Post#30 » by St.Nick » Fri Jul 4, 2008 11:42 am
Lets say that you are having a discussion with your friends at the local pizza place about Kobe. One side of your friends are saying that he is the best player in the league, the other side is saying that he is a selfish ball hog who will never win a championship without Shaq. Points are made on both sides, the weight of truth shifts the scales several times back and forth, but the conversation is a good and fair one based on logical argument and statistical facts.
Then all the sudden a guy that has overheard your conversation walks over. He is wearing a Kobe jersey, Kobe shoes, and a Lakers hat with Kobe's face airbrushed on it. He jumps in and starts to deny all of the contrarian opinions to Kobe's greatness, using vague allusions to how Kobe is the best ever, even better than Jordan. Your friends point out that Kobe hasn't proven himself to be near the same level as Jordan in many facets of the game--they cite statistics, prior performances, team success and so on, but the Kobe fan refuses to hear any sort of argument that goes against his hero. Instead, he makes promises about the future, attacks the people arguing against Kobe with personal insults, and then storms off.
This is what I am seeing with Yi fans. They are too blindly supportive of him and it kills all reasonable analysis and discussion of him.
The thing is with this conversation, we aren't even talking about Kobe and his place amongst the all time greats, as that would make some sense...we are talking about a guy that was really, really bad last year yet still gets unwavering support from a select few that have shown that they will follow him regardless of facts and logic.
To me, Yi has been an overhyped, underqualified player since day one. Milwaukee fans went cuckoo when I told them this last year, yet now two-thirds of them think that Joe Alexander is going to be a better player than Yi (another example of blind homer love "rookie style" but also an example of their opinion of Yi after watching him extensively). New York fans are much tougher so I think we will see a big heaping of truth on these boards once the season starts.
But there will still be some fans that will not let go for reasons beyond logic and these are the fans that have an emotional investment in him. For these people all reason and fact is trumped by their extreme desire for Yi to achieve because they see in him something in themselves. Its the same reason that women support that woman racecar driver, why gay athletes will support John Amaechi in whatever he does from this point on, and why Asian people love Yao/Yi.
This all makes sense on a psychological level, but you need to realize that with outsiders you look fanatical when your support overtakes logic. Yi is an obvious case of this. Dude stinks and the only people that don't know it are the ones who's team he is on or the ones who have a personal stake in his success.
Maybe the guy does turn into something, but all the evidence is pointing the other way. Just don't lose track of reality and always try to be aware of how your personal feelings are affecting your judgment. And remember, I am an outside observer here. I have nothing against Yi the person, the Bucks, the Nets, or Asian people. I just want to provide the truth, or at least my well reasoned interpretation of it.
LMFAO.