It's Only A Game Folks!

James went on to say that it was hard for him to congratulate somebody after he just lost to them. I’m a winner. It’s not being a poor sport or anything like that. If somebody beats you up, you’re not going to congratulate them. That doesn’t make sense to me. I’m a competitor. That’s what I do. It doesn’t make sense for me to go over and shake somebody’s hand.

After hearing about this nonsense from Lebron James my mind immediately went back to a conversation I had with my father as a child. I remember vividly him commenting on professional sports in general concerning the attitudes and salaries of professional athletes; he said if all the professional sports in the world stopped or did not exist today, the world would still go on. The world could still function and indeed the sports and the athletes would be forgotten. In other words in the grand scheme of things, baseball, basketball, football, hockey, tennis, etc. etc. really does not impact the world to the extent that it impacts life to that great of a degree. It's not like the world would be if we no longer had doctors, or teachers, or preachers, or electricity, or water or anything else that is life giving or life sustaining. In his view the world could survive without professional athletes. Ah, the wisdom of James Allen Medley; he said this in the 70' and passed away in 1985, so I can only imagine what his thoughts would have been had he lived to see the ridiculousness that we see coming from our athletes today. Plexico Burress, Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemons, Lebron James, and the list goes on and on and on. (Did I mention the outrageous salaries paid in many cases before the player even bounces, runs or hits a ball......performance based would make more sense, don't you think?)

For the amount of money these people make for playing virtually a child's game, you would think the behavior and character would match. If I made that type of money for playing a game, you would not have to worry about me doing anything stupid or illegal. Regardless of Charles Barkley's view on athletes not being role models; the fact of the matter is that they are watched by millions and too many non-critically thinking people do model their behavior, both children and adults alike. So now we will have children who will feel that because they are angry at the fact that they lost that they don't need to congratulate the team who was the best on that particular day. Lebron did it, so I can do it too. Thanks Lebron!

I didn't quite understand what my father was talking about then; I was only a child who loved the Yankees and Steelers; but after watching these guys and gals and their behavior, I sure do understand now. This blog is in memory of James Allen Medley April 14, 1936 - April 7, 1985