I root for the hometown teams — the Gophers, the Vikings, the Twins, the Timberwolves, and the Wild. When the Wild and the Timberwolves crash and burn, as they just have, I consider them and their season a failure. The Wild lost to the Dallas Stars in the first round of the NHL playoffs — they lost to the better team. The Timberwolves lost to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the NBA playoffs — they lost to the far better team.
Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks just lost to the Miami Heat in the first round of the NBA playoffs. This was deemed a particularly humiliating exit by those who know better than I. Asked whether he viewed the season as a failure by the Bucks beat reporter for The Athletic, Giannis held forth with a life lesson for Eric Nehm (video below). I greatly admire his eloquence (his eloquence in a second language), his thoughtfulness (his thoughtfulness in the heat of the moment), and his composure. I’ll take all that as a life lesson in itself, even if I think “yes” was the correct answer.
The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay is my favorite sports columnist. His column (behind the Journal’s paywall) drew my attention to Giannis’s response. He elaborates on it in a series of bullet points. This is his final bullet point: “[I]t would have been easy for Antetokounmpo to say ‘Yes, I am a big sad failure, just call me Giannis the failure’ and all of today’s theatrical tough talkers would have nodded solemnly and said, Wow, he gets it. But that’s not how life is. Life is more complicated and textured. So is success. There’s always steps to it. Kudos to Giannis Antetokounmpo for pointing it out.”
I think the higher purpose of sports is to teach us to philosophize in the sense that Montaigne taught in his essay “That to philosophize is to learn to die.” Giannis doesn’t quite get there, but he’s on the way.
JOHN adds: I will only add that to be a Minnesota sports fan is to become a philosopher.
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