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Thursday, September 21, 2023

Basketball: Navigating Cancel Culture

"Cancel culture is a phrase contemporary to the late 2010s and early 2020s used to refer to a culture in which those who are deemed to have acted or spoken in an unacceptable manner are ostracized, boycotted, or shunned." - Wikipedia

Does society cancel individuals or do individuals cancel themselves? 

No industry is immune. In basketball, Donald Sterling got canceled, forced out to sell... at about a two billion dollar profit. 

Coaches get fired but that's seldom cancellation, just "going in a different direction" because a team doesn't win 'enough' in the view of ownership, fans, or both. 

The question implied is "what is unacceptable?" The Celtics parted ways (euphemism) with Ime Udoka but neither side released the details. "Move along, nothing to see here."

Leagues and teams widely promote legalized gambling but suspend players who participate. When Michael Jordan took time away from basketball to play baseball, speculation was rampant on whatever cause. We never learned. 

Navigating cancel culture means avoiding provocative behaviors. Don't poke the bear. 

  • The most sensitive nerve in the body is the money nerve. Touch it and everyone jumps. Enron wasn't about principle. Avoid touching a lot of money nerves. Or pay off the politicians in advance. 
  • Almost as sensitive, politics and religion nerves inspire ire. Wade into the culture wars and risk drowning. 
  • Be selective with your topics. Do you love black licorice? Half the population agrees. Investing a second trying to convince those who don't makes zero sense. 
  • Don't dump on icons. Worshippers see their heroes through one-way mirrors. Moral failings? We don't care. Whataboutism? We don't care. Statistics? We don't listen to freaking nerds, Buddy. 
  • Need more ways to beckon the badgers? Declare that you're the smartest guy in the room or liberally label your opponents "idiots." Nobody wins an article by declaring disagreers dumb. 

Like Luka in The Bear, I've met or worked with guys better than I was in medicine. And like him, I learned everything I could from them, while realizing I would never be them. 

What can we be sure about. Cancel culture isn't going away anytime soon. 

Lagniappe. Do the work. 

Lagniappe 2. Billy Donovan calls it 'the 95', what you do without the ball. 

 

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