There is always a dark side. Also in success stories. Or maybe especially in the success stories. The story of sporting triumph usually prevails, but along the way notes are written in the margins. They are notes that move away from the values proclaimed by the mainstream. And, in some way, they contribute to humanize it, to attract another type of audience, to consolidate that permanent analogy between what happens on a court and life. Because in sport, as in life, there are also violent, rude, unbearable, provocative or simply lost people. And although they will leave moments of embarrassment, the passage of time will soften their impact, molding it until it becomes an almost kind memory. It will be a matter of perspective and empathy. Many times these fractious stories are marked by a complicated context, especially in childhood. By knowing him, the dark side receives some light.
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In The Bad Boys of the NBA (JC), José Manuel Puertas chooses 25 players whose stories collided with the image of the best basketball league in the world. To understand the mythical Isiah Thomas, for example, you have to go back to a childhood as the youngest of nine siblings, without a father figure, searching the street for coins or leftover food, with drugs, fights and robberies the order of the day. With a special talent for basketball and for finding enemies on and off the court. He has two NBA championship rings achieved in the years when Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan were in the spotlight. He fell out with all three.
The context of Bill Laimbeer, former player for the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Detroit Pistons, was very different from that of his teammate Thomas. It didn’t stop them from getting along. “I’m the only one in the league who earns less than his father,” he declared jokingly. He was in basketball to have fun. In his way, of course. He became one of the most hated players in the history of the competition. What would his attitude be like? Thomas himself said one day about him: “You have to understand that he has a good heart… The problem is that he has no conscience.”
Conceited, conspiracy-minded guys who jumped into the stands after a fan who had thrown a glass at them, who had problems with drugs, who made wrong decisions, who lost control, who spoke before thinking or who wasted millions of dollars. All of this is contextualized when knowing their life trajectories.
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2024-02-12 05:38:16
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