The Victory Machine by Ethan Sherwood Strauss

Author:Ethan Sherwood Strauss [Strauss, Ethan Sherwood]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2020-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

By the way, you’d think team play would be the natural focus of everyone right now. The Warriors might boast the greatest starting lineup the sport has ever seen. They are rolling, having won 13 of their last 14. And yet, in a 39-point victory, Kevin Durant has amplified the story he theoretically wants smothered. He’s shining a laser pointer at a July calendar page and bemoaning that anyone dares see the bouncing beam. This is what he does, for reasons that mystify beyond the simple fact that he can. A man with all the leverage can keep speaking in contradictions and reliably keep hearing in supplications.

I ended the article by plugging the book you’re currently reading. If that plug in any way informed your decision to buy this book, get back to me, let me know. The chaos from that week will all have been worth it.

Of course, my opportunistic response did nothing to quiet the controversy. Soon after Durant’s rant, Steph Curry offered support for his teammate. “Honestly, I think it’s him not being able to control his own voice,” Curry said. “He’s focused on basketball, and that’s what he should do. We want to see that KD every day. What he can’t control is BS that happens in the media or people making the decision for him or all this other stuff.”

I, too, was about to see what it’s like to have your words and intentions debated, absent much control from the subject. I was about to get a taste of my own medicine. I was about to enter The Take Zone.

KD’s press conference was the top sports story that following day, replayed over and over on ESPN. It’s a dizzying thing to be sports talk fodder, to be dunked into the fishbowl you write about from a slight remove. You wake up, and then slowly remember that you’re in the news. There’s a creeping sense that you’re in charge of some reputation management project, but there’s no manual on what to do. Maybe you ignore the project, and delete your social media apps so as to avoid the topic altogether. That doesn’t really work because your friends, some of whom you haven’t spoken to in years, start texting you snippets of what people on TV are saying. Dan Patrick praised you, and so you watch the clip of Dan Patrick praising you. You feel momentarily warm, fulfilled, validated. You ruminate on how enjoyable 1990s SportsCenter was and how Dan has made such a dignified second act as a respectable talk radio star. What a guy, Dan Patrick.

Another friend says that Tracy McGrady criticized you and that it was very unfair. You watch the clip and feel a pang of something sour. There’s nothing you can do about this. Also, you feel a strong need to note that Tracy never made it out of the first round of the playoffs as a relevant player. “Tracy McGrady, what an asshole,” you tell yourself.

It doesn’t end there. There are more pundits, a constant supply of strangers who either balm or needle your insecurities.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.