In recent times, the event of greatest hype in the basketball world has undoubtedly been Caitlin Clark’s landing in the WNBA. As predicted by many observers, the facts are proving that we are not dealing with a mere sports event, but with something that deeply penetrates the political sphere too. Just type “Caitlin Clark WNBA” into the YouTube search engine to get an idea of what is going on.
Despite my attempt to judge the situation solely from a sports perspective, I have ended up discussing politics too. For what concerns basketball, what is happening is something sensational. Only 30 years ago it would have been unthinkable that a player could shoot with Clark’s ease from those distances, especially so in the case of a female player. In regard to political matters, I don’t want to delve into internal issues of the WNBA, which is supposedly dominated by black female players belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community. However, as a basketball player who considers The Game a religion, I can’t keep silent in front of such actions:
Any player knows that these are not fouls to intimidate or send a message to the opponent. These are fouls made deliberately to hurt. Needless to say, when a player demeans herself by using these despicable, vile, and thuggish means, she is admitting to the whole world her inferiority, mental even before technical, to her opponent. In this case, Clark’s superiority in terms of mental toughness is evident as proven by the fact that she does not turn a hair in the face of these shameful episodes — someone else in her place would not only have reacted vehemently but would also have already consulted their lawyer to see if there are grounds for a lawsuit. For instance, when questioned right after the game the first clip refers to, she responded calmly and confidently: “I was just focusing on making those free throws.”
That being said, these violent actions reminded me of a recent episode that occurred in the Italian parliament. In essence, a group of right-wing deputies cowardly beat a member of the opposition who tried to provoke them by waiving the Italian flag (as far as I know, it should be still the symbol of our national unity!). To me, this brawl should be a wake-up call for the Italians as we are supposed to know very well what Fascism is and how it started — <sarcasm mode on> yes, my people are so genius that we invented Fascism too; long-time readers of my blog should not be surprised, however, as they are perfectly aware that the Italians are exceptionally brilliant even though it seems that billions of people around the world have not noticed it, yet <sarcasm mode off>. What happened in the Chamber of Deputies was an outright squadrista attack. There is nothing surprising about this in light of the current zeitgeist. To some extent, the female players attempting to physically injure Clark are similar to fascists who, because of their nature, futilely attempt to overcome their own weaknesses with the violent attack of their adversary. And just as it happened a century ago, the Italians not only granted these people the right to govern themselves, but they also often minimize such events. Yet another confirmation of Marx’s famous statement claiming that history repeats itself in the form of farce, given the paucity of the current ruling class (in general, not only the political one): the mere thought of entrusting them with the management of an apartment building gives me the shivers, let alone a state. In my opinion, it is just incredible that they truly think about solving modern, complex problems with the same insane recipes that led to the devastation of Europe last century. I’m afraid that the inevitable conclusion will be a crash, similar to what occurred in the 1900s. But this time, we’ll accomplish it faster while also covering ourselves with ridicule.
I end this post with another sadly relevant, bitter quote, this time from Churchill:
Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Winston Churchill
PS: Of course, I don’t think that Caitlin Clark needs my advice. Anyhow, I take the liberty of suggesting that she adopts the following motto, which is perfectly suited for the moment: “Molti nemici, molto onore” (“Many enemies, much Honor”). But I am afraid that most of her opponents/critics would not grasp the sarcasm. So it is probably not a good idea.
PPS: I think that this jersey will be my personal political manifesto. Hopefully, it should be still safe to wear it while hooping at the playground. For the time being.
Credits
Featured image: I created the featured image with ideogram.
LLandre.com 