Maybe one of the dumbest question any reporter can ask a professional athlete is whether or not a jarring incident can help "put things in perspective."
This is the case with Etan Thomas. Just about every one of his teammates has been asked this question over the last two days.
Of course when someone as young and as healthy as Thomas has to have heart surgery, it's stunning. After all, on the outside Thomas appears to be the picture of health.
But to ask one of his teammates if this helps put things in perspective is ridiculous.
Why? Because it makes the assumption that athletes have no perspective.
Here's what I think.
This is another example of stereotyping. This is people assuming -- and therefore insulting -- athletes by suggesting they have no perspective. I mean, you tell me who has lost perspective here. The guy powdering his face before he goes in front of a camera or the athlete?
Think about it. When a regular Joe has heart surgery, nobody asks his friends whether or not they now have perspective.
Can anyone possibly have any more perspective on this kind of situation than, say, Antonio Daniels? Or did we forget that Daniels lost his older brother, Chris, to a heat attack when the two of them were in college?
No wonder a lot of these guys don't like talking to the media.
-- John N. Mitchell
Comments (1)
What's dumb is that it's a cliche question. And if I were a baller, I would resent being asked it.
But do you really believe that most pro athletes are ordinary folk? Ha.
There are exceptions, like Antonio Daniels, but the majority of these guys live in their own worlds and make enormous sums of money. That's not reality.
As for the reason that nobody asks the friends of the regular Joe who has heart surgery whether they now have perspective? That's because folks in the media don't really have an interest in ordinary folk -- unless those ordinary folk are involved in extraordinary circumstances.
The media devotes a disproportionate share of its broadcasts and websites and newspapers to pro athletes and celebrities -- the vast majority of whom are singularly uninteresting people, whatever skills they might possess.
That, John, is what you should be po-'ed about.
There's your lack of perspective.
Posted by TK | October 30, 2007 1:44 PM