There are a lot of reasons why I feel silly being a big sports fan. The rampant sexism, the more subtle but as-rampant casual racism, the proclivity of many fans to identify jingoistically with their favorite teams, the enjoyment many fans get out of watching injury-causing plays, the faux-nostalgia created as a marketing tool, the corruption of American university systems in an effort to become pro sports powerhouses, the blatant disregard for human life at baseball academies in the Dominican, the pro-corporate/”people? what people?” attitudes pushed by superstars like Michael Jordan and LeBron James, and on and on (a la Journey).

But with all these things that gnaw at my insides from further inside, I may sound like the biggest hypocrite in the world when I say it’s only entertainment (a la Journey, I mean, Jay-Z), which it is. I tried to quit watching sports in 2004, but it proved to be more addictive than nicotine. I relapsed, and what with my Boston-area teams doing pretty well recently, I don’t really think I’m going to wean myself off watching sports until I’m dead.

But not all is awful. It’s not as though it’s the ugliness that keeps me watching. So without further ado, I present to you my friends, the Top 10 Awesomest Moments in Sports (EVAR!), as compiled by me with absolutely no illusions of historical perspective, regional unbiasedness, or intelligence.

1. Derek Redmond and his dad
A British sprinter who had pulled out of competition during the 1988 Olympics in Seoul because of a hamstring injury, Derek Redmond had a legit shot at a medal in Barcelona, but during the heat that would have put him in the finals – he had a steady lead more than halfway through the 400m – his hammie jumped on him again, and he fell to the ground. His dad jumped out the stands and ran onto the field of play and helped his son up on his one good leg and together they hobbled to the finish line. With all the stories you hear about overbearing parents of athletes, this is one of the stories that gets forgotten.

2. Muhammad Ali gets stripped of his title for refusing to be drafted
As I mentioned earlier, modern-day superstars are too concerned with their endorsement deals to ever take a stand on anything remotely political. So when the biggest public figure in the sports world in 1966 refused to be drafted to fight in the war in Southeast Asia, that shit took huge balls. He didn’t really have to do it either. Because of his celebrity, he would have gotten a non-combat job, maybe one of those morale-boosting jobs like going to talk to “fellow” soldiers to convince them they were fighting for a just cause. But he refused and as a result, lost his title as world champion. And he didn’t complain at all, simply saying “No, I am not going 10,000 miles to help murder kill and burn other people to simply help continue the domination of white slavemasters over dark people the world over. This is the day and age when such evil injustice must come to an end.” The crazy shit is, everybody loves him now, proving that the real world can actually be changed for the better by athletes.

3. Patriots really believe their rhetoric
During the 2001-2002 NFL season, I was living in Washington, DC, so I didn’t get to watch every game my beloved Patriots played that year like I currently do, so the reports that they defined the “team” concept rang kind of empty to me. I mean, I just didn’t know because I didn’t have much opportunity to see them play. But I do remember in the AFC Championship game that year, when newly-arrived star quarterback Tom Brady was mildly injured, has-been Drew Bledsoe – who had lost his starting job to Brady that season – stepped in and led the Pats to victory over Pittsburgh. I remember thinking how nice it was that Bledsoe didn’t complain all year after being the face of the franchise for so long, and when he was needed, he delivered. He even choked up during the post-game on-field interview about being able to contribute at such a meaningful time. So the idea of “team” really meaning “team” started to take hold in my head, but I honestly was not prepared for what happened at Super Bowl XXXVI.

I remember team introductions from when I was a little kid at the Super Bowl was always one player at a time – and not all the players on the team at that – just the selected few. So after the St. Louis Rams introduced their stars one by one, when the announcer said the New England Patriots had chosen “to be introduced as a team,” I literally got chills. The fact that the number 1 guy on the team wasn’t interested in being separated from the number 53 guy on the team was an entirely new concept at the Super Bowl. And of course they won, beating “The Greatest Show On Turf” with a team of no-names (at the time anyway) who had – in most people’s minds – no right to be playing in that game. Now every Super Bowl starts without player introductions, like it’s just a thing to do. But in 2002, that was – for real – unprecedented, unexpected, and awesome because of it.

4. Ira Newble
After reading an article about the genocide in Darfur while on the roadwith his former team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, reserve swingman Ira Newble took it upon himself to learn as much about the situation as he could, even reaching out to leading American academics to get acquainted with their research and analysis. He drafted a letter to the Chinese government, using the upcoming Beijing Olympics as a platform to base his assertion that China and the world should “use all available diplomatic resources and economic pressure to end the agony of Darfur, and to secure access for U.N. peace support personnel.”

In all honesty, I don’t even necessarily agree with this tactic. But I don’t discount it simply because I wouldn’t do it. Every organizer in any situation needs to take into account his or her best chance of making a lasting impact, and I can’t disagree that a professional athlete would use different tactics than me. So he went about getting most of his teammates to sign it – LeBron James, surprise surprise, declined – and has been working with his agent to circulate the letter to all NBA players. Now, he’s not a particularly well-known basketball player, so it’s not like he can just throw some of his name recognition at the issue and see if it sticks, he actually has to put in effort to get something done, and he actually has. I don’t know how successful his campaign is right now, but since this is real life and not sports, we don’t have to judge people only by their success rate – we can actually take their motivation and effort into account. And as far as that’s concerned, Newble is doing what Bron would never do.

5. Toni Smith and Everybody
Manhattanville College women’s basketball captain Toni Smith just said “fuck it” in late 2002 and turned her back to the American flag during the pre-game national anthem. She kept doing it and it kept staying under the radar until March 2003, and then proverbial shit hit the sports fan. National media started to notice, and mad people started criticizing her for using her position as a college athlete (at a Division III school by the way – I mean, have you ever heard of Manhattanville?) to push her political beliefs. Her question was “not why did I choose to turn my back on the flag. It’s why do we have to [salute the flag and stand for the national anthem] at basketball games? If they don’t want politics in sports then they need to take the National Anthem out because that is inherently political.”

Say word Toni. Everyone – including myself – assumed it was a protest against the Iraq War, but in fact she says the Iraq War was basically the straw that blah blahed the camel’s back, and that she was refusing to pay tribute to everything she felt the flag represented, starting with the genocide of Native Peoples. Last I heard, she was still working at New York Youth at Risk.

6. John Carlos and Tommie Smith (and Peter Norman)
This topic is crazy complicated and very interesting, and if you have the time, you should definitely read what you can about the events leading up to it – as well as the events following. But in the interest of brevity, I’ll say that you probably recognize the picture at left, no? Details are as follows: Tommie Smith (gold) and John Carlos (bronze) won medals at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. A group called the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) tried to organize a boycott by Black athletes because of the mistreatment of Black communities in the United States. The boycott didn’t pan out, but these two cats raised their fists in support of Black Power – and if you notice, are actually wearing gloves that they brought expressly for the purpose of protest.

A much less known detail is that Peter Norman, the silver medalist from Australia who is white (as you can see in the picture), in fact knew they were going to raise their fists and supported the decision. My whole life I assumed he was basically an uninterested party and had no idea what was going on behind him, but in fact they had told him and he was down with it. So down, in fact, that he was also waging protest while receiving his medal by wearing a OPHR button on his track jacket. Norman passed away in 2006, and around that time I read that he had actually stayed in touch with the other two from the other side of the world until he died. I find it admirable that he could have inserted himself into the story by raising a fist as well or making it more known afterward that he supported them, but he let it be their story because he knew it would mean more to more people in the long run. How often in your progressive coalitions does the white dude realize it might not be a bad idea to take up the least space?

7. Jason McElwain scores 20 points in 4 minutes
This isn’t just lip service. Two years ago, the basketball team manager at a high school in upstate New York came in at the end of a game and scored 20 points in four minutes of play. That’s pretty impressive, but what’s really ill about it is that he is autistic. I would link to a Youtube video, but as I’m browsing them I’m shocked to be reading some of the comments calling him “retard” or just being brainlessly insensitive about the kid. What is the point?

But I think that speaks to what’s so transcendent about that moment. I’m not the type of dude to dwell on a “feel-good” story simply because it exists. Those with development conditions, as well as those with physical disabilities or mental illness, are treated as other than human, and I don’t just mean Youtube comments. Think about this one case. Would you ever have suspected that an autistic high school student would have any desire to even play basketball, let alone score 20 points? Most of us would not because it’s a lot easier to think about folks that seem “different” as just that: different. A lot of people just don’t see them as having their own personalities, that their outward condition is what defines them. End of story.

So just as I’m sure young Jason has been called names and worse in his life, and will continue to have to deal with that forever, through a 4 minute stretch playing sports, he got everyone there to feel proud of him, regardless of whether or not they’d even ever met. And he probably put a little shake into everyone who before the game thought he was “the autistic kid” and nothing more.

BTW, although that moment was national news and very touching, I recently came across this article in the New York Times about a varsity basketball player with Down Syndrome. And I know it’s nothing like autism, but I can’t help but be moved when young people surpass expectations like it ain’t nothing to them.

8. Aboutreika Sympathizes with Gaza
As I started drafting this entry, I kept having thoughts about various cool in-game moments that showed us the human sides of athletes, but one very recent moment – that I learned about from Dave Zirin’s “Edge of Sports” website – was maybe bigger than any of them. Egyptian soccer star Mohamed Aboutreika scored a goal in a pan-African tournament, and then lifted up his shirt to reveal the slogan “Sympathize with Gaza.” Forgive my ignorance, because all this info comes straight from Zirin’s article, but apparently Aboutreika is as popular a player as there is in all of Africa. And just trying to imagine a similarly highly-regarded athlete in the States do something like that for the cameras in a major event is unimaginable. He must also have known that making political statements during a game is against FIFA’s rules and was risking suspension, but he spoke his piece anyway.

Surprisingly – oh, I mean, NOT surprisingly – Google Images removed all the photos of this from its search results, so if you were looking to find proof that it happened, you wouldn’t be able to find it very easily. I think it’s great when big-time athletes do community work, which is usually safe, non-controversial stuff. Making a bold political statement that many people – powerful people – disapprove of, then that’s really a different category. (Another person who did this and got almost completely ignored in the press was Steve Nash who opposed the president’s illegal war. Proof once again that people from Canada are usually pretty awesome.)

9. James Posey exists
I only know this because he plays for my favorite team, but Boston Celtics sixth man James Posey stands at mid-court before every game and gives the starting five players a great big bear hug and whispers words of encouragement in their ear. He did this when he played in Miami as well.

OK, so whatever. This only affects 6 people right? But how many people do you know who have a genuine appreciation for the people around them? He isn’t doing this as a co-worker, or teammate, really. He does this as a friend, who is being generous with his support. Of course everybody on the Celtics bench wants the starters to play well, but making time for each individual to give them that extra boost is not what fans have been conditioned to associate with the NBA nowadays. I love trash talking as much as any fan (as long as it’s fun and not distasteful), but I love James Posey’s hugs a little more.

10. Kobe Bryant throws a towel in a poor lady’s face for no reason
This is very clearly unintentional. But damn if it isn’t the funniest thing I’ve seen in years.

OK, so this is not very positive, but i wanted to find a reason to post it up here…

Tags: sports

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 10:16 AM and is filed under lists, nerd shit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.