In the Thesaurus, I'm Next to Illest

I was all set to do a post comparing Talib Kweli and Greg Oden to Mos Def and Kevin Durant. Basically, I read this quote from Kweli: "Ain't nobody making music to not be heard and the easiest way to be heard is to be on the radio, but you should never compromise who you are, your values or your morals." And I thought that was kind of like Oden. Common sense says he should declare himself eligible for the NBA Draft next year, start playing and as soon as possible sign that max extension. But, reports continue to filter out about how much he enjoys school. How in high school Calculus he argued over one point, how he calls old high school teachers to talk about what he's learning, not mentioning basketball once. The goal of any college basketball player is to one day play in the NBA, but you should never compromise who you are. Maybe Oden enjoys being a kid, maybe he will put off today what he can do tomorrow. And in that way I thought he was like Kweli someone who, sure has some beats from Kayne West and Pharrell, but was always seemingly more interested in his lyrics, and not in catering his music to the masses.

Conversely, Mos Def was always much more commercially successful than his Black Star counterpart. Mos Def's single "Umi Says" was a Nike commercial, he has stared in movies with Bruce Willis, Halle Berry, Mark Whalberg, and Damon Wayans. Kevin Durant is Mos Def to Oden's Kweli. Durant was the AP and Big XII player of the year. There are already estimations that his deal with Nike will be between $35-$70 million. It is almost a foregone conclusion he will declare for the NBA Draft and there is no dcoubt he will be one of the first two picks. College was a stepping stone and he's ready to make the leap.

I started off by saying that I was wanted to post about the comparisons between Blackstar and the two most impressive players in the country. I wanted to argue that Kweli was more lyrically talented than Mos Def and that his resistence to the limelight has enhanced the quality of his music. I wanted to argue just as Kweli is superior, so is Oden. Even though his team in the Final Four because of his implacable block against Tennessee and rancorous play in the second half versus Memphis, Oden, himself has conceded that he's not ready for the NBA. His humility and openness to learn, I felt, made him that more impressive a player. I was going to write all of this, until I read about this guy:



His name is Ben Kweller and he wrote a song entitled, "In Other Words." The song was sampled in Talib Kweli's song, "Ms. Hill," off his lastest album "Right About Now." According to Kweller, Kweli did not have permission to use the song, and made no effort to point out that the music was Kweller's. In his defense, Kweli starts off the song by answering a phone and over the beat saying, "Yo who's this? Yeah, I heard it. I mean it's fire." So maybe he didn't know it was someone else's music. Maybe.

Finding out Kweli took that song made me rethink my view on Oden, whether right or wrong. Maybe Oden was just like Kweli in that these stories coming out about how much he loves school and that the NBA can wait, are just illusions. That maybe in the end, he's just like the rest of us, hindred by the rationale of Saturn, as discussed below. In the end, we do what we have to do. It's sort of like something else Kweli said, "Well if somebody's giving me a script, I'll consider it. But it's not something I'm chasing."

Saturn's Rationale

photo from:http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~colbert/saturn.jpg

I cheated on a test once. In second grade we were taking a spelling test and I blanked on the word picnic(you'll have to trust me that I just looked that up). Frantic that this misspelled word would jeopardize any chance of future happiness, and more importantly, a weekend slumber party at the only kid in the class with a Nintendo's house, I dropped my pencil, bent over to pick it up, and flipped through my spelling book. Having retrieved my pencil, I correctly spelt the word and turned in my test. In the end I did what I thought I had to do

I'm troubled by the steroid stories. Sometimes I'm surprised when i hear a new player's name, other times it's really not surprising, "You mean the muscular, mecurial relief pitcher who threw 100 mph was on steroids?" But most times I just don't understand. Why is this a big story? What do people hope is accomplished?

Isn't this Hester Prine revisted? Gary Matthews: S. Sammy Sosa: S. David Bell: S. Rafael Palmerio: S. The story radiates the familiar stench of grandstanding. Journalists are able to stand atop Moral Mount, looking down and castigate any player who is alleged to have used performance enhancers. Then on the 15th and 30th of each month, they cash their check, profiting on the story. With the public's interest perked, and their attention directed, the politicians decry the practice of steroids. Their faces are on Sportscenter. Their speeches transcribed on Espn.com. They now reach a larger audience then just the insomniacs who watch CSPAN at 3:12 am. They are giving a free pass as far as antiquated healthcare and dilapidated public schools in the name of the Commerce Clause.

In the wake of steroid accusations, the cries of "Asterix! Asterix!" echo from the rafters. Steroids have desecrated the game. Baseball thrives on nostalagia. A father takes a son to a game, describes to him, inning by inning, the first game that his father took him to, he then explains that his son will one day of a child, and his son will take that child to the game. The beauty about nostalagia, especially as it relates to baseball, is that you only have to remember the good. Therefore when we hear the stories of the past, we hear about the herculaen feats of Babe Ruth, the grace of Dimaggio, the tragedy of Mantle, the transient flicker of Munson. We don't have to hear about the womanizing of Ruth, or the callousness of Dimaggio or the demons of Mantle. Nostalgia allows us to remember Enos Slaughter's mad dash from first to home in the World Series, but nostalgia permits us to forget he refused to play on the same field (not team) as Jackie Robinson. Those issues are easy though, "It was another time." Oh, yes, another time...

He only did what he had to do. It was illegal. It was shady. It preyed on people's desire to sanctify athletes. But he did what he had to do. I have never really seen athletes as "human" until the steroids controversy. Don't we all want to be remembered? Don't we all want to be honored in some capacity? I remember a line from Mos Def, "I give a damn if any fan recall my legacy/I'm trying to live life in the sight of God's memory." I was always impressed by that, gained as much respect as one can for a person they have never met. And in an ideal world, that would be the way we carry ourselves. But in a world where we desire instant gratification and beyond this moment is unknown...well... We work hard, we think we deserve more than we have, we see others pass us by and we do what we have to do.