True Immaturity in Europe

Until yesterday my favorite professional basketball team was the one playing the Los Angeles Lakers. I watched all the Lakers games for one simple reason: to see them lose. My animation was directly proportional to the humiliation inflicted on the three-time champions. As with any puerile behavior, only self-reflection could finally bring it to an end.

A conversation I had last night with a friend was the impetus for my epiphany. As I expressed my visceral reaction to the Lakers, I realized how much I sounded like the many Europeans I conversed with on a recent trip to the Continent. They felt the same way about “Bush and his cronies” as I did about Shaq and Company.

My friend stopped talking at this point. I was fighting for the little guys now (the Clippers, Hawks, and Warriors), and he didn’t want to look like a heartless jerk.

The interesting thing is that I didn’t hate the Lakers when they were losing. In fact, I felt their pain after each devastating loss. Deep down I blamed them for their losses (how could I not with Kobe throwing up all those air balls?), but their struggle was my struggle. There were no words to express my disappointment when they exited the playoffs year after year.

Remember 9/11? Well, our European friends felt America’s pain then, too. The Le Monde wrote on September 12 that, “In this tragic moment, when words seem so inadequate to express the shock people feel, the first thing that comes to my mind is this: We are all Americans.” More ominous words were buried in later paragraphs. The faint blame-America first chorus that would later develop into a symphony could be heard in lines like this, “If Bin Laden, as the American authorities seem to think, really is the one who ordered the September 11 attacks, how can we fail to recall that he was in fact trained by the CIA and that he was an element of a policy, directed against the Soviets, that the Americans considered to be wise.” These words make complete sense if I use my Lakers hating as a comparison. I might have felt sorry for the Lakers when they lost, but I blamed their selfishness and conceitedness-which I had bitterly ascribed to each member of the team- for their failure.

When six-time champion Phil Jackson took over the helm of the Lakers, there was an immediate turnaround. The coach wanted to instill a system that he believed in and that had proved successful in the past. His goal was simple: to win a championship. My unease with him was simply personal. He seemed so much more cocky and resolute than the previous coach, Del Harris, and his confidence sometimes came across as arrogance. He turned out to be just what the Lakers needed- a true leader- and they went on to win the championship in his first year as coach.

Similarly, most Europeans weren’t comfortable when George Bush entered the White House. Here was a guy who talked and walked like a cowboy and judged the world in simplistic moral terms. He wanted to undo the damage he felt his predecessor had done and set the country back on the path from which it had wandered. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, President Bush became even more focused and aware of his duty to defend America as Commander-in-Chief. Much of the European elite regarded this as simply unilateralist machismo. Herta Daubler-Gmelin, the German justice minister, declared, “Bush wants to divert attention from domestic difficulties. That is a popular method. Hitler has done that before.” Once again, I can completely understand Ms. Daubler-Gmelin’s concerns. After all, didn’t I yell obscenities at the television screen during Phil Jackson’s sanctimonious press conferences?

Before long the Lakers had become a dynasty. Three-time champions. No team could beat them. Meanwhile, my hatred of them had reached its highest point. I hated Shaq’s emotionless voice and wry humor. Every time Kobe licked his lips during an interview I wanted to punch a hole through my television screen. Rick Fox’s pretty boy smile was just too much to look at. I never considered the fact that all of them were consummate professionals. That none of them had ever been in trouble with the law. That they were good family men who gave back to the community. I found myself cheering on thugs like Allan Iverson and Chris Webber, hoping they would just beat the horrible Lakers.

Today, after the build-up and commencement of war in Iraq, the world seems to be equally inverted. Millions of people in Madrid, London, Rome, and Paris don’t come out to criticize the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein, but rather to attack the democratic country that will sacrifice so much to free the people of Iraq. The Portuguese writer and Nobel laureate Jose Saramago summed it up as only a novelist could, “We are marching against the law of the jungle that the United States and its acolytes old and new want to impose on the world.” But I suppose I shouldn’t blame him. After all, he is very angry.

Back home after the night at my friend's house I turned on CSPAN and caught the beginning of a speech given by the former CIA director James Woolsey. He was explaining how he looks at our current involvement in Iraq as part of a much larger war- one he calls World War 4. Hopefully it won’t last as long as World War 3 (The Cold War), but it will be a tough fight. I switched the channel with sadness and stumbled onto the Lakers game. They were struggling as they had been all year long. I watched them in their purple and gold uniforms, the same colors that legends like Magic Johnson and Jerry West had worn with pride for such a great franchise. Kobe, Shaq, Fox and the rest of the Lakers were fighting bravely just like our fine men and women are doing today in the Middle East.

To be sure, there is some truth to what you say, but the officiating (UN and media) is biased against “Bush and his cronies”, while one only has to watch Shaq lower his shoulder into the defender gut and shove him out of the way, or watch Kobe follow Shaq up the floor like a running back following his pulling guard to realize that the Lakers have the ref’s on their side. And I haven’t even began to talk about everyone’s favorite jerk, Rick Fox!

So, I guess I’ll still be rooting for which ever team is playing the Lakers…unless, somehow the Dallas Cowboys manage to play the Lakers, then I’ll be hoping for a tie!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.