I don’t get
sportswriters, at least those who write for themselves. Take this guy in the Sun-Times who did a
column the other day titled, “Hey, Bulls, it’s tanks-giving.” The point of his piece is that the Bulls need
to lose more. Apparently, any team committed
to a rebuild has to “expect at least four consecutive lottery years.” Oh, yum.
So, in order to
win at some indefinite point down the road, the Bulls are supposed to rest Zach
LaVine a lot and go slow on Lauri Markkanen’s return to play. Plus, “when playing bum teams such as
Cleveland, Atlanta and Phoenix, insert bum lineups.” Of course, the sportswriter gets to crack
wise whenever he wants about the losing and the bums, when it should stop and
who’s to blame for the state of affairs.
This is
offensive for about as many reasons as you have fingers. To embrace losing, for whatever reason and
whatever length of time, goes against everything sports purports to stand
for. It’s a good thing they don’t do
rebuilds with Olympic teams. You’d have runners
doing the 100-yard dash sitting down, silly for the Olympics yet expected of
any professional team undergoing a rebuild.
News-flash to
Mr. Sportswriter: No professional athlete considers himself a bum, or he
wouldn’t risk his body game after game. Whatever
the sport, they all want to be sprinters with a shot at the medal. To advocate for a team to fill up its roster
with “bums” is beyond cynical; it’s perverse.
So, when these athletes were kids, their parents and coaches were
supposed to tell them, “One day you’ll grow up to be a bum on the Bulls”? I would hope not.
Then again,
maybe there are parents who raised their son to be a bum on the Sun-Times.
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