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The Way we Play

Kevin Love plays basketball for the Timberwolves.  He is incredibly good, often scoring more than 30 points, sweeping up 20 or more rebounds, while making his teammates look good.

He is 6'11' tall, and has slimmed down to 260 pounds.  You don't have to be a giant to play basketball, but you had better be able to play with giants.

Linemen in football often weigh nearly 400 pounds, and now that there are pass receivers nearly Kevin Love's size, the day of smaller defensive backs is in danger.  Hockey used to be about skating.  Now it is about giants skating, and fighting.  Even baseball has discovered that big and strong and fast is better than smaller and strong and fast.

I am having lunch at the bar of a local restaurant.  The coaster under my Irish Red reads, "Hi, I'm Kevin.  I'll be your coaster this evening."

It is a big coaster.

And I ordered a small salad.

When John Wooden was coaching all those magnificent teams at UCLA, he said the basket should be raised from 10' to 12'.  He was no fan of sticking your arm down into the hoop.

We are very near to making sports--nearly all sports--into concussion contests for really big people.  Even tennis players are getting bigger, and stronger.  If they find a way to allow high-sticking at the net, it will become a nearly-perfect sport.

Even boxing, which celebrates brain concussions, has become too tame for the enthusiasts of violence.  Extreme  fighting adds cages, kicking, and stomping.  If we did that to roosters or dogs, we would be put in jail.

Something brutal is happening to us.  It shows in the way we play.

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