Dunk You Very Much

Let’s be clear, humanity is lost and in desperate need of a savior.  As we all spin around the Sun on this tilted 3rd Rock, we blindly navigate this life with a limited amount of sunrises and sunsets. Our only hope is in a savior that through each other, we can reflect his love to one another. 

Throughout humanities history, we  have shown tremendous acts of love, but disproportionately amounts of hate to each other.  One of those original forms of hatred manifested itself into slavery in this country.  An unfortunate aspect of slavery is America’s original family separation plan.  See, slaves were separated in order to disrupt the family unit.  With no strong family units, the likelihood of an uprising would be limited at best.  The moment a slave got “all uppity”, they were sold.  This was also used as a fear tactic to control slaves and deter them from running away.  Generations of families were destroyed, separated, and held in bondage.  Father’s never got a chance to raise their children, Mother’s were used as Broodmares instead of nurturers to the AA family.  No legacies, and no direct lineage can ever be attributed due to this practice they spanned 300+ years in America alone. 

Now this blog is not about my admiration for LBJ.  It is more about the perception, that somehow a man who was raised without a father in home, should be chastised for investing time in his family.  For all of his faults, (which their are many) and short comings as an athlete, entrepreneur, and SJW, being present in the lives of his children is not one of them.  

This past weekend his enthusiasm spilt over to the lay up lines with his son. Now, truth be told, if I was 6’8 and a paid athlete, I would like to think that I would be able to dunk a basketball well into my 30’s, nowadays I have trouble  bending over to tie my shoes nevertheless soaring through the air for self alley-oop dunks.  And for the random fan at an AAU tournament, it must have been pretty awesome to watch one of the best of all times in a lay up line with your kid.  Somehow, this was a bad thing. An African American father being not only present, but deeply engaged with his child’s life.  Now the haters will say, “Jordan never got in lay up lines with his boys”, which is probably true, but if you know anything about Michael’s legacy, he was hardly the family man and spent more time in casinos then with his family on Taco Tuesday. 

Before you hit send:

Sometimes we need perspective of time.  It is so limited that we think our few cycles sunrises and sunsets are the only ones that will ever be lived.  Our time here on this planet is a tiny fraction of history that has and will ever be exhibited.  Before we tear down a man for maybe being an over enthusiastic father, let’s take a moment and see where so many father’s (both famous and non famous) are absent on a Saturday morning tournament, LBJ has made the decision to break that cycle that has plagued so many African Americans since their arrival in this country.  However you feel about the player, should not cast a shadow about him as a father.  In know way is LBJ a savior figure that we need, but lets show some more love to each other these days, instead of hate, we only have so much time together.

 $.02