Each Day Is a Lifetime, 8.25.08

I am experiencing what's either Olympic withdrawal or pre-Convention jitters. Regardless, I have chills and can't see, so this will be brief for now. Maybe I'll pull something real together for later.

-BOXIANA. FD loyalists know Shoefly, and might even remember his epic boxing post of 1.5 years ago. Well, after much preparation, he's launched a blog of his own. It's about boxing, but let me say: A true liberated fan need not be bound by what sports he supposedly likes or does not like. So read and rejoice. (BS)

-My final Portraits in Patriotism. Shows clear signs of illness. (BS)

-Good ole reliable Jim Souhan singles out Allen Iverson in the latest recapitulation of the "Team-USA-2004 really motivated this year's team to win gold...as though it was Iverson's fault for what happened that year (hmm, I seem to remember now-"redeemers" Dwyane Wade, Carlos Boozer, Carmelo Anthony, and LeBron James on that team as well). Regardless of this storyline's idiocy, two tremendous blows have been dealt to Allen Iverson's legacy over the past three months--neither of which have involved him. (1) is the Redeem Team narrative that simply tosses Iverson to the dogs as not-a-national-folk-hero-of-the-Steve-Smith-caliber.

The caricature of AI then gets used as the paper-doll foil for everything America does NOT represent (good thing for Marbury that he never grew cornrows. (2) Kevin Garnett wins a ring. I've wondered over these past two months...whose legacy does this affect more? KG's or the legacies of Iverson, Dirk, T-Mac, Jason Kidd, (and maybe LeBron?). Prior to this year's championship, we could always look at AI and KG as the two warriors who never won a ring. Now that he is stuck on a terribly coached team that isn't even getting out of the first round of the playoffs, the mystique of Iverson is beginning to dissipate...but it's NOT HIS FAULT. The sad thing is having to wonder whether these two events (which have inevitably motivated Iverson) will be counteracted by the wearing down of his body. (Dr. LIC)

Brown Recluse, Esq.: Iverson and Duncan were BY FAR the two best players in Athens. And Wade, Melo, and LeBron whenever Larry actually let them play. To assert that AI was in any way responsible for that team losing is just wrong.



-I spent almost two hours Sunday trying to write something on how, in the run-up to the first Obama/Biden appearance, the MSNBC compared DE's finest to Koufax, taking some time to get his gifts under control, and a boxer who punches a lot and lands enough of them. Obama was, in passing, likened to LeBron, with talent that immediately manifests itself. This had something to do with the whole Darwin's Athletes conundrum, since here a white politician was the more athleticized, and the possibility that Biden might be a more stereotypically "black" politician than Obama. Like really, who has more in common, style-wise, with Al Sharpton?

But then I got stuck on the issue of the Undrcrwn and Air Obama tees. Would those ever be made for a white, Latino, or Asian candidate with a similar cult of cool surrounding him? I'd say maybe, and yet it's hard to completely erase the issue of race, any more than I can unequivocally say that Obama's skin color is proof of a brave, new tomorrow, rather than—for some voters—proof of a desire for that. What makes it especially complicated is that, while Obama has made no secret of his love of hoops, branded himself the first basketball president, and expressed adulation for Dr. J, he's also, by his own admission, closest to Tayshaun Prince on the court. So as a speaker and a movement, he's MJ, or fiery Vince. But if you actually look at the man, on the court and in the finer points of his politial gamemanship (quoth his brother-in-law: "if you want to know about a man, play basketball with him"), that's only the tip of the iceberg, or maybe even an optical illusion.

So yeah. Biden has conventional style. Obama's is more complex, to the point of rupturing that corny, but indefatigable, connection between everything that can be interpreted as appreciating the value of style. I'm going back to sleep. (BS)