Celebrity

I have taken to watching our local basketball team on television with my wife. I am generally opposed to professional sports, mostly because of the blatant commercialism, but my wife really enjoys the games, and during basketball season this is an easy way to spend some time with her. At least it's easy now. I think I need to be at least somewhat relaxed in order to sit and watch a basketball game, so maybe I have absorbed some basketball zen, because not only can I sit and watch a game, I actually enjoy it.

Does it have anything to do with our team (The Portland Trailblazers) having a good season? I don't know, but I have seen some amazing shots. One player will pass to another, and the second player, while in the air, will catch the pass, and then either shoot a basket or pass to another player. That's a pretty good trick. There are two Spanish guys who used to play together, Rodriguez and Fernandez, and I have seen them do this a couple of times. The other night another player, Aldridge, was involved in an airborne exchange. I am even learning the names of the players. Kind of scary.

It's also interesting to watch the big guys, Oden and Przybilla, lumber around. They are tall, but not that much taller than the other players, at least mathematically. According to my rough calculations, they may mass a much as 50% more than a "normal" size player. That could definitely put a crimp in your acceleration, which is what quickness really is. Then too, they don't need to be as quick when they have such an enormous reach.

OK, enough about basketball. This is about celebrity, and professional sports stars along with some actors are celebrities. I think that comparison was what led me to relaxing my view about professional sports. I like watching movies, and some actors make a fortune from their movies. They may be good actors or bad actors, I really have no idea.

For most celebrities I think luck plays a major role. Certainly there is talent, and hard work, and the ability to play well with others, but there are lots of talented, hard working people out there.

When we watch the Olympics, we have top athletes competing and their scores may be within hundredths of a second or point from the winners, but they are declared to be second place. In cases like that I suspect that if the event were held on a different day, their positions might just be reversed. So being a "winner" can be kind of arbitrary, kind of like luck.

Mass media like Television and films can only support so many celebrities. Somebody has to be the audience that is willing to buy tickets, or advertisers are willing to pay for.

And culture-wise, we don't want too many celebrities. The whole point of having a celebrity is having something to talk about with people whom you may very well not have anything else in common.