Do you often rewatch old shows you’ve seen before? Do you think you’re alone? Well, you’re not.
Some people are too talented to be confined to just one lane.
Vincent Edward “Bo” Jackson was the rare two-sport athlete. He could have been a Hall of Famer in both baseball and football.
Lauryn Hill was the rare two-discipline musical artist. She could have had the greatest career as both a rapper and a singer.
They also shared several other traits in common: reaching incredible heights; colleagues accusing them of being difficult; focusing on their families; and, above all, not being interested in living up to the outsized expectations created by their early acts of brilliance.
In my moments of quiet reflection, I always ask myself the same few questions.
Am I improving? Are my choices and actions moving me closer to the person I want to be? Have I made progress over the past day/week/month/year?
These are often followed by questions of self-flagellation: Why did I say that? What was I thinking? Why did I make that decision?
Comparing eras is futile, so let’s celebrate the Greatest Of Their Era
The great thing about sports is that results are objective. There are won-loss records, tournaments, playoffs, and championships. The winner is decided on the field of play.
Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t subjective debates. Quite the contrary. The never ending sports debates all come down to one question: Who is the best? Who’s the best player? What was the toughest era? What’s the best team? Could the best team from a prior era beat the top squad from today’s game?
For most of us, life is not like a sitcom. We don’t meet up with our friends every single day at Central Perk or MacLaren’s or Cheers, but we do have our spots that we prefer over all others. We may not go there all the time, but we feel most comfortable there. It is where we are in our element, where we invite everyone to join us. It is our home field, as it were.
Mine was Memphis Taproom.
So I was quite dismayed a few weeks ago when I read the news that it would be closing its doors for good.
Clear the path
Ancient Rome was a crowded place. There were all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds and social statuses jostling in the streets. It would have been difficult to make your way through the mass of humanity.
Of the numerous casualties of the digital revolution, one of the most disheartening is the demise of the magazine.
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My Best Writing of 2022
As both my personal and professional lives became not just busier, but also more complex, my writing output — and my readership and reach — has declined.
However, I do feel like almost everything I do publish these days is worthy of being clicked on and read. I couldn’t always honestly say that. Still, some things are better than others so I’ve collected the best things I wrote this year — a tradition that dates all the way back to 2015. It’s like my own personal literary version of Spotify Wrapped.
So please take a look below and, if something strikes you as interesting, please give it a click.
Three is more than two.
That simple mathematical fact, which had been largely overlooked for decades, has completely changed the National Basketball Association. Today’s game is nothing but guys shooting from deep. There’s no more to it than that.
Right?
Maybe not.
The 2023 NBA Draft is shaping up to be one of the rare instances in which there are multiple prizes.
In fact, experts are saying that this draft class may even have four or five players that could help transform a franchise. However, there is an absolute consensus that Victor Wenbanyama and Scoot Henderson should go first and second in the draft, respectively.
While Wenbanyama appears to be a generational talent and is the most hyped prospect since LeBron James, Henderson would be the top pick in almost any other year, so whatever team ends up in the second spot will have a hell of a consolation prize.
Still, that team should be wary. Rarely do the top two picks end up being the two best players in that class.
In fact, it has not happened more than five times since 1960. Five times in sixty years.
The Passion of Christopher Pierznik 