Platform

NBA viewership declined early this season. Shaquille O’Neal blames Stephen Curry, or at least his style of play that Shaq does not exactly like. He says the 3-point shooting of the scoring machine is mimicked by everyone. Now the game is ho-hum predictable.

We know where O’Neal is coming from. He was a dominant center during his time. He won three championships with the Lakers and one with the Heat. The 7’1” mammoth would have been rendered useless in the defense under the ring, while the three-pointer of a shooting star drops without touching the rim.

When one of the 50 greatest basketball players of all time speaks, everybody listens, especially if it makes perfect sense. For, another 50-greatest lister Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored the NBA’s all-time highest points with only one three-pointer. The 6-time most valuable player held the scoring record for almost four decades, until LeBron James happened.

In tennis, the vocal John McEnroe misses the serve-and-volley game he perfected during his prime. The 7-time grand slam champion fears the game evolves for the worse even if the trivalry extended baseline rallies to eternity.

Again, when one of tennis greats speaks, everybody listens. At least in sports, fans still listen to authority with the right credentials. Elsewhere now, people no longer care what is right and wrong, much less know their difference. They just want to be entertained.

Time was when people listened only to politicians of the best quality, for the future of the country. The senate before was made of bar placers and legal luminaries. Rightfully so, lawyers, of the ethical quality, are in the best position to legislate. Now it is diversified, but leave it to the people to decide.

Or to priests and other religious leaders, for salvation. Although cult masters have been around for as long as the vulnerable empowered them. For always, the hopeless gullible succumb to seduction of divine promise when all else fail. When hope dims, humans start to look up elsewhere.

Or to educators, for quality instruction. Classroom used to be the best place to learn wisdom from. But now it is everywhere, in places called virtual reality. Everyone has a venue, including the dumb and the stupid. The bane of social media, it empowered everyone. And the price of democracy. it entitles everyone, tempered only by libel and obscenity.

Or to the media, for news and views. But now it is drowned by social media. Where before the problem was envelopmental journalism, now it is fake news peddled by trolls, evils who lie and deceive to earn. Time evolves, sports change, especially with technology. The three-pointers in basketball and the baseliners in tennis are the currency to success. Just a fad maybe, it disappears in time. But stupidity is timeless, it never runs out of style. It mutates and blurs, like an accident waiting to happen.