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i was gonna write something about this last night, but we opted against. so here& #39;s a thread.
people are gonna dismiss this because of the source, but Kyrie has a salient. it& #39;s verbose, with a dab of incoherence, but he& #39;s not wrong (1/13) https://twitter.com/BR_NBA/status/1199899535650242566">https://twitter.com/BR_NBA/st...
people are gonna dismiss this because of the source, but Kyrie has a salient. it& #39;s verbose, with a dab of incoherence, but he& #39;s not wrong (1/13) https://twitter.com/BR_NBA/status/1199899535650242566">https://twitter.com/BR_NBA/st...
pro athletes are seldom viewed as people first, b/c they& #39;re so far removed from what we consider normalcy. that doesn& #39;t mean they& #39;re teflon or objects. and while they& #39;re fair game for critiques, b/c they exist in the public eye, there& #39;s a point where takez cross the line (2/12)
i& #39;m culpable, too. i like to consider my absurdist (/very not funny) humor about Kyrie/others above board, but there are people who take that stuff seriously—who actually will dismiss what a player says b/c they, in their eyes, wronged their team or seem fake woke or w/e (3/12)
the ease with which we get access to players& #39; lives verges on uncomfortable (i.e. reports of Kyrie& #39;s behind-the-scenes mood). our first instinct may be to crack jokes or go one step further by declaring him cancerous. but what if there& #39;s actually something else at play? (4/12)
it& #39;s comparably awkward to question a player& #39;s mental health without their saying anything. it robs them of a certain agency. but when Kyrie talks about dealing w/ the death of his grandfather/admits to failing the Cs, is it really fair to *assume* it& #39;s disingenuous spin? (5/12)
maybe Kyrie is acting out a schtick. but players are under intense scrutiny. just as super intimate information is more accessible, it& #39;s easier for narratives that aren& #39;t entirely accurate or are only snapshots of a situation to dominate perception of or define a player (6/12)
that& #39;s definitely an in-built danger of how networks/media/bloggers—myself included—cover the league. especially in recent years, the focus has expanded past, if strayed from, the games (7/12)
i& #39;m not saying Kyrie is a hero, or even necessarily a sympathetic figure. he didn& #39;t need to talk about retiring with the Celtics, or to declare his intentions to return. but shit also happens. the difference is these players live under a microscope (8/12)
DeMar talked about this last night, when he said he wished he played in the 90s after being asked about unfollowing the Spurs on social media. the extent to which these players are monitored has to be exhausting (9/12)
again: Kyrie personally does come off unnecessarily holier than now. and i personally believe players should lean more into the meme/absurdist culture, if only to deaden its impact (10/12)
still, it feels dangerous to dismiss his point in its entirety, or to infer something else from everything he says, or to claim we have this visceral hold of who he is/other players are as a person. we don& #39;t (11/12)
