{"id":2012785,"date":"2023-08-26T05:26:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-26T09:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/giants-on-and-off-the-court\/"},"modified":"2023-08-26T05:30:18","modified_gmt":"2023-08-26T09:30:18","slug":"giants-on-and-off-the-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/giants-on-and-off-the-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Giants dominating both on and off the court."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgiants-on-and-off-the-court%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2012785&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<h2>Basketball: From Art to Algorithm<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Basketball has become a numbers \u2064game\u2014it\u2019s moneyball, as we say, \u200da\u200c lot of somewhat slender-looking \u2062guys throwing three \u2062pointers.\u200b The last\u200b legend \u2064is Steph Curry, four-time champion, who apparently trains\u200c for perfect shooting.\u2064 Is\u200c he a man or a machine? He\u2019s a success, obviously very clever, but the excitement is gone.\u2062 Basketball is\u200d more of a nerd\u2019s game now.\u2062 It\u2019s been rationalized. \u2063Probably every part of training\u200d is algorithmic\u2014less playing the game, more gaming the \u2063game.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>When I was a kid, the best\u200d to have done it played\u2014Michael Jordan, the\u200c unbeatable man with his unbeatable team,\u200c leading \u2063the Chicago Bulls to three\u200c consecutive championship victories. Twice. Basketball then was perfect. Man and mind were in \u200cbalance. There was still violence in the \u200cgame, but the\u200d art shone \u200bthrough. It was beautiful.<\/p>\n<h3>The\u2062 Rivalry of Legends<\/h3>\n<p>Michael\u2019s twin \u2063powers as team leader and unstoppable offensive player were \u2063previously seen\u2062 in two different men, when basketball was just\u2062 being perfected in the 1960s. Bill Russell, the leader \u2064of the \u2063almost \u2063undefeatable\u200c Celtics, who won\u2064 11 championships, \u2062including two as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-is-brooklyn-nets-head-coach-steve-nash-going-to-play-for-the-team\/\" title=\"FACT CHECK: Is Brooklyn Nets Head Coach Steve Nash Going To Play For The Team?\">player-coach<\/a>, a \u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/us-womens-soccer-team-kneels-for-anthem-wears-black-lives-matter\/\" title=\"US Women's Soccer Team Kneels for Anthem, Wears 'Black Lives Matter'\">team player<\/a> and\u200d a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/alumni-community-residents-sue-principal-school-district-for-scrubbing-st-junipero-serra-from-high-school\/\" title=\"Alumni, Community Residents Sue Principal, School District For Scrubbing St. Jun\u00edpero Serra From High School\">great defender<\/a>. And Wilt Chamberlain,\u2063 who changed\u2062 teams a couple of times, ending \u2064at \u2063the Lakers, the great Celtics\u2019 rival. Wilt only had two championship\u200d victories, but\u200c more personal records than most \u2062teams, being the most astonishing athlete of his generation.<\/p>\n<p>Their rivalry defined the \u2064decade\u2062 and drove the development of a game played by daring and smart \u2064athletes who thrived on competition. Now, the rivalry is coming back on TV for a new generation: \u200cNetflix has released a two-part miniseries, <em>Bill Russell: Legend<\/em>, and Showtime has its\u200b own Wilt Chamberlain miniseries <em>Goliath<\/em>. Both\u200b are around three hours \u2062and very comfortable \u2064viewing, the mix of stills, video, and interviews with sources \u200cand celebrities you\u2019re used to \u2063from documentaries. The only unusual element \u200cis an AI Wilt voice (his estate apparently approved this ugly gesture). It\u2019s remarkable how revealing \u2062and emotional these series are\u2014it\u2019s part of American middlebrow entertainment, a great true story \u2063rather \u2063than a remarkable artistry\u200c in the production.<\/p>\n<h3>America&#8217;s Dual\u200d Ideals<\/h3>\n<p>Russell and Wilt show us two sides of \u200cAmerica.\u200d Wilt \u200cis all \u200cabout \u2063the\u2063 meritocracy, as we call it, but if we were to speak without\u200b a moralizing jargon, we\u2019d say that this love of victory \u200cis about transforming \u200bfreedom into excellence. In America, we often want\u2064 the best man \u2064to win. We wish to be lifted up to a higher level \u200courselves. The achievement of excellence is \u200cin a way even patriotic\u2014fulfilling the American dream, \u200dacting on the hopes we \u2063all share.<\/p>\n<p>Russell is all about leadership, about bringing people together for common success, thinking about winning games and winning \u200bchampionships rather\u200b than standing\u2064 up for himself. Russell was also an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senators-push-for-answers-on-amazon-book-ban\/\" title=\"Senators Push For Answers on Amazon Book Ban\">important voice<\/a> for\u200c civil \u2062rights for black people, both\u2062 as \u2063an\u2062 athlete\u2063 and \u200bhelping\u200b activists in Mississippi and elsewhere at a time when this, unlike sports, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/giants-on-and-off-the-court\/\" title=\"Giants dominating both on and off the court.\">required real courage<\/a>. Bill Russell was \u200balso a successful\u200c writer, because \u200bhe liked to reflect on his experience and criticize people,\u2063 more or\u2062 less as a teacher would\u2014it\u2019s why he was \u2062also a good \u2062coach. Quotes from \u2062his memoirs are read by\u200b Jeffrey Wright (the new Morgan\u200c Freeman, an \u200cavuncular voice that conveys friendly authority).<\/p>\n<p>There is much more to say, but you have to watch the series to notice the importance of sports in\u200c America at a time when there wasn\u2019t much money involved and when the most important players were not\u2064 social media celebrities. (I \u200cliked \u2063Michael so much as a kid I watched <em>Space\u200b Jam<\/em>\u2014LeBron James maybe \u2062felt similar, since \u200bhe starred in the even\u200d more pathetic \u200dremake.) To say the least, people looked at Russell and Wilt and saw men,\u2062 and thought that manliness\u2062 should matter. Nowadays, we are very worried to even \u200csay\u2064 the\u200c word man.<\/p>\n<p>There is, however, one \u200cmajor mistake in these documentaries. The oddity is that these works\u200c are increasingly not quite hagiographies, celebrations of figures we already admire the hell \u200cout of.\u200b Instead we get martyrology,\u200b the suggestion\u2063 that the most \u200dimportant things in\u2063 the\u200c lives of these men was racism,\u200c as well\u2063 as that the only evil in the world is racism. Both of these notions are unfortunate and, in a way, diminish these men. They make them out to be victims instead of indomitable figures \u200bwho make the impossible seem\u2063 easy.<\/p>\n<p>There\u200b is something that corrupts storytelling too in this attitude. \u2062Overcoming prejudice is the only thing that can structure a story, \u200cdrive\u200c a plot, hence the obsession with victimhood. But the problem is that it also means stories get therapeutic. All you can ever hope for is to be a well-adjusted liberal, otherwise you\u2019re psychiatrically unhealthy. This plays \u2062a part in pitying Russell for his suffering because of racism, but above all in making Wilt-as-Goliath a figure \u200cof\u200c pity,\u2063 a\u2062 victim of democratic bullying of a freak. Psychologizing Wilt\u2019s endless womanizing is also part of \u2062that\u2014the religion of feminism rejecting piously\u200d the consequences of sexual liberation.<\/p>\n<p>But \u200cthe thing I most disliked in these \u2064documentaries is\u2063 seeing Steph\u200d Curry talk about his \u200dpredecessors, especially Russell.\u2064 It\u2019s not inspiring. I don\u2019t know how he feels \u2064or\u200c why he was involved. He seems uncomfortable and talks\u200b in jargon, \u200das though he were corporate HR and PR, not \u200ba man talking about \u200bthe love \u200cthat inspired him in the first place.<\/p>\n<p><em>Bill Russell: Legend <strong>is streaming on \u200bNetflix<\/strong>. Goliath <strong>can be\u200d seen on \u200cShowtime.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Titus Techera is the \u200dexecutive director of the American\u2064 Cinema Foundation\u200c and a film critic for<\/em> Law &#038; Liberty, <em>the\u2064 Acton Institute&#8217;s<\/em> Religion &#038; Liberty, <em>and the<\/em> Free Press.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>a strategic game now, with players like Steph Curry dominating with their precise shooting skills. The thrill of the sport remains, but the focus has shifted to statistics and analytics. Curry&#8217;s success and dedication to his craft make him seem almost superhuman. However, some argue that the excitement of basketball has diminished in this era of calculated plays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1890,"featured_media":2012786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2012785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2012785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2012786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2012785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2012785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2012785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}