Who Won?

Well, the NBA season has finally dragged to a welcome close.  For some it was way too long, for others it was too short, and for still others it was about 3 black men who dared to decide for themselves where they wanted to play, with whom they wanted to play, and damn what the sports establishment thought about their decision.

From the beginning of the season, LeBron, Bosh and D. Wade were vilified in the press and by 'so-called' fans for daring to come together to compete for a championship.

Just a few short years ago, the Boston Celtics brought in 2 super star players to help their team win a championship and no one said a peep about it. Oh, but that was a white, million dollar organization that had the right to determine what was best for them, unlike the 3 black players who exercised that same right but were castigated for it. 

LeBron in particular was vilified like a runaway slave for leaving the Cleveland plantation after 7 years of hard labor with little or no support from the slave overseer, Dan Gilbert.  He and most of the fans were so ungrateful and bitter, they would have had a lynching party and lynched LeBron if they thought they could get away with it - just like they used to do in the good ole' days to runaway slaves,

Looking back, LeBron did the right thing regardless of who didn't like the way he did it. He was thought to be uppity, irresponsible and ungrateful just like slaves were thought to be back in the day. 

Not only did Miami have a successful year, but they made it all the way into the finals ahead of stellar teams like Boston, the Lakers, San Antonio and Chicago. The Dallas Mavs beat them in the best of 7 games, but they can hold their heads high for what they accomplished, and on their own terms.

So who's laughing now? LeBron and crew are still very young and very rich, and have ample time to win championships in the future. But whether that happens or not, they already 'won' when they dared to dream of their own future, and did what it took to make it a reality. 

The NBA season is now a footnote in history and the real important problems of the world still have not lessened nor have been resolved. Dave Zirin wrote, " How can we deny the truth that many of us look to sports as a distraction from the trials and tribulations of our own lives? How can we deny that the reason so many of us read the sports page before the front page is that one is both bearable and comprehensible while the other simply isn’t?...We live in a crumbling nation with epic unemployment, two million people behind bars, and vast wealth inequality, while being told that we inhabit the best country on earth and to think otherwise is heresy. In such a world, sports become more than an escape: it’s a refuge. It’s much easier - and emotionally manageable - to hate Lebron James than face our collective future."
  
In the final analysis, who won or who lost means absolutely nothing to most of the billions of humans on planet earth, who have to scratch to find work and feed, clothe, and house their families every day.

Struggling to live is what's really important - not some game that the dumb white sports establishment thinks is relevant, but in fact is totally irrelevant to the lives of most people living in this world.