Hi Ken, I think it was more than just money though that’s of course a big part of it.
A couple of two-three thoughts:
Kawhi stood tall, stuck to his guns, walks quietly but carries a big basketball stick, is manly in being immune to pressure—take for example the Spurs’ attacks on him when he didn’t feel good enough to play 2 seasons ago, in working and playing hard and then going home, eschewing the spotlight and social media culture of self and celebrity obsessiveness . I argue that in *basketball (and certain cultural) terms* he’s heroic.
It’s all a mighty blow to punditry, here of the sports variety. So many supposedly “in the know” were counting the Clippers out. So many “insiders” were 99% sure he was going to the Lakers or staying in TO—I wish. It reminded me of recent political prognostications laced with such utter certainty. And amazingly once upended, these self confident prophets—sports, politics, you name it—keep right on, unchastened. It’s quite amazing: true humility is a rare item.
Even as I and even my unsports-minded wife and my unsports-minded kids and son in law and grandkids and some friends got swept up in it all, the win, the hoopla, the mystery—will he stay, go, go where—the obscenity of the money, energy and intense preoccupation with it all—“It’s just a damn game”, as one baseball payer put on his epitaph—never stops eating away at me, resulting in a kind of very low level of double consciousness, if I’m allowed that significant phrase here, where in the midst of the sweep up I know how absurd and trivial it is. But that’s soft power for you: not for nothing is “power” attached to “soft” in that trope.
Look forward to your views.
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