I'm a Winner Now, Mom
Andrew Wiggins was hated by everyone before he joined the Golden State Warriors, and then the noise, after years and years and years of nonstop criticism stopped like a you know what in a straight White-man’s you know what. It must’ve hurt Wiggins hearing his name in trade rumors and the mockery that contemporary, mostly white media analysts, flame-threw at him openly, like salt in a wound, it must’ve fucked with him a little bit. I mean, how could it not. No the fact that he makes hundreds of millions of dollars doesn’t mean he should be exposed to ridicule. That’s part of the same toxic logic that bore out and produced the infamous “Shut up and Dribble” Laura Ingragam quote (that became a meme). The reality is that most media analysts and basketball professionals basically just shut the fuck up once Wiggins landed in a situation with the golden state warriors where his talent was properly suited to his role. Where the stigma of being the Number One Pick of the NBA draft was eradicated, where the pressure to be “the first option” on a bad Minnesota Timberwolves team was alleviated. He could just be Wiggins. But the price he had to pay in order to get there, oye va voy, how ugly and impure, how shameful of them to repeat over and over again their criticism, their disgust over his lack of success, and for some of us to regurgitate. The Warriors front office saw something in Andrew Wiggins that no one else saw, and now that he’s a bonafide winner on a championship team, the same exact player he has always been, mind you, just in a different situation, no one says shit, and if they are saying something it’s usually to compliment him.
Situations is everything. Circumstance, everything. Luck, we’ve all heard it over and over again, everything. So what does this say about our culture that hasn’t already been said? Nothing; what it says is that we are obsessed with winning. We dog pile each other, reserving a special place for those of us who win frequently and early, and everybody else is an Andrew Wiggins, a fuck up, until they’re not. Until they “make it” or “score” or “win” or “nail it” or get to the Golden State Warriors or whatever. Until then you are mince meat, completely vulnerable to the whims of a winner-take-all capitalist society that has no place for process or development or time — but only action-now, results-yesterday, lose lose lose lose lose lose lose until you win. Then hope and pray you don’t get cancelled.
Do you feel the pressure too? Don’t be shy and let me know via email…
AL