Marginal Revolution: The best John Amaechi bit I read yesterday

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The best John Amaechi bit I read yesterday

He [Amaechi] writes that the pros play the game for a lot of reasons—money, fame, groupies, self-esteem—but that very few NBA players love basketball. "The fan sitting at home … wants us to love the game like he does," he writes. "If he knew why we really play the game, for the most part, he might not love the game. He might not even watch it." The average fan, gay or straight, will probably find that contention more troubling than a former player's homosexuality.

Here is more.

Posted by Tyler Cowen on February 17, 2007 at 08:01 AM in Sports | Permalink

Comments

one of the most successful professional Go player in Japan, Cho Chikun, asked why he liked go so much, replied: "I hate Go".

The reason was that he has such an intense desire to win that it becomes debilitating, especially during a two-day match

http://www.msoworld.com/mindzine/news/orient/go/japan/archive/meijin25bts.html
http://senseis.xmp.net/?ChoChikun

Posted by: anonymous coward at Feb 17, 2007 9:33:44 AM

That seems like a bit of hyperbole. Perhaps the NBA players don't like playing professional basketball in its current context, with all the pressure, scrutiny, travel demands and relentless competition -- the same way a rock star might loathe music by the time he gets off a long tour. But I find it very hard to believe that these guys actively dislike it: witness the playfully-competitive nature of the Gilbert Arenas - DeShawn Stevenson three-point shootout.

Posted by: Joe Grossberg at Feb 17, 2007 11:16:09 AM

That is hyperbole.
It probably has some element of truth but it's way overstated.

Posted by: Bill at Feb 17, 2007 1:31:33 PM

Michael Jordan loves baseball more than basketball. That's why he became a minor league baseball player in the middle of his NBA career. And he probably loves golf more than basketball, too.

But what Jordan really loves above all else is winning, so he came back to basketball.

Posted by: Steve Sailer at Feb 17, 2007 4:28:32 PM

This contrasts sharply with Scott Adams' reasoning that all shoe-salesmen have a foot-fetish.

Posted by: TGGP at Feb 17, 2007 5:16:32 PM

How many people love their jobs? I would guess it's well below 50%.

Posted by: jp at Feb 17, 2007 6:40:07 PM

One of the classic big problems for people in the arts is that they go into the arts because they love it -- painting, designing, acting, music, whatever. If they're lucky, they get to make a living at what they love. But then ... it becomes a job. And once it becomes a job many of them find that the spark goes away. They can deploy their skills, they're putting some talent to work, they're glad to have the money, etc. But what happened to the joy they initially felt, that brought them into the field in the first place? I've known artsies who've sensed this coming, or who have had a taste of financial success, and who have backed away from it because it was more important for them to nurture (and experience) the joy than it was to make it as a professional.

Sounds like this may be true for some athletes as well. I wonder in how many fields this often becomes the case?

And an interesting little conundrum for economists to look into, no? At least in my ideal universe economists would enjoy looking into this kind of thing ...

Posted by: Michael Blowhard at Feb 17, 2007 9:40:43 PM

Amaechi's teammate on the Utah Jazz Jarron Collins (a pretty smart guy who went to Stanford and LA's top prep school Harvard-Westlake) says that Amaechi was in a class by himself for not liking basketball.

http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660194084,00.html

John Amaechi was a terrific person to talk to about any subject.
Except basketball, remembers Utah Jazz center Jarron Collins, who was a rookie when Amaechi was a backup center.
Not everybody loves their job, but it was the first time Collins said he ever encountered a basketball player who wasn't interested in the game.
"You could talk to John Amaechi about anything in the world, and he had an opinion about it. Very intelligent," said Collins, who graduated from Stanford himself.
"But when you'd talk to him about teams, like, 'Hey, did you see that game last night? Did you see the Nets play Atlanta last night?' you knew that you just don't even go there because he didn't care."

Posted by: Steve Sailer at Feb 17, 2007 9:48:37 PM

I do not believe Amaechi started playing basketball until he was 17. Plus, he's British. Of course, he doesn't like basketball.

Posted by: Paul at Feb 18, 2007 1:32:56 AM

What I don't understand about all this "Amaechi really hated basketball" analysis is that, if so, why did he turn down a $29 million/six-year contract to play for the Lakers (where he would have been a backup with little pressure) to take less money to go to Utah? Perhaps the bio explains.

Posted by: Ted at Feb 18, 2007 1:48:07 PM

"How many people love their jobs? I would guess it's well below 50%."

It depends on the job. I suspect that at least a portion of basketball players really do have a passion for the game, but how many janitors really have a passion for cleaning up shit? I'm a finance student and done a few internships, and I've observed that people who work as prop traders, on average, like their job a whole lot better than people that do fund accounting. And yet - at times you do find people that are really passionate about working for a bank.

Jeff Kent makes it known that he views playing baseball as a job - he doesn't like the game, but works hard because it gives him a paycheck. I think people can respect that: a whole lot of people don't like their careers but find happiness in their personal and spiritual life. Yet there are a significant number of players that do have a passion for the game they're playing (see: Ricky Henderson, who is a geezer in baseball terms but still plays in the minors because he doesn't want to stop playing).

Posted by: Chris at Feb 18, 2007 1:55:34 PM

Amaechi's estimate of the number of players who don't like the game is likely colored by two errors, both acting to overestimate: psychological projection, where he imputes his feelings to others, and selection bias, where the other players who had similar feelings were more likely to talk to him at length about it than those who really loved the game.

Posted by: Anthony at Feb 18, 2007 3:46:22 PM

Anthony is probably correct.

Posted by: James Kabala at Feb 18, 2007 6:52:06 PM

A Soviet dissident once wrote that an amateur is someone who loves his job and does it badly, while a professional hates his job and does it well. He was comparing the amateurs at the CIA with the professionals at the KGB at the time.

On basketball, I've read lots of quotations from players who say they feel very lucky to be paid to play a game they love. More amazingly, football players, who really get the crap beaten out of them and have a much lower ration of playing time to drudgery, often seem incredibly attached to the gaem.

Posted by: srp at Feb 19, 2007 2:33:54 AM

John Amaechi did make it known how other NBA players view homosexuality, by getting the type of reaction
he got from Tim Hardaway. that doesn't matter though, all of these players are retired and nobody cares
what they think. I hope he feels relieved by comming out, but the charity work he does is more important than his
than his sexuality. Doesn't he know that it's 2007 and the gay lifestyle is distinguished in every race. a
There are even datimg shows on MTV for the gay lifestyle as well straight lifestyle, its EVERWHERE!!!

Posted by: neil henry at Feb 19, 2007 7:31:13 PM

He was a very one-off type of NBA player so I think his views are not as helpful at understanding the avg NBA players viewpoint. He was British, he was gay, he had never played college basketabll, he didn't start until he was older in life, while most players grew up with it from when they could walk.

Posted by: Johnny Debacle at Feb 20, 2007 9:18:21 AM

If you want to hear a great commentary on the NBA, listen to "The NBA: Marketing The Minstrel Show and Serving the Big Gangsters" By Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party (at www.bobavakian.net)

Posted by: d'andre at Feb 24, 2007 12:36:50 AM

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