Naomi Osaka and The Scam of 'Mental Toughness'

Over the weekend, Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open after she was fined for her decision not to meet with the media in an attempt to protect her mental health.

You’d think the natural and normal reaction to this would be ‘oh, good for her’. Or, like my reaction which is “shrug”.

But it’s 2021 and everyone has a hot take that must buck the status quo for attention. You don’t want to be labeled a ‘sheep’, after all.

A lot of weirdos called Osaka a diva implying no one should feel bad for her because she’s rich or whatever.

There are plenty of reasons to not feel bad for rich people. Elon Musk losing money on fake internet currency, for example, is something you make fun of.

A 23-year-old brown girl saying she simply doesn’t want to talk to reporters in able to protect her own mental health should not open her up to be dunked on by grown-ass losers who are still crying about an election being ‘stolen’.

Sports fans love believing that the greatest athletes of all time are noble, godly entities because are their infallible mental toughness. Michael Jordan is the greatest because he shut everything out and chose winning championships over everything else.

You know who else won plenty of titles? Dennis Rodman. And he spent most of his time drunk and humping models in Vegas. Jordan pretty much abandoned his family in order to win an NBA title that ultimately doesn’t really matter.

Being nice to your wife and children seems more important to me but who knows?

Naomi Osaka is the best tennis player in the world. She didn’t get there without an absurd level of mental toughness.

It takes a lot of toughness to give up a potential $1.8 million in French Open earnings just to preserve your own sanity.

But I think everyone understands this which is why the goalposts get moved and people become HR managers claiming it’s part of her job to speak to the media and athletes should suck it up.

Who gives any shits about the media? What wonderful insight are we given into the sport by listening to professional athletes’ lazy, boring post-game interviews?

Some journalists think they’re some sort of heroes who are personally responsible for making Osaka a star. Women’s tennis wouldn’t be so big if it were for the brave reporters that made it possible.

Sure, there are obviously certain historic movements and moments in human history that were aided by the headlines provided in major publications but it’s WILD to claim that the person writing about the event deserves more credit than the person actually doing the fucking event.

We all know about Naomi Osaka because she is a beast on the tennis court. Honestly, Nike and her endorsements deserve more credit for making her a household name than the geeks who write for local newspapers.

I promise you we know Osaka from her billboards and commercials. Not from the [insert name of whatever website the French Open reporters are writing for]

Again, we gain nothing from post-game interviews. Typically they exist just to ask stupid questions and so reporters can tell their bosses they went to work that day.

It’s 2021.

Athletes have their own social media to share messages that reporters can write about. There is no deep insight given in a post-game interview.

The idea that it’s in their ‘contracts’ means nothing. A dumb thing exists and we should change the dumb thing that exists instead of shrugging and saying ‘nothing we can do about this dumb thing’.

I have never watched a tennis match and thought to myself ‘man, I cannot wait for her to talk to reporters after this’.

Honestly, sports media need more mental toughness.

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