S-Curl Accident

NBA Basketball sucks now. It used to be fun to watch , but now its brutal. It's unwatchable. Team play and five-man fastbreak basketball has been substituted with weak-side isolation and one-on-one play. The officiating is ridiculous, players take cheap shots instead of playing real defence and the commissioner runs the league as if he's the godfather.
Usually when you lose interest in the quality of play on the field you can at least take comfort in the stars because they are great personalities off the field. But you can't even take comfort in that any more. The too-much-information age has revealed things about players that I don't want to know. Players are little more than dumb jocks, spoiled multi-millionaires and wannabe rappers. There are relatively few guy to admire but one such guy, and my new favourite NBA player is Etan Thomas.
I know what you are thinking: why admire a guy who only averages 4.7 points and 3.9 rebounds a game? This guy refuses to conform to the stereotype of what a young pro-athelete, and more importantly what young black male is supposed to be. He is outspoken, thoughtful and has some very erudite ideas about poverty, politics, social injustice and personal reposibility. He published a book of poetry in 2005 and was been an outspoken critic on the war in Iraq. He uses his platform to actually be a positive role model and speak about whats going on in the world rather than how many TVs he has in his Escalade. In fact he probably doesn't even drive an Escalade because he is cognisant of the realities of foreign oil dependancy and global warming.
While Michael Jordan shied away from being controversial and remained A-political, Thomas makes it a point make sure his voice is heard. He says that he refuses to reduced to an entertainer. Even if you may disagree with some of his opinions, you have to respect the fact that he is bold enough to put them out there. His is definately a voice worth listening to.