Re: Kidd speaks

[bird <birdwl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wednesday, May 29, 2002, at 05:58 AM, Jim Meninno wrote:

> Are they?  It's been a long time since I've been to an NBA playoff game,
> but, if I remember the atmosphere correctly, it's not a place I'd bring a
> three year old child.  People go to these games and they drink and they 
> yell
> nasty things and they sometimes push each other around a little bit.  It'
> s
> sports, it's not going to the movies.  Now, if some people were directing
> comments at the Kidds, and I have no doubt they were, that's idiotic.  It
> doesn't rise to the level of, say, beating your wife, no matter how 
> contrite
> you are afterwards, but it is wrong.  But to say that you should be able 
> to
> bring your three year old to the game in peace, well I think the three 
> year
> olds have enough places they can go.  Let them go to Chuck E. Cheese, but
> please leave playoff basketball for the adults.  It's about all we've got
> left.
I don't know, Jim -- if you're not finding that many adult entertainments 
in the world, perhaps you're not looking hard enough.  I seem to have the 
exact opposite problem.  Perhaps that's not what you're referring to <g>, 
but while I sympathize with your position, I think convincing most people 
that sports isn't so-called "family entertainment" would be difficult -- 
nay, virtually impossible.

But, because Jason Kidd's wife pays taxes like every other citizen, yes, 
she does have the right to go to a public sporting event and sit there in 
relative peace.  "Relative" meaning people can express fanatic (even 
drunken) partisanship for their team, in my view, but personal attacks and 
harassment crosses the line.  The little kid just wants to see his father 
play basketball.  I don't want to be the guy that makes this some sort of 
traumatic experience for him.  And furthermore, I don't think I want 
anybody else to play that role, either.  Look, I often think, in our 
society, that we overprotect children (in some ways, obviously in others 
we do not), sometimes coddle them, sometimes even privilege them or 
parents in social issues to our detriment, so I tend towards agreement as 
far as kids having places to go, and adults different places.  But there 
ought to be places for both, too.  Sports has traditionally been one of 
those places... .

I agree Kidd uses his kid to bolster his image -- so does Allen Iverson.  
I'm reasonably sure these guys who bring their kids up to the press podium 
started doing it because they wanted to include their kids, which is 
admirable, but neither did they blind themselves to the possible PR 
benefits, either.  Doesn't give somebody the right to berate other people.
  I'm not saying they shouldn't get dogged a little: opposition fans ought 
to be treated with a sense of restrained rivalry, because, perhaps mixed 
with alcohol and team fanaticism, things can turn ugly really quickly.  It'
s great if people want to drink and then act like boors, and there are 
places for that, too: frat parties, some bars, your own home.  They can 
watch the game there, too.

As for the whole domestic violence issue, I wish we didn't even have to 
discuss it.  Not that that sort of thing ought to be hushed up or anything,
 merely that it's a private family issue, only public during the time 
charges are filed or pending.  People make mistakes, even really bad ones.
  Looks like his wife has forgiven him or something and has moved on -- 
maybe not in private, but that's their business, not mine.  I think that 
if fans are booing him because he's the opposition player, that's OK (but 
it used to be you actually had to *do* something to antagonize the fans, 
which gave it better sense of legitimacy), but if they're booing him 
because he's a wife-beater, that's lame.  I critique and evaluate 
basketball players as basketball players, not people, most of the time, or 
I try to.  Sure, you want "good guys" on *your* team, but that's, for me, 
more pragmatism than anything else: non-so-called "good guys" are bad for 
team chemistry and all.  Anyway, if I'm going to boo Kidd for his domestic 
transgressions, what kind of investigations do I have to conduct in order 
to confirm that the other guys I cheer for are worthy?  Did they ever 
betray a friendship?  Do they not give enough to charity?  Not call their 
mother?  It's too much of a slippery slope to me.  If an NBA player goes 
home after a game, hits the crack pipe, beats his wife and dog, cheats on 
his taxes, etc., it makes him a bad person, but no different than all the 
other bad people who do the same things.  Better we boo the CEO cheating 
the nation's citizens out of resources, or the corrupt politician, or the 
career criminal, than some guy playing a game for money.

You said in another post:

> Bringing the kids along and asking people to mind their P's and
> Q's is turning it into a theme park.
Now, if I didn't come across with enough sympathy for your above points, I 
do want to make that clear, but you know as well as I that no one is 
saying people ought to sit on one hand, whilst the other daintily extends 
the pinkie in the acceptable way of putting one's tea cup to one's lips!  
Yell and scream, get rowdy -- it's all good.  Infringing on other people's 
right to watch the game unhindered by threats or really "cruel" things 
said or done to them is not so good.  It's fine to browbeat Kidd himself a 
little bit -- he's paid well and knows the nature of his job (he's in the 
spotlight, etc).  He can also fight back (by performing well, his team 
winning, he can jaw to the fans after the fact).  His little kid cannot.  
It's cowardly, really, and ought to be beneath any self-respecting adult.  
If you're suggesting that Kidd has a little share of the responsibility, 
because he puts his kid in the spotlight, well, I agree.  But it doesn't 
excuse some drunken lout(s) from their own civic responsibility, either.

You know, for the playoffs, the league really ought to set aside one (or 
more) of those executive boxes new arenas are finding so integral for the 
opposition's wives and family.  It *is* a bit naive to expect people to 
behave like rational people all the time, especially mixed with alcohol 
and a fanatical atmosphere.  Security's just a necessity here.

Bird