thelesterlee
Winning Time is an HBO series about the rise of the ‘Showtime Lakers’ in the 80’s. Dr. Buss purchases the team, drafts Magic Johnson and the rest is history. Many people agree this era of basketball saved the NBA. Definitely a story worth telling.
Winning time is a decent show or whatever. Not my favorite thing on Earth but that’s a conversation for another day. What I love most about this show is how it depicts the motivations of professional athletes in a way that modern sports fans seem almost incapable of comprehending these days.
The current NBA discourse is toxic and reductive. If any player falls short of winning a championship while scoring every single point in the NBA Finals, they are bums or clowns or whatever overused insult people recycle throughout the day.
James Harden is one of my favorite players in the league. The man has his jersey retired at a strip club. He should be beloved for his ability to drop 60 points and then immediately uber to the local titty bar VIP section to throw dollar bills but instead, he is shit on for his lack of focus and not being in the gym 24/7 and all that nonsense.
And what makes Winning Time so important is its illustration of why winning was so important. Yes, Jerry Buss and Magic Johnson won a bunch of rings because they loved winning but it wasn’t rooted in some noble pure quest to accomplish the pinnacle of their professions.
Nah, Jerry Buss bought the Lakers and turned them into Showtime so he could improve his proximity to attractive women. In one of the first episodes of the show, Magic Johnson plays Norm Nixon—the Lakers point guard that would later be replaced if Magic ended up on the team—and Magic gets embarrassed in the middle of a big LA party. Magic’s big takeaway: being the star point guard of the Lakers makes you one of the most important people at the most exclusive parties with the most elusive women.
There’s still a silly belief from people who barely made their JV baseball teams that athletes are supposed to dedicate their entire being to winning and enjoy none of the residual benefits that come from winning. Like, winning is supposed to be the ultimate goal and that should drive every athlete and not the distractions of fame, fortune, attention, access, popularity and sex. We are all so dumb.
Sports aren’t fair
Watching Winning Time instantly made me think of the terrible ‘debates’ losers have online regarding trans athletes competing in amateur sports. Much like the very careless idea that all professional athletes are solely invested in winning without the desire to indulge in any of the adjacent perks winning provides, there is still an absent-minded idea that sports should be ‘fair’.
It’s an argument transphobes can confidently use without coming off as the bigots they truly are. We must protect these young women from these boys who are intentionally changing genders solely to dominate women’s athletics.
We can get into how sexist it is to believe that anyone born identifying as a male is just universally better at sports than any and all anyone born identifying as a woman. Like, just instant advantage because of their physiology or some bullshit even though there is absolutely no scientific backing behind this.
We can get into people once again misunderstanding athletes’ motivations and believing men are choosing to become trans women in order to compete against lesser competition. But that’s because we are all unable to see through other people’s eyes and perspectives. Trans kids get bullied to the point of dropping out of school or committing suicide. No boy is choosing to have his entire existence scrutinized by strangers so that he can we some wrestling tournament.
Kids join sports to be a part of a team or, like the reason I did anything in high school, just to find out if they’re actually good at ANYTHING.
People think athletes should have the Kobe Bryant ‘mamba mentality’ aka total sociopathy about winning. No one ever considers the mental exhaustion it takes to compete at the highest level and these assholes certainly don’t consider the mental exhaustion of simply being trans let alone trans in sports. Trans athletes do not have any advantages whatsoever.
But who gives a shit if they do? Sports aren’t fair. They never have been. People are born taller and faster and stronger than their opponents. Shaq is one of the best basketball players ever because he’s the size of Shaq. Sports are not fair.
Sports aren’t some noble quest by individuals to meet at the town center, shake hands and battle over who is the ultimate winner. It’s people picking up a ball and either finding out that every time they put the ball into the hoop, a cute girl shows them their tits or a kid in high school gets a much-needed high five from their classmate.
Stop being weird about sports. It’s literally just a job for some and a hobby for others. The stakes are so fucking low here.
Thanks for reading. For more nonsense, check out my substack: Let’s Get This Dread
