The Next...

I'm For: Spicy Basil, The Hornet, and Stars of CCTV by Hard Fi
I'm Against: Panda Express, Jet, and Beyonce's Upgrade Song

The Next…

The American sports media is infatuated with anointing the next big thing. It is like we have this subconscious Judeo-Christian complex to apply the second coming in all facets of life.

The next Wayne Gretzky…
The next Pele…
The next Tony Hawk…
The next Michael Jordan…
The next Mark Spitz…

These grandiose comparisons to icons of sport were not given to proven athletes with track records of success that could warrant association to the greatest athletes the world has ever seen. No, these betrothals were given to teenagers well before they were ever paid to play.
And then something phenomenal happened. These teenagers succeeded. They lived up to hype that was out of this world. And they have all done so with a maturity, strength, and poise that are well beyond their years.

I consider it a miracle that none of them are out of the sport, in jail, or addicted to a controlled substance.

I think we have all experienced the arch-typical jock narcissism complex at some level. You know, when a top-notch athlete does well gets a couple press clippings and they begin to believe their own hype. After weaker coaches, teammates and community personalities yield to them, these jocks devolve into narcissistic dicks that get away with murder. Only eventually, they hit a level of competition where they struggle and fail. At which point their entire foundation collapses upon itself and they are left to reanalyze the meaning of their life and the way they behave.

Can you even imagine being 16 and getting compared to the greatest icon your sport has ever seen? Having every move you make as a teenager monitored by scouts, agents, sponsors, and the national media? How do you deal with that and come out normal, when your peers in a similar situation turn into egomaniacal douchebags?

These guys don’t just hold the hopes and dreams of a school, a franchise, or even a country. The future of their respective sport’s success was placed on their shoulders before they made their professional debut. Even Jesus took 10 years to hideaway and cope after he received word that he was the Son of God. These guys took the news, and then spent the next 5 years maturing under the spotlight of international media. An international media that is far more intense than the media coverage of their predecessors.

I am not arguing that these athletes are in fact better than their predecessors. That is a fool’s folly. Too much has changed in the athleticism, technology, and strategy surrounding their sports to compare across generations. It may be comparing apples to apples but it’s like comparing an organic Fuji to a Granny Smith that has been pumped full of hormones and genetically altered to not produce seeds.

Its irrelevant that Sid the Kid may never pass Gretzky’s gaudy points record. Or that King James may not win as many championships as Air Jordan. Or that Freddy Adu hasn’t made Soccer a major sport in America like Pele once did. Nor is it worthwhile to compare Phelps’s accomplishments to Spitz, or Shaun White’s tricks to the great Tony Hawk’s. Doing so is just a vein attempt to create artificial drama that is all too prominent in modern sports media.

I believe it is far more impressive that these athletes continue to excel at a level far above their peers, under far more intense pressure and they are all doing it when most folks their age are complaining about the pressure of finals or paying rent while they get fucked up on the weekend.

If you don’t think its impressive perhaps you should ask Maurice Clarett, Ryan Leaf, Sebastian Telfair, Kwame Brown, Tyler Hamilton, or Marcus Vick how they handled the pressure.