I don’t always write about blindness or disabilities on this blog. Heck, once I even wrote a short piece about the birthday of the bikini–which also happens to be the birthday of former Prez George W. Bush. I argued that the bikini was aging better than “W”–an opinion that resulted in a firm rebuke from a right wing newspaper publisher in New Hampshire, but I digress. (In that post I also argued that people with disabilities might not be aging as well as the Prez, what with cuts in social programs, but there I go again–obviously I can’t get away from disability themes for long.)
But this isn’t about disability at all. It’s about the perfervid and nutty soap opera that American sports fans have been subjected to over the past 48 hours. The LeBron James “will-he-or-won’t-he-stay-in-Cleveland-story” got mixed up with the real game known as professional basketball. Why you’d have never known that Mr. James and his team (the Cleveland Cavaliers) were actually playing the 17 time world champion Boston Celtics who are arguably one of the best professional sports franchises in all of pro sports. The way the LeBron story was pitched–whether the medium was TV or newspapers or the digital feeds–was that LeBron James was a strangely ailing medieval king, a man bewitched by dark forces, evil wizards from the underworld. Moreover, the story of the NBA playoff series between the Boston Celtics and the Cavaliers was discussed in the media as if the real sport of basketball was immaterial.
Now I’m just a visually impaired university professor in Iowa, you betcha. But I grew up in New England in the 60’s and I listened to the Celtics on radio during the golden years of Bill Russell and Red Auerbach. I’ve been a Celtics fan ever since. (I still dream of Johnny Most on the radio.) Okay, so my bona fides to talk about the NBA are no better than the average Joe’s and I’ll stake no claim to being a candidate for the sports punditocracy. Yet I knew all along that the Celtics would beat the Cavs. I understood this because I actually pay attention to the NBA. I understood that the Celtics’ Rajon Rondo was a point guard who had finally come of age and by turns would give the already deep Boston starting lineup extra assurance and breadth. And realistically no one could say that Cleveland had breadth. And this was borne out in a series that underscored that the Celtics still have the hearts of a championship team.
But you’d never have guessed that Boston was really “in the house” given the nonsense that emanated from all corners of the media this past week.
The LeBron James and the Cavaliers story was as unreal as the monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai desert. Wait. Check that. The monastery is real.
S.K.
Planet of the Blind 
Oh, have the Celtics and the Lakers met before? Whatever. My money will be in my pocket.
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Thank you Leslie B for sending the John Sikkora story. It is an excellent example of human stamina and soulfulness for sure! As for your “take” on the NBA, well, you can be excused for yur Lakers-esque piety. I’ll give you that but when its another Celtics-Lakers final my money will be on Boston.
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Obviously there is some sort of value to watching sporting events, because a quite large number of average people who are up to the eyeballs in debt willingly finance multi-million dollar contracts of professional sports superstars. I am not one of these, but to humor SK, I dutifully researched the topic. SK, you provided the (highly biased) New Englander’s perspective of this situation. Look at the Los Angeles Times for the detached West Coast perspective. In their Saturday article, they basically state that the “aging” Celtics should have lost that sixth game, but James had a sore elbow. (I know, the phrase “aging” is “age-ist”, but sports folks have figured out that, in a population, the incidence of disability increases with age.) Essentially, the “build an experienced team” philosophy won out over the “all eggs in one LeBron-shaped basket” philosophy. For the sake of all aging fans, perhaps the Celtics can continue their winning streak.
But that story was not the feature story in the L.A. Times’ Saturday Sports section. That belonged to the story of John Sikkora, a guy at Chaminade College Prepatory High School in Canoga Park, California who lives and breaths baseball. A degenerative neurological disorder* left him with vision, cognitive and muscle coordination impairments that prevent him from effectively competing out on the baseball diamond. But this did not dampen his enthusiasm for the game. In his senior year, one of the baseball coaches recognized the value of having someone on the team who, in the words of a teammate is, “…always smiling – I mean, always smiling – and that smile makes us stronger.” By the end of the year, as they rose to No. 1 in the Southern Section Division 2 rankings, the team elected John Sikkora the new Team Captain. The “news” of the story is how the team all pulled together to help Sikkora earn a varsity letter.
Here are the related links:
“Celtics Send Cavaliers – and LeBron James? – Packing”
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-celtics-cavaliers-20100514,0,2642179.story
“John Sikkora: Living the Dream At Last”
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/13/sports/la-sp-0514-plaschke-20100514
Batten disease: https://health.google.com/health/ref/Neuronal+ceroid+lipofuscinoses+(NCLS)
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“Yet I knew all along that the Celtics would beat the Cavs.”
Yeah, me too. Then again I’m from Cleveland and we never win so not winning again was a given! LeBron or no LeBron!
In other news, guess whose autograph I have tucked inside an old scrapbook, Mr. Kuusisto? Don’t want to guess? Oh, ok.
John Havlicek’s!
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Mr. James will have to survive on $30 million a year or so when he signs a new contract. How will the poor man make ends meet?
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