Friday, March 29, 2024

The Socialist’s Journal: Kobe, Serena, & Tiger

Trevor Brookins
Trevor Brookins

*I’m not sure if I made this up on my own, if I’m combining a bunch of quotes, or if I am simply ripping off one person but here is my thought about endings: nothing ends well; if all was well it wouldn’t end.

Most of the time when people contemplate endings it is in the context of some work of fiction – a book, a movie, a television series. And this makes sense because in those fictional works there is someone ultimately in control of the ending; they can decide exactly when and how the story will be told.

In contemporary society we consume sports the way people in former eras consumed those fictional works. But the maxim regarding endings does not have to hold true in the arena of sports. Consider three athletes who at one time were considered the best in their sports: Kobe Bryant, Serena Williams, and Tiger Woods.

The end for most athletes comes when they reach an age at which they can no longer perform against their younger counterparts; sometimes this drop in performance is brought on by injury. The three athletes referenced above reveal various facets of this issue.

Tiger Woods was the best golfer in the world and on pace to set a record for the most major championships in history. But then in 2008 he sustained an injury to his knee and he hasn’t won any major championships since. His ability to sustain great quality of play over four days of golf is gone. His ability to compete against younger golfers (the Rory McIlroys of the PGA tour) is gone. None of this is his fault, he got old. And some of the reaction to his golf ability has been colored by reactions to his marital infidelity. But the way he has responded to his bodies diminished capacity and lack of success has made him a less sympathetic figure. It is clear his time heads and shoulders above his competition has ended. And it hasn’t ended well because he won’t admit to himself that he isn’t as good as he used to be.

Kobe Bryant is the one player that Michael Jordan (who most contemporary basketball commentators consider to be the best player of all time) has admitted he would have a hard time defeating. Granted this is because Kobe studied, copied, and perfected Jordan’s skill set – but still. He was the best or second best player on five championship teams – tied with Tim Duncan for the most since Jordan’s teams of the 1990s. However Bryant has not played the bulk of an NBA season since 2012-13. This has been due to injuries to his ankle, knee and shoulder. Kobe refuses to come to terms with the fact that he isn’t the same player he was a decade ago and (at least outwardly) that his team isn’t very good. Ergo he continues to push his body past its limits in his quest to replicate earlier success. Again this isn’t his fault – he got old. But his stubbornness regarding his ability and his salary have made it difficult for him to retain casual fans. It has been clear since the maturation of LeBron James that Bryant isn’t the best player in basketball anymore. His time has ended and it hasn’t ended well.

The contrast to some degree has been Serena Williams. Her time at the top of women’s tennis is ending. She is old – as women’s tennis players go – and her physical abilities are waning. But there are a few mitigating factors that have helped her ending not seem as negative as Woods or Bryant’s. First she is an American competing against people from other countries so we tend to root for her because of nationalism. Second she is a woman so there is considerably less media coverage on her than Woods and Bryant. This means that the public gets less of an opportunity to hear her defiance in the face of diminishing skills. It’s different to see her four times a year (when Americans by and large pay attention to tennis) versus 15-20 times a year that American sports fans have had to put up with Tiger Woods and the potential 80 times a year with Kobe Bryant. Her end is coming but it’s going considerably well because we don’t hear from her and because she is competing against mostly foreigners.

The greatest athletes get to that point by being sociopaths – they do not see the world the way the rest of society does and they are hyper focused on a goal. Additionally greatness means a spotlight. But that mindset and platform become the greatest negatives as an athlete ages. They are the things that make the endings almost never go well.

Athletes have the ability to end the story how they choose. Although Serena Williams may not have chosen to have less media coverage of her career, her ending does provide a blueprint for the happiest possible ending in sports.

Trevor Brookins is a free lance writer in Rockland County, New York. He is currently working on a book about American culture during the Cold War.  His writing has appeared in The Journal News. You can reach him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @historictrev.

 

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