Over at Slate , Matthew Yglesias explains why Americans don’t take to the San Antonio Spurs, in spite of the Spurs’ apparent commitment to American values of teamwork, leadership, excellence, loyalty, hard work.
Yglesias thinks it exposes the American character: “we are, ultimately, a nation of hypocrites that prefers drama queens, bad boys, and flukes to simple competence and success.” The Spurs’ “competent, businesslike success gives us nothing to work with. Kobe Bryant’s egomaniacal play, LeBron James’ absurd television special, and Dwight Howard’s ‘should I stay or should I go’ antics are polarizing. By inviting hatred and criticism, they promote response and enthusiasm. The all-consuming dysfunction of the Knicks fuels successive waves of outrage, hope, and resentment.”
He concludes: “There’s a reason that Bridezillas is a show and there’s nothing called Reasonably Well-Planned Wedding Enjoyed by All. Americans don’t want excellence, and we certainly don’t want long-term sustained excellence. We want our dynasties to come with a side order of drama, controversy, and bad behavior. We want anti-heroes and the occasional impulsive retirement to pursue a baseball career. We want to watch a train wreck and then tut-tut in a smug self-satisfied way about the irresponsibility of the people who caused it. We want to maintain our high ideals, without needing to walk the walk. Nobody can hate the Spurs, so nobody wants to love them. It’s more comfortable for everyone if we can just pretend they don’t exist.”
(Thanks to my son Woelke for alerting me to this piece.)