A Strike That Lasted 24

Milwaukee Bucks players make a statement after their historic Weds walkout

Even though I said I would support the players either way, I can't lie and say I'm not disappointed that the brief strike (for now) has ended, especially after seeing that Silver video last night. Sigh.

Still, what I'm also seeing are people who don't fully respect history for what it is. Or rather, people who are too eager to become historians in the literal infancy of that history. Impatience is part of it. A genuine desire to actually see progress in their own lifetime, sure. But I also think it's just misunderstanding.

At least some now recognize that the Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted more than a year from the beginning of one Deep South winter to the next. This stuff is a long, protracted slog, but even that pales in comparison to what we don't call the Civil Rights Movement. That is to say, the other pitched battles for equality that took place during the 1940s, the 1920s, the 1890s, and so on. This work, too, paved the way for what happened in 50s and 60s, and whatever we enjoy today is as much as because of the names too many don't know, as it is because of the handful of names we learn in school.

Also, there's emotional dishonesty going on here. It's as if players (we saw it with Kaepernick in attempt to discredit him) have to produce a document more profound than the Magna Carta before they're allowed to simply say "hey I want to be treated like a full-fledged human being." For starters, policy isn't their job. They're doing this thing pro bono, and maybe that's their sole role in this story.

At its core, this demand for superhuman perfection is about our own fear to face the fact that athletes are just as human as we are. The stakes are high and if they fail or “kowtow” to power, or whatever else, what hope do, I, the average bloke, have? There are similar forces when fans lash out whenever someone like DeMar Derozan shatters barriers and starts talking about his own battles with mental health.

So fans create these superhuman demands for athletes, all the while scolding them when they "reverse course" later. I get it, we’ve been disappointed before, even by people who we thought could shoulder the entire burden by themselves. In that moment, though, you’re just giving power too much credit and denying the power of our own collective agency. And if the whole world had their eyes on these hoopers — and by that I also mean the unheralded strength of the WNBA — after these leagues were able to shore up their borders from COVID, but not from systemic racism, and that's all that's said about these athletes 100 years from now (doubt it lol), then that's profound enough for me. #NBA