Humility, Modesty and the Athlete of Color

Athlete Arrogance

I am personally drawn to so-called “crazy” athletes! Terrell Owens was must watch TV; Allen Iverson captured my imagination; I was astonished to personally watch Chris Webber take 50 SHOTS IN ONE GAME!!!! Serena C-walking after beating the brakes off of Sharapova in the Olympics made my week. I used to hate Mario Chalmers but I respect the fact that he felt like he could talk bad to Lebron.

I am fascinated with the Kevin Durant-Russell Westbrook dynamic and I’ll be closely monitoring the so-called Jimmy Butler/Derrick Rose beef. Something in me loves the arrogance displayed by professional athletes, particularly NBA Players.

While not an athlete in the traditional sense, I am harkened back to a few Beyonce lyrics:

                “I can do for you what Martin did for the people…”

I remember my good homie Chuck Dunn and me watching Beyonce’s Upgrade You video when she sung the lyrics. Upon hearing them, Chuck was like, “Yo she wildlin!” I said to him, “Shit… if she believe it, I believe it!”

Coming off an ACL tear, Derrick Rose, in all seriousness, said he’s the best player in the NBA. That’s arrogance! Russell Westbrook taking more shot than KD is arrogance. And I love it!

That’s the shit I need to see and hear from athletes; but is it truly arrogance? Arrogance is defined as “having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance or abilities.” This leads me to Lebron James. To the public, Lebron says things that are quite frankly perceived as arrogant.

Although I have love-hate feeling about Lebron (#GoBulls), I have never thought him to be arrogant. When Lebron says, “I’m the best basketball player in the world,” I conceded the point. By definition, and despite how most folks feel about Anthony Davis, that is truth! Lebron is the best player world.

Considering he was not expressing and exaggerated sense of his own importance and ability, why was this quote deemed arrogant?

The Humble Athlete of Color

Baseball purist hate Yasiel Puig. They hate his bat-flips, prolonged stares at wrecked pitches and slow trots after his immense home-runs! Despite the fact that a healthy Puig is the primary draw for casual and millennial baseball fans, Puig is consistently beaned by pitchers and often scolded by baseball purists because he “doesn’t play the right way.” This sentiment is complete and utter bullshit and will be the death baseball unless baseball learns from the NBA and begin embrace the individual idiosyncrasies of their stars.

Fans and analysts outside of Charlotte hate Cam Newton’s brash and bravado! Personally, I’d feel like superman if I had to carry that sorry ass Panthers team to the playoffs.

Fans and analysts love when athletes, particularly Black athletes, are differential to themselves. I’m making this about race because my eyes don’t lie. Pre-coke Johnny Manziel steals the money-sign, throws a few touch downs at A&M and fans adore him. Furthermore, and in comparison to skill-set, Chandler Parsons is by far the ostentatious player in the NBA yet he receives little flack. Yet, NBA fans and analyst expect the Lebrons and Hardens of the world to be humble!

That is some bullshit! Personally, I view humility in the pejorative! Going further, in my opinion, humility is the most dangerous attribute associated to the humans. Humility is defined as “a modest or low view of one’s importance.”

Every day, millions of parents tell their children,” don’t cheapen yourself because just to fit.” Remarkably, fans and analysts expect the exact opposite behavior from Black athletes. There are 400 million self-professed basketball fans in the world. 150 million of them play basketball regularly. NBA players are outliers of the highest order as out of 150 million people who play the sport, NBA players are the 450 best of the group.

Players like Lebron and Westbrook are the in the top half-dozen of this sample yet fans and analyst expect them to be humble. Including breathing, Lebron and Westbrook are statistically better at their craft than anything the average person would ever do?

But why?

Appeasement to the Sensibilities of the Truly Average Fan

I believe the general public—cough white fans— is put off by the reflexive athlete. It’s simply bad business for Black athletes to appropriately recognize their greatness. Humility sells shoes and head phones, not the truth. The fans want to believe you’re one of the guys/girls.

In truth, professional athletes are better than us. They simply are immensely proficient in a highly valuable craft while the vast majority of us aren’t. I respect their greatness and look forward to the day when athletes have carte blanche to truly express their greatness without financial consequence. I need professional sports where the stars have ricks James disease!

Back to the race card! I find it ironic that athletes of color are scolded for their arrogance while Donald Trump is, at least at this point, a serious presidential candidate solely due to his bravado. On that note, I’m going to sip some tea!