as if that fire too were channeled from the beady eyes and poisonous mind of Mrs. Christie.
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/content/img/f183633/Stephon_Marbury.jpg
Stephon Marbury
Coney Island's Finest was a NYC folk hero in the nineties, second only to Iverson as an anti-hero bringing the streets to the Association (and vice-versa). Factor in his refusal to play second banana to Kevin Garnett in Minnesota and his locker room sense of entitlement, and you have a full-fledged New Jack scourge. Fast forward to '06, when we've also seen him clog up the development of exciting young stars like Amare, Richard Jefferson, Shawn Marion, Eddy Curry, Kenyon Martin and Quentin Richardson, making him the rare case where basketball conservatives can holler "TOLD YOU SO!!!!!"
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/content/img/f183633/Devean_George.jpg
Devean George
That year that Lakers were supposed to win seventy games, at least one halftime feature referred to George as "the fifth Beatle." Herein lies his terror: George has three rings to his credit without having done much of anything to deserve them. Robert Horry (http://www.chinaspurs.com/players/robert_horry) made those famous shots; earlier on, vets like Rick Fox, Brian Shaw, and Ron Harper had seemed graciously disposable. For whatever reason, though, George will forever appear an integral part of that three-peat effort. Nor does he even have a clear identity that makes him a lovable footnote, a la Spider Salley in '01.
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/content/img/f183633/Michael_Olawakondi.jpg
Michael Olowokandi
There's a host of things wrong with this man's tenure in the NBA--some his fault, some that make him seem like a victim. But straight up and down, people just can't stand him.
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/content/img/f183633/Carlos_Boozer.jpg
Carlos Boozer
Anyone coming out of Duke has a strike or three against him with the new guard, and the Booze was no exception. When he emerged in '03-04 as a borderline All-Star, he seemed poised for a long, hard-working career as LeBron's chief sidekick-and the rare chance to have credibility with both sides of the ideological war. Then, he went and did the unthinkable: double-crossing elderly, disabled Cavs owner Gordon Gund with his flight to Utah, and opting for life in Utah over harvesting glory in the King James Version of the NBA.
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/content/img/f183633/Darius_Miles.jpg
Darius Miles
A curious case of double immunity. Miles, spent a brief moment in the sun as a truly polarizing hero: unskilled monolith indicative of prep-to-pros failings, otherworldly icon whose jersey sales ranked top five. A half-decade later, he's somehow become so absurd, so ineffective, deluded, and comical, that Right Wayers no longer find him threatening and their foes can pretend that it was all a pipe dream to begin with.
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/content/img/f183633/Antoine_Walker.jpg
Antoine Walker
Proof of just how tough it is to pull for the future. Walker's long been one of basketball's most versatile and beguiling performers … when he plays like he should. When he contents himself with launching three's, as he did during much of his reign in Boston, he instantly validates all the negative stereotypes that bounce-pass fanatics have about him. What's more, the ring of vindication he got with the Heat this past season was actually a scar of sublimation, as he became little more than a mildly versatile role player in the post.
Conspicuously absent from this list is one Kobe Bryant, at one time arguably the most despised man in basketball. Until this past season, his sins were indeed multitudinous: race traitor, backstabber, ball hog, media-savvy fake, hopeless imitator, and of course, sex offender.
Yet somehow, he managed to mount a playoff run that not only silenced many doubters but also gave them reasons to worship him. Granted, his premature exit from Game 7 has allowed the craggiest of observers to keep their talons sharp. For the most part, though, Kobe Bryant has now successfully rehabilitated himself, and in the process brought together the entire NBA community in sheer wonderment.
Perhaps, then, this collection of reviled athletes holds the secret to healing a divided basketball universe. If hatred of these players is one of the sole universals remaining, then here we also find the possibility of reconciliation through mutual redemption.
Barry Provisar is a writer living in Houston. He is a founding member of FreeDarko, and at some point will finish a Master's in American Studies at the University of Texas. Reach him at freedarko@gmail.com
BY Barry Provisar
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/inthemeantime/contentview.asp?c=183633
In football and baseball, hate is nearly as boring as love. Your team's players command a soft place in your soul, followed by others around the league who fit your sensibility. The standard for evildoers stays consistent: outspoken prima donnas prone to cancerous antics. While some noble souls might argue for Terrell Owens, Barry Bonds, Keyshawn Johnson, or Milton Bradley as "misunderstood," for the vast majority of sports fans these are the league's villains.
As with almost all things in this life, the NBA makes it a hell of a lot more thorny. The parameters of love translate evenly, but who a basketball nut chooses to revile comes down to his perspective on the game. For about the last five seasons, the Association has been rocked to its core by the so-called "Style Wars." While the worse may be behind us, still many identify themselves as partisans of either "the right way" or hip-hop-inflected dynamism.
For a certain type of fan, the Spurs, Jazz, Larry Brown and the Pistons embody basketball at its finest; the other faction embraces prophets of lightning like Iverson, McGrady and Amare Stoudemire. Right wayers abhor Iverson, Artest, Melo, and pretty much anyone who drops over thirty on a regular basis or haunts the highlight reels. Those hell-bent on progress curse Bruce Bowen (http://www.chinaspurs.com/players/bruce_bowen), Shane Battier, and Ruben Patterson, despite the presence of Bowen and Battier on Team USA.
Yet there are exceptions to this deadly stalemate. There are some players so wretched that both camps despise them, usually because they have somehow managed to betray both. Significantly, however, is that each of these cases is unique, the result of unique journey to infamy.
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/content/img/f183633/Doug_Christie.jpg
Doug Christie
Although technically just out of the league, there's no avoiding the inclusion of NBA rot's patron saint. His relationship with overbearing, maniacal wife Jackie is a walking bachelor party put-down, a study in blank, spineless surrender no matter what your gender. In fact, so odious is the Christie marriage that even his reputation as a defensive specialist suffered in the eyes of the purists, as if that fire too were channeled from the beady eyes and poisonous mind of Mrs. Christie.
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/content/img/f183633/Stephon_Marbury.jpg
Stephon Marbury
Coney Island's Finest was a NYC folk hero in the nineties, second only to Iverson as an anti-hero bringing the streets to the Association (and vice-versa). Factor in his refusal to play second banana to Kevin Garnett in Minnesota and his locker room sense of entitlement, and you have a full-fledged New Jack scourge. Fast forward to '06, when we've also seen him clog up the development of exciting young stars like Amare, Richard Jefferson, Shawn Marion, Eddy Curry, Kenyon Martin and Quentin Richardson, making him the rare case where basketball conservatives can holler "TOLD YOU SO!!!!!"
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/content/img/f183633/Devean_George.jpg
Devean George
That year that Lakers were supposed to win seventy games, at least one halftime feature referred to George as "the fifth Beatle." Herein lies his terror: George has three rings to his credit without having done much of anything to deserve them. Robert Horry (http://www.chinaspurs.com/players/robert_horry) made those famous shots; earlier on, vets like Rick Fox, Brian Shaw, and Ron Harper had seemed graciously disposable. For whatever reason, though, George will forever appear an integral part of that three-peat effort. Nor does he even have a clear identity that makes him a lovable footnote, a la Spider Salley in '01.
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/content/img/f183633/Michael_Olawakondi.jpg
Michael Olowokandi
There's a host of things wrong with this man's tenure in the NBA--some his fault, some that make him seem like a victim. But straight up and down, people just can't stand him.
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/content/img/f183633/Carlos_Boozer.jpg
Carlos Boozer
Anyone coming out of Duke has a strike or three against him with the new guard, and the Booze was no exception. When he emerged in '03-04 as a borderline All-Star, he seemed poised for a long, hard-working career as LeBron's chief sidekick-and the rare chance to have credibility with both sides of the ideological war. Then, he went and did the unthinkable: double-crossing elderly, disabled Cavs owner Gordon Gund with his flight to Utah, and opting for life in Utah over harvesting glory in the King James Version of the NBA.
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/content/img/f183633/Darius_Miles.jpg
Darius Miles
A curious case of double immunity. Miles, spent a brief moment in the sun as a truly polarizing hero: unskilled monolith indicative of prep-to-pros failings, otherworldly icon whose jersey sales ranked top five. A half-decade later, he's somehow become so absurd, so ineffective, deluded, and comical, that Right Wayers no longer find him threatening and their foes can pretend that it was all a pipe dream to begin with.
http://www.chicagosportsreview.com/content/img/f183633/Antoine_Walker.jpg
Antoine Walker
Proof of just how tough it is to pull for the future. Walker's long been one of basketball's most versatile and beguiling performers … when he plays like he should. When he contents himself with launching three's, as he did during much of his reign in Boston, he instantly validates all the negative stereotypes that bounce-pass fanatics have about him. What's more, the ring of vindication he got with the Heat this past season was actually a scar of sublimation, as he became little more than a mildly versatile role player in the post.
Conspicuously absent from this list is one Kobe Bryant, at one time arguably the most despised man in basketball. Until this past season, his sins were indeed multitudinous: race traitor, backstabber, ball hog, media-savvy fake, hopeless imitator, and of course, sex offender.
Yet somehow, he managed to mount a playoff run that not only silenced many doubters but also gave them reasons to worship him. Granted, his premature exit from Game 7 has allowed the craggiest of observers to keep their talons sharp. For the most part, though, Kobe Bryant has now successfully rehabilitated himself, and in the process brought together the entire NBA community in sheer wonderment.
Perhaps, then, this collection of reviled athletes holds the secret to healing a divided basketball universe. If hatred of these players is one of the sole universals remaining, then here we also find the possibility of reconciliation through mutual redemption.
Barry Provisar is a writer living in Houston. He is a founding member of FreeDarko, and at some point will finish a Master's in American Studies at the University of Texas. Reach him at freedarko@gmail.com