By now you are sick of hearing about the Will Smith - Chris Rock Oscars de la Hoya but I'm not. Maybe its the Cardinals glacial pace to signing free agents. Maybe its the Suns dominance has led to an impatient wait for the playoffs. Maybe its because the Diamondbacks are trying to fool us a third time with their current core. Whatever the reason, I'm still in.
So I thought I'd try to add some context to the insanity that we saw on Sunday night or like most of us saw on social media on Sunday night.
What would the sports equivalent be for that moment?
Here are the key factors that have to be present:
- Two huge stars
- The biggest stage possible
- Event happens during the live event
- Genuine shock at the individuals involved
So with those factors in mind, I boiled it down to two different scenarios in the sports world.
Option 1 is the NBA Finals. Two stars on the same team, think Lebron and Westbrook or Kyrie and KD (I don't want to put this jinx on Book and CP3). Its a title clinching moment and during the battle for a rebound, Westbrook snags a rebound away from Lebron and mocks Lebron on the court. Now there's a whistle for a foul and Lebron walks over and slaps Westbrook in the face. Total shock and awe as the world watches Lebron lose his permanent cool on the biggest stage. Then the Lakers still win and Lebron is named only MVP only to ignore Russ and pretend like nothing happened. The end.
That feels close but not quite right.
Here is option 2: Its the Super Bowl, Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski miscommunicate on an incompletion and Gronk chides TB12 in front of the world. Tom Brady initially shrugs it off in the huddle but as he steps under the center to take the next snap, he calmly walks over to Gronk and rips his helmet off and slaps him. Chaos ensues for a few minutes a timeout is called and Bill Belichick takes on the Denzel Washington role of peace maker. A few players later, TB12 is leading another comeback Super Bowl win is named MVP and makes in incoherent speech accepting the award.
That's it. Thats the sports equivalent. The most famous, beloved quarterback of all time attacking a teammate on the biggest stage in the sports world only to icily win the ring and never acknowledge the shocking breach of character.
Thank you 2022, we needed that break, now back to waiting for Steve Keim to wake up and make a few moves.