Bleachers' Brew #140 American Idol

(This will appear in my Monday January 12, 2009 column in the Business Mirror.
http://businessmirror.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4363:american-idol&catid=31:sports&Itemid=65)

American Idol
by rick olivares

You can say that Charles Barkley had it coming. This time he was wrong and no one can doubt it.

Loquacious, quotable, irreverent, honest, and rough, Barkley was the heir to anti-heroes like Dirty Harry and Mad Max. He waxed controversial with his thought-provoking lament about athletes: "I am not a role model. I am not paid to be a role model. I am paid to wreak havoc on a basketball court. Parents should be role models. Just because I can dunk a basketball does not mean I should raise your kids." And he took the Wright Brothers one step higher when he tested the theory of human aerodynamics when he threw a person out of a bar window.

It’s a good thing that many choose to laugh at his quips and not really idolize him because if they did, they’re due for a serious letdown.

As a result of his Driving Under the Influence of alcohol charge, he is being suspended from TNT for a few weeks. And the media has had a field day in crucifying Barkley.

Mistakes like drunk driving are potentially hazardous not just for those who could be victims but even for those behind the wheel. One does not need to be a victim or related to a victim to feel angry. And there doesn’t have to be a victim for the guilty to be punished. It’s a case of why wait for the crime to happen?

It can also be the loophole one needs to boot out an undesirable. Such as the case of former New York Yankees executive Steve Swindal who was once tabbed to replace George Steinbrenner (since the Boss’s own sons weren’t involved in baseball) after his retirement from baseball. After his divorce to Steinbrenner’s daughter Jennifer, Swindal was one out away from being atop of one of the world’s great sports franchises. And he was out with only two strikes (the first being the divorce)!

Sports may have its hardcore and stringent rules but life certainly has its own and they can be much harsher even at the cost of being somewhat illogical.

I believe in fair play and in the law being just. A law doesn’t necessarily mean it serves justice but who am I to say that when I am not a lawyer?

If the screwy American justice system can offer chances of parole to such serious criminals like Sirhan Sirhan and Mark David Chapman, then people like Charles Barkley should be punished and reprimanded yet tempered with clemency. He fessed up for a first time offender and will deal with it. Ladies and gentlemen, he isn’t a murderer, thief, or a terrorist (although Kenny Smith may claim Sir Charles to be one on account of his tinged barbs).

The United States has a strange and ironic way of dealing with its public figures. -- build them up and tear them down brutally. Yet if someone admits they were wrong then they can forgive (depends on the gravity of the mistake or crime). It seems boggling because others like in the words of a friend, “Wall Street scammers and crooked politicians get away with fines and house arrest.” Now doesn’t that sound so familiar?

They chose not to impeach Bill Clinton for having sex with an intern inside the White House. Monicagate was misuse of authority and an illegal use of a weapon of mass destruction. And it begat the question, who was in a position of power?

As for Hilary Clinton, she lied. Not once, but several times about her trip to Bosnia where she said she landed under sniper fire. And she’s on video for the record. Not getting the facts straight as he husband spun it is horse hockey. And you want the position of the world’s most powerful permission in the hands of someone who can’t tell the truth? George Washington will roll over in his grave! I cannot tell a lie!

Yet they’re hanging around because they pushed the right buttons. They are public officials! Servants of the state and the people. It seems that the term “public servant” has come to mean that “the public are servants.” And that holds true especially in the Philippines.

Just because Charles Barkley isn’t a role model that doesn’t mean we can’t listen to him call an NBA game. I watch an NBA game not just for the action but also the color commentary and Barkley is one of the best.

It is a conundrum when you think that abortion is legal in the United States where the viability of a fetus is put at a couple of months and its permissible to have it removed. However you put it, there is still a life that is snuffed out. It’s a conundrum that they don’t value life even is such an early stage of gestation yet they have made a mantra out of leaving no man behind during times of distress or conflict even at the cost of other lives. And surely you have heard of the case of Michael Vick. Yes. Save the dogs but not the fetus.

Barkley and Vick are celebrated as athletes; put atop on pedestals. Yet on a driving under the influence charge and a gambling and illegal dog fighting charge, they are pilloried, suspended, and in the case of Vick, his life and career destroyed possibly even beyond repair.

No, I am not condoning, driving under the influence, gambling, and cruelty to animals. Seriously, are you afraid of a large black man that’s why we want him torn down? And what Vick did was wrong and he deserves to be punished. But not to the point where his life is nearly destroyed. Some will he say it was his own doing and some will say that the prison system does not rehabilitate and only hardens criminals. So what say we execute them all now, huh?

Who should go to jail? OJ Simpson and Jayson Williams most definitely. And yes, those guys who gave the false intel on Iraq that precipitated its invasion. Now that was either self-serving because I hear oil money, the dollar falling against the Euro, or another plot by war mongerers.

America does not need its troops to be sent to foreign lands to advance its interests. Desperate Housewives, the NBA games, and McDonald’s do a pretty good job at it. It is after all, the path of least resistance.

As a kid, I slept on a double decker bed. I stayed on top while my younger brother occupied the bed below. I covered my room from wall to wall all the way up to the ceiling with posters of Kiss, Led Zep, Bruce Springsteen, and Phoebe Cates. But the one pin-up that held my attention was that of Julius Winfield Erving swooping in for a dunk on the Los Angeles Lakers’ Michael Cooper. Actually I must confess I cut out the image from a copy of Sports Illustrated in the school library. I would have shorn off the picture of Cheryl Tiegs in a fishnet swimsuit that pumped up a million male hearts had not someone beat me to the dirty deed. But the Doctor … even before Michael Jordan, he made me believe that man could fly. If only for a few seconds.

As I grew older, the image of Dr. J would eventually be taken down and be replaced by the New York Yankees’ Reggie Jackson, the Boston Celtics’ Larry Bird, Jordan, and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders (before I discovered the Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders).

For the longest time I was a Toyota, Ginebra, and Jaworski fan, but after the throat-slitting incident with Allan Caidic, I stopped being a fan. While in college, I wrote the Big J a letter after Ginebra lost in Game 2 of the 1986 Open Conference against Manila Beer. Nothing really but words of encouragement and ahem… some plays I diagrammed to help my team win. That Christmas, I not only received a personal Christmas Card from the Big J but a Ginebra jacket. I felt bad when he was booed during EDSA and in his return to the PBA after EDSA. The Big J was never been known to take a loss well and as his Ginebra team was being skewered by the Triggerman, I felt it was an unsportsmanlike gesture. And that is an understatement.

Barkley said that “A million guys in jail can dunk a basketball. Should they be role models?”

I eventually idolized people for their skills, feats, and achievements in the realm of arts, cinema, sports, and whatnot. I listen for their capacity to call and NBA game or to march their team down field with time running out and they need one Hail Mary play. But that’s as far as it goes and it’s hardly for their character because I would come away sorely disappointed. You know… human frailty. Often gets the best of us.

I may be wrong, but I doubt it.