Rhythm and Soul: NBA Life and Meaning Pt. 3

 Rhythm and Soul: NBA Life and Meaning Pt. 3: Upward Struggle 

Overcoming and upward struggle may seem synonymous, but I wanted to differentiate between overcoming in larger senses versus upward struggle, which I think of as rising up economically to a better standard of living, like surviving in a world of no money, when it comes to achieving the arduous goal of making the NBA and financial prosperity, the latter upward struggle being more of establishing a presence and a value in a place of relative wealth from the backdrop of poverty, in many cases oppression, in this case belonging on the court of basketball and its highest echelons.

Not all who won the riches of the Association were able to hold on to their earnings. See Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, formerly Lou Alcinder.  Many other great and not so great players, black and white, lost their money earned as an amazing money earner from the league.

There is the upward struggle to belong on the court and contribute and be paid, and there is the continuous fight for status, relevance, and the bottom line financial stability afterward. Many are hard luck cases, some have done very well since.

The United States has a history of human bondage which affects us till today, deep into the 20th century.  Rural, suburban, and urban youth and adults have a respite from drudgeries and stifling with the freedom and relative autonomy of the basketball court, outdoors, indoors, in the various venues played across the world.

I would wager that most of the foreign players that have made it huge in the NBA did not come from the poorest or worst of life circumstances, although one could argue in non-American settings there were plenty of economic struggles, especially in Africa and a lot of Latin America.

I did not finish this as of 19 February 2020.

I will push it out now....