Kareem on Lebron and on Wrestling

[Ponzi]

Kareem has an article that's well worth reading about Lebron breaking his record. https://kareem.substack.com/p/what-i-think-about-lebron-breaking?mibextid=q5o4bk&fbclid=IwAR1myW2Ep1AC6a-ECR1srtfUe4av0KcJa0QnS_xNEzzlCeO9eG7wTkVGMD8

I mention it here because Kareem includes a long quotation from the wrestling movie, "Vision Quest." The irony is, the quotation is about another GOAT, but from soccer, not wrestling (or basketball). Here it is: 

For me, the inspirational power of sports is best explained in a scene in the 1985 film Vision Quest. In it, Elmo, an aging fry cook at a hotel, explains:

I was in the room here one day, watchin’ the Mexican channel on TV. I don’t know nothin’ about Pelé. I’m watchin’ what this guy can do with a ball on his feet.

Next thing I know, he jumps in the air and flips into a somersault and kicks the ball in—upside down and backwards. The goddamn goalie never knew what the ***duck duck goose** hit him. Pelé gets excited. He rips off his jersey and starts running around the stadium wav­ing it around over his head. Everybody’s screaming in Spanish. I’m here, sitting alone in my room, and I start crying. [Pause.] Yeah, that’s right, I start crying. Because another human being, a species that I hap­pen to belong to, could kick a ball, and lift himself, and the rest of us sad-assed human beings up to a better place to be, if only for a minute . . . Let me tell ya, kid—it was pretty goddamned glorious.

That is the magic of sports. To see something seemingly impossi­ble, reminding us that if one person can do it, then we all somehow share in that achievement.

[flyingcement]

3 minutes ago, Ponzi said:

Kareem has an article that's well worth reading about Lebron breaking his record. https://kareem.substack.com/p/what-i-think-about-lebron-breaking?mibextid=q5o4bk&fbclid=IwAR1myW2Ep1AC6a-ECR1srtfUe4av0KcJa0QnS_xNEzzlCeO9eG7wTkVGMD8

I mention it here because Kareem includes a long quotation from the wrestling movie, "Vision Quest." The irony is, the quotation is about another GOAT, but from soccer, not wrestling (or basketball). Here it is: 

For me, the inspirational power of sports is best explained in a scene in the 1985 film Vision Quest. In it, Elmo, an aging fry cook at a hotel, explains:

I was in the room here one day, watchin’ the Mexican channel on TV. I don’t know nothin’ about Pelé. I’m watchin’ what this guy can do with a ball on his feet.

Next thing I know, he jumps in the air and flips into a somersault and kicks the ball in—upside down and backwards. The goddamn goalie never knew what the ***duck duck goose** hit him. Pelé gets excited. He rips off his jersey and starts running around the stadium wav­ing it around over his head. Everybody’s screaming in Spanish. I’m here, sitting alone in my room, and I start crying. [Pause.] Yeah, that’s right, I start crying. Because another human being, a species that I hap­pen to belong to, could kick a ball, and lift himself, and the rest of us sad-assed human beings up to a better place to be, if only for a minute . . . Let me tell ya, kid—it was pretty goddamned glorious.

That is the magic of sports. To see something seemingly impossi­ble, reminding us that if one person can do it, then we all somehow share in that achievement.

I'm getting more sentimental with each passing year, but I almost shed a tear just from hearing that monologue again.  Time to rewatch the film