“…like the Pythagorean theorem”

I open this post with a bit of trivia. Who are the only group of players to have winning records in the playoffs against Bird, Magic, and Jordan? Answer: The Bad Boys.

The funny thing is that these Bad Boys were not only hated because of their overly physical play, but also for their ‘flopping’ to get opposing players in foul trouble.

A common thread has been developing in previous posts, which I will attempt to introduce in this post. This thread is the evolutionary approach to athletic genius. In my opinion, our definition of athletic genius as embodied in a single individual is flawed. This flawed definition does not allow us to see genius in the Bad Boys or the Cobra-Kai Spurs. Evolution attempts to explain heritability through time in terms of populations, not individuals. There is no doubt that contemporary neo-Darwinian studies are crafting a rhetoric for dealing with individuals, however, the population determines heritability, not the individual.

Why reduce the definition of athletic genius to certain freakish talents like Kobe, Lebron, or CP3? It seems we must broaden this definition to include groups of people (teams) that will do whatever it takes to ensure their ‘fitness’ in no matter what ‘niche’ they may encounter. No two teams have ensured their fitness during our lifetimes better than the Bad Boys or Spurs. We must applaud their genius, not admonish it!

Kobe’s MVP acceptance speech was very telling. It was the team that actually facilitated his first MVP! Genius is not sustainable without the team. If asked what teams they admire, I am confident that most of the individual geniuses of today would mention the Bad Boys or Cobra-Kai Spurs.

We will not remember the Spurs as whining floppers, but a major contribution to the modern game. They are the platypus of basketball. They are ugly as hell, but their design ensures their successful genetic fitness. We should be more awestruck by their genius than that of Kobe, Lebron, or CP3.

However, if they lose game 7, then their time has passed, for good. Yet, their success will ensure that another team with their genius will arise soon. Evolutionarily speaking, this is the kind of genius that can be copied and replicated easier than it can from a single individual that can score 81 points in a game.

I’d rather be a bitch with rings [sporting a mullet and dressed in a skeleton costume] than a genius that does not know how to operationalize his talent.

--the fire-crotched sensei