Storyline: Pro sports have become a PED. Emphasis is on Profit, Entertainment, and Distraction. Fans are obsessed with games, less concerned about issues that really matter in life. Written by Lynn Buess.
For a season and a half I have applied my numerology skills, intuition, and experience with human behavior to successfully and accurately analyze and predict insights and results about the Portland Trail Blazers. My observations were often posted months before the sports beat people even saw things coming. I have already detailed in previous articles on my website the reasons for my appreciation of the Blazers and why I have taken time to follow their progress.
Courtesy: KPTV.com
This season I completely outperformed the Blazers sports media, all of the NBA analysts, and Las Vegas by predicting the team would win a minimum of 44 games. The general preseason consensus was they would win around 16 to 27 games.
I then predicted they would beat the Clippers in six games during the first round of the playoffs. They did. As of this writing I have picked the exact results in the Blazers/Warriors series in Round Two of the playoffs. No one else in the NBA sports community posted such accurate results.
I sent the information to numerous Blazers writers and media people before the season, thinking they would enjoy a different angle when looking at the team. I have been completely ignored, even after numerous communications; and I was even blocked from commenting.
I’ve learned over time there is not much imagination in the sports industry. I don’t think they want you to know that it’s kind of easy to do sports stories. For the most part, people in the business are insecure, insular, and threatened by anything that varies from the industry restraints and agreed upon formulas. More on that later….
But, first, let me comment on why I’m losing interest in the Blazers, NBA, and most pro sports.
After two years of following the Blazers I’m tired of the superficiality, redundancy, and predictability of the industry. From listening to/watching games from other teams’ radio/television coverage I’ve realized that the announcers say virtually the same things when covering the Blazers (and most likely about the other teams, too.) And except for a few, old venues, the arenas look the same. Teams play the same loud music, have the same t-shirt cannons, and do many other distracting activities.
It’s as if the evening is designed for A.D.D. personalities. They all have the same goofy mascots doing the same shtick. There are dancers performing their herky-jerky dance routines with obligatory booby bounces, shimmy derrière teases, and mop-flop, two-time circling, head twirls with measured, long hair. And every venue has that same announcer–with the full-throttle booming baritone voice–voicing the predictable: ”And now here’s BARRRRRTH BUUUCOLIC!!!!!”
The players, too, fall into repetition. One of them gets a tattoo and then dozens of others suddenly have tattoos. One of them grows a goatee beard and, zoom, the next game you see goatees all over. One grows a 3-inch hay straw haircut with orange tips and…well, you get it.
Courtesy: pedshoes.com
This multi-billion industry has, by its own account, become an entertainment business. And therein lies a big problem. The emphasis is on PED: Profit, Entertainment and Distraction. Somewhere in the transition “the game” has lost something. The industry protects the product and emphasizes sales and promotion. That approach clearly distorts the game.
You can see that in how games are managed and controlled. For example, every game analyst will tell you that the superstar is going to get preference when fouls are called. We have all seen it in every game. And, after watching several hundred games, it’s clear that there are many really weird and inexplicable clusters of referee-calls that alter the direction, motivation, and complexion of the game. It’s clear that too often there’s an agenda that favors the product at the expense of the game.
That leads me to the biggest issue. For better or worse, sports have joined the entertainment industry along with music, dance, television, and motion pictures. More often than not, it becomes a distraction from real world issues.
We’ve lost sight that this is a game. By definition, a game is something that children play for exercise, relaxation, fun, and entertainment. It can do the same for adults. But, today, it has turned harshly competitive, status-dependent, and exaggerated in importance. Idols are artificially created and idol-worship abounds.
Everyone who follows pro sports knows of vastly skewed pro salaries. Some cynics oall it an “obscene” amount (and perhaps that assessment is a bit harsh). But the reality is that the lowest paid player at the end of the bench makes about 10 times more income than the average school teacher in most cities.
The point: everything in the industry is overdone and exaggerated.
It would be better to enjoy and appreciate the game for skills involved and professionalism of play. Instead, though, we languish over sports obsessively. And that disables an obsessed person from recognizing and facing real issues of life. What it boils down to is this: for many souls, attachment to sports has become an addiction.
For me? Yes, I accurately predicted the outcome, scores, and player performance of a Blazers/Clippers game last year — the day before the game was played. I did it again for a Rockets/Blazers game soon after. Yes, it was a temporary entertainment, fantasy, and it was also quite fun. But, in the end, what does it matter?
Courtesy: YouTube.com
In July of 2001 I submitted predictions to be published in September 2001. In it I predicted that the United States had created bitterness with many nations around the world and could very well experience a domestic terrorist attack. That is a meaningful thing I did, and it had an impact on every citizen of this country. It still does.
In one of the Blazers sports articles this year, a writer mentioned how the Blazers took some time off to go to the World Trade Center Museum. Some players described the visit as “meaningful.” How meaningful will it be when they learn one day who was responsible?
Years ago, during Bill Clinton’s administration, I predicted that his administration would soon be involved in a scandal that would result in the consideration of his premature ejection from office. Two weeks later, he was standing in front of the nation claiming, “I did not have sex with THAT woman!” How many Americans remember that he was impeached? That’s an issue that does matter. (Interestingly, his bedeviled cohort is now running for office.)
Sports events can become an intoxicating and enticing escape from real issues. I, too, got caught up in the post-game adrenaline high after a win and I experienced discouragement, and sometimes despair, after a loss (especially an unnecessary one). I’ve spent hundreds of hours over the last couple years watching, waxing, and waning with the Blazers ups and downs. That does not include all of the time analyzing, writing, and posting articles.
What’s worrisome is that many thousands of fans do the same; they become totally fixated on the experience. But now I see all of this in perspective.
It has been an exciting ride but I have come to realize there are far more important things that need my attention. I believe this is true for too many addicted sports fans. My life has become centered on being a retired therapist/consultant, budding futurist, and esoteric cosmologist. I’m striving to see the overall picture by looking at events cosmically, globally, socially, and then personally.
The whole world of the sports/entertainment business mostly feeds the personal. Sports fans, and the people in the industry, too often do not see beyond the personal and, even if they do, it’s minimally so.
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It’s estimated there are 7.50 billion people on the planet. Most likely 7.49 billion have never heard of the NBA and even fewer know about the Portland Trail Blazers or Damian Lillard.
But …
How many sports fans take time to be aware that there are galactic events occurring that may soon impact 7.5 billion of the earth’s souls?
How many fans, and especially players, realize that their billion/millions of Federal Reserve notes (sometimes confused as a US government currency) are seriously close to becoming valueless, as hundreds of nations around the world are dropping them from global reserve exchange?
How many seriously take time to confront the fact that the air, water, land, food and every facet of our earth life is seriously contaminated, polluted, and toxic?
How many sports fans take time to notice the epidemic of millions of women and young children that are being sexually abused, blackmailed, abducted, and coerced into trafficking and slavery every day?
There are so many serious issues that face every life on this planet.
Too often careless souls let the entertainment industry distract attention away from such serious matters. I let it happen, too, even with the expanded awareness that has come from a rich and multi-dimensional life that I’ve been blessed to experience. Dysfunction is a tricky aspect of human behavior and, unfortunately, it thrives ever so pervasively in these times.
Courtesy: play2health.com
I have more important things to do. So, now, I must get back to addressing those issues, rather than topics that interest a few thousand sports enthusiasts.
It has been a fun ride at times. And I will be watching every once in a while to see how the Blazers are doing. They are on numerical course to reach a possible pinnacle of achievement, especially around 2018 and 2019.
There are good people on the team, in the organization, in the industry, and among the fans. But more often than not, it’s easy to get lost in the near-sightedness of product that’s packaged by the industry. When that happens, we lose sight of what’s beyond.
