It’s BasketballWeather, coming at ya like a pound of bricks after the Jrue Holiday & Damian Lillard trade this week changed the NBA landscape. Unexpected change has been on my mind. Hard for it not be when my son was unexpectedly at home all week from school. Poor little dude got sick, but that meant my home / “home office” was invaded by a three year old. You know how that goes.
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Jrue Holiday, an NBA champion who is (arguably) the 2nd best player on his team (behind Giannis) and makes over $411,585 a game, woke up Wednesday Morning to realize that he had been traded from the Milwaukee Bucs for Dame Lillard.
Jrue puts in the work, he is known for being a defensive minded scorer with that special je nais se quois leadership quality that every team is looking for.
Jrue Holiday is no-joke.
But Damian Lillard. Damian Lillard is the kinda player you sing songs about in the shower, one of the greatest to ever lace them up. A bucket-sinking savant that makes angels come to life off of church frescos with his three point shooting.
Though Lillard doesn’t have the same defensive abilities that Jrue Holiday has, he is an official Top 75 NBA Best player of all time (some list the NBA created) and is an undeniable offensive super human who presents an immediate upgrade to the Milwaukee Bucs roster that all of a sudden has a two-headed juggernaut on their hands between Lillard and the Greek Freak.
But Jrue Holiday. How should he feel after being traded? All of a sudden he goes from being (arguably) the 2nd best player on his team to having no team at all.
In the flash of a few phone calls, Jrue goes from a life of stability to one of utter and complete chaos. He has absolutely no idea what team he is going to be playing for next year.
My child might have to stay home from school and I start to panic. How will Jrue survive?!
He may end up in Boston or Portland or Sacramento, he won’t know until the dust settles. But one things for damn sure. He ain’t gonna be living in Milwaukee anymore. Here today, gone tomorrow.
This got me thinking about, you know, change. How one day we’re doing something and then the next day, our lives are no longer the same. Usually we hear this kinda talk when bad things happen. Somebody gets an unexpected diagnosis, a family member dies. Life changes in a snap.
But sometimes, and I’d like to think, more often that not, change is not-bad.
I say it that way because even when change is good, it can be hard like a pistachio in one of those impossible to open shells. No matter how hard you try, it just won’t pop out.
There’s about to be a lot of change for Jrue Holiday. At least Dame knew he was going to be traded to a new city. Jrue Holiday just woke up on Wed, checked his tweets, and felt his heart sink as he realized he was about to be in limbo.
What about Jrue’s ego?
Growing up I always wanted to be #1 in every single thing that i did. Blame my grandfather whose stories of being a top soccer player in Odesa are engrained into my skull. Unfortunately for me, rarely the outcome. Often I would end up third place in a track event at the Junior Olympics or second place behind blonde haired heart throb Matty Spitz in a freestyle swim, whose dad was a real Olympic gold medaler during the 72’ Olympics. Unfair! Nepo baby!
I told myself, ‘when you grow up you’ll be the best at your thing.’ An unstoppable force of video games? Loogies? You’ll be rich and famous. Well, on a day like this when my brain is feeling unhinged in the face of sick child at home and my novel looks like mush, it’s hard to feel that way.
But then again does anyone actually ever feel successful? I mean, you have to be some kind of sociopath to actually get out of bed every morning and think you’re some unstoppable force of nature. Kanye tried that and we see how that turned out.
I’ve always loved this Nick Kroll line that I heard at a comedy show some years back. I’m paraphrasing but it was something like, I have multiple shows on television, and every day I wake up terrified. I love that so much because it puts into perspective how nebulous success is. When someone that successful can feel like blowing his brains out every morning, it puts the American experiment in the 2020s to shame.
Are you successful if you’re rich? What if you’re a brilliant school teacher living at 150% of the poverty line? Are you successful if you’re published in the New Yorker? What if you’re published in every other magazine but the New Yorker? Are you successful if you work at Goldman Sachs even if they own you for eighty hours a week?
Lucian Freud (1981)
That’s why I like this concept of 2nd place-ness. When you’re second best you’re not bothered by the aching pain of having to get out of bed every day to pretend you’re some kind of poster boy for American capitalism. You’re still top of your game, but you’re given permission to feel a little shitty about yourself. You’re funny but you’re not the funniest. But it’s okay.
Jrue Holiday has been traded before, and I’m sure he wouldn’t be surprised if he’s traded again before he kicks up his laces for good. Even Lebron, Jokic, Giannis — players who are basketball universes unto themselves eventually have to come down to earth when they leave the NBA.
There’s no amount of success that will ever replace the feeling of unstoppability these athletes have on the court. It’ll just come down to humility at the end of the day, the same kind that Kanye forgot about, and that Jrue Holiday is about to showcase as he goes from being (arguably) the 2nd best player on the Milwaukee Bucs to (arguably) the 2nd best player on whatever team is lucky enough to have him on their roster next.
As for us, you have my permission to be 2nd when you wake up Monday morning. To look yourself in the MIRROR and know for sure that there’s someone out there, probably right next door to you, who is way better than you will ever be at what you do. Let’s all make some art together from that space, and let the heart throbs related to swim champions take home the gold.
CONGRATS TO THE WGA!!!!!! See youz next week. 🏀🥲