Saturday, May 14, 2016

Themes and variations around basketball

How Air Jordan Became Crying Jordan from TheNewYorker "Of his fierce competitiveness, Jordan told Thompson, “It’s consumed me so much. … I’m my own worst enemy. I drove myself so much that I’m still living with some of those drives.” This Jordan was almost a tragic figure, and it helps explain the Crying Jordan meme: if you can’t win anymore, you can only lose. The image of blubbering Jordan is part despair, and part tantrum. The meme is the people knocking Jordan down several pegs. Jordan in his prime was unassailable, a man out of reach, way up there above the rim. Now even you can take him."
Understanding Obama Through Basketball from TheNewYorker
Ex-Basketball Player a poem by John Updike, possibly a precursor to his novel 'Rabbit, Run' available online, a novel I read in the sixties and liked very much.
a similar theme bur from American football 'The Eighty-Yard Run' by Irwin Shaw

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