Of course, one could argue that that was my first mistake of the day (and probably not my last), as turning on the four letter network for anything but PTI or live sporting events is a risky proposition to begin with, but I digress.
So, as I listened to the extent of the injury and what Kobe himself had to say about the injury we got the blowhard of all blowhards, Stephen A. Smith, coming on the screen to push an idiotic narrative that it appears ESPN is set to run with and it's this - Kobe Bryant's injury is because he was playing so many minutes.
Yep, that's it... a freak injury that could happen to anyone, at any time, for any reason is all about the fact that a 34 year old man was playing the 2nd most minutes in the league this season behind only the Bulls' Loul Deng.
Either that or it's because the injury was just what it always has been - a freak injury. Had it been a knee injury or a torn hamstring or a shoulder injury or anything else perhaps there could be a sliver of truth in the narrative that ESPN is pushing, but instead of doing basic logical thinking the fine folks at the four letter network have to find a way to sensationalize and scandalize everything.
Should we be surprised that a blowhard like Stephen A. Smith would stoop to trying to find a sensational twist on a truly sad situation? Probably not, after all Stephen A. is all about the drama and he's more often way off base than on point.
Yet, don't you think you'd do basic research and oh, say talk to some doctors and people involved in sports medicine? Call me crazy, but I may actually take the opinion of a doctor or athletic trainer over some 40 year old blowhard who's got ZERO clue about what could cause this injury.
If it was all about wear and tear and "insane minutes" someone was playing then I'd love for someone to explain how a guy like Jay DeMerit of the Vancouver Whitecaps suffers the same injury just one game into the regular season? Or how Ryan Howard tears it after swinging a bat and running towards first base?
Those are just two of the most recent examples of torn Achilles tendons and yes, both players were older, but neither had a damn thing to do with "logging too many minutes" or anything else other than pushing off on their leg and having the Achilles tendon pop.
How about that being the focal point of it, after all we aren't even 24 hours removed from the injury happening. Hell, the false narrative that the four letter network was putting forth began happening mere single digit hours after the injury.
Should we be surprised by this? No, but that's what we get when we're spoon fed 24 hour news cycles that have to react to everything and find a narrative to run with ASAP. What ever happened to taking your time and figuring out the truth of the situation before running with a narrative that is insulting on it's face to the viewers?
No comments:
Post a Comment