Weissenberg
Grid or Riot
His new Twitter avatar:
And some very good RealGM post on him:
I see far more energy being spent on this topic trying to use what Melo did to get in each other's faces when the very simple fact is Melo made a mistake.
I really wish folks here would take more time to get historical context for issues so you have perspective on what this action means.
He just used the most famous sports martyr image of all time.
George Lois of Esquire was one of the greatest ad men/photographic visualists of all time. This image of Ali is a riff on the arrows that killed St. Sebastian.
The context does matter because Ali had become the lightning rod for two of the biggest offenses to White American Ideology of the Sixties, namely:
1. He became the most prominent Black Muslim in the world when he changed his name from Cassius Clay and announced his support of Elijah Muhammed. Outside of MLK and Malcolm X, there really was not a higher profile black man in the world who was symbolic of the freedom to be who you want to be in this world.
2. Ali was stripped of his Championship Belt IN HIS PRIME for refusing to serve in the U.S. Military during the Viet Nam war.
Further context is his era was a battlegrounds for these two massive splits in society over civil rights and the anti-war movement. If you are a young cat here, you may have read the history books or seen documentaries, but you may have no real appreciation of how electrified and intense the world was on a social level compared to now. There was a real war of values going on in the streets everyday in America, whereas now people are mostly sleepwalking or checking out entirely to do their own thing.
Now, for Melo to appropriate that image shows he is a true narcissist lacking any ability to understand why that image was relevant then and why it has absolutely no relevance to his situation. All he is saying Poor Me.
Melo's karma comes from forcing a mid-season trade instead of playing out his contract, so he put himself on a pedestal where the expectations for him to be the best player on the franchise was the price of his ambition.
For him to equate any doubts or backlash from the fans due to these thwarted expectations as the same as being a martyr is absurd. The courage of his convictions to accept tens of millions of dollars to play where he demanded to play is completely unrelated to having the courage of your convictions to stand up to a whole society as a proud black man, a Muslim and a conscientious objector at a time when this took real guts.
In any case, there is minimal backlash against Melo in the media even now and most rational people are accepting he has had injuries and this is a new team with Lin and it will take some more time to integrate.
So, this rash and juvenile action by Melo is a peek into his own mind, not a reflection of a strong man standing up against injustice. He betrayed his insecurities and his envy of Lin taking the spotlight is clearly part of it, because if it wasn't he wouldn't be acting all dejected and rejected as if he were being shot full of arrows and left behind by the fans. It is idiotic.
Melo is being a child.
And some very good RealGM post on him:
I see far more energy being spent on this topic trying to use what Melo did to get in each other's faces when the very simple fact is Melo made a mistake.
I really wish folks here would take more time to get historical context for issues so you have perspective on what this action means.
He just used the most famous sports martyr image of all time.
George Lois of Esquire was one of the greatest ad men/photographic visualists of all time. This image of Ali is a riff on the arrows that killed St. Sebastian.
The context does matter because Ali had become the lightning rod for two of the biggest offenses to White American Ideology of the Sixties, namely:
1. He became the most prominent Black Muslim in the world when he changed his name from Cassius Clay and announced his support of Elijah Muhammed. Outside of MLK and Malcolm X, there really was not a higher profile black man in the world who was symbolic of the freedom to be who you want to be in this world.
2. Ali was stripped of his Championship Belt IN HIS PRIME for refusing to serve in the U.S. Military during the Viet Nam war.
Further context is his era was a battlegrounds for these two massive splits in society over civil rights and the anti-war movement. If you are a young cat here, you may have read the history books or seen documentaries, but you may have no real appreciation of how electrified and intense the world was on a social level compared to now. There was a real war of values going on in the streets everyday in America, whereas now people are mostly sleepwalking or checking out entirely to do their own thing.
Now, for Melo to appropriate that image shows he is a true narcissist lacking any ability to understand why that image was relevant then and why it has absolutely no relevance to his situation. All he is saying Poor Me.
Melo's karma comes from forcing a mid-season trade instead of playing out his contract, so he put himself on a pedestal where the expectations for him to be the best player on the franchise was the price of his ambition.
For him to equate any doubts or backlash from the fans due to these thwarted expectations as the same as being a martyr is absurd. The courage of his convictions to accept tens of millions of dollars to play where he demanded to play is completely unrelated to having the courage of your convictions to stand up to a whole society as a proud black man, a Muslim and a conscientious objector at a time when this took real guts.
In any case, there is minimal backlash against Melo in the media even now and most rational people are accepting he has had injuries and this is a new team with Lin and it will take some more time to integrate.
So, this rash and juvenile action by Melo is a peek into his own mind, not a reflection of a strong man standing up against injustice. He betrayed his insecurities and his envy of Lin taking the spotlight is clearly part of it, because if it wasn't he wouldn't be acting all dejected and rejected as if he were being shot full of arrows and left behind by the fans. It is idiotic.
Melo is being a child.