(This article is NOT about basketball. Read it all.)

Many sports fans (including myself) trash the current NBA culture of players sitting out games for “rest.”

“Rest” is when players who are not injured choose to not play in games in order to save their bodies, and ostensibly be fresher for future games.

So, a fan could buy a ticket to a game, get there with your kid, then realize one hour before tipoff that your son’s favorite player is not playing tonight, sitting out for “rest.”

This is disrespectful to the fans and disrespectful to the profession.

Defenders of resting, or “load management” (the softer, feel-good term) argue that science has shown that players play better and their careers last longer when they have more time off between games.

No shit.

A 3-day workweek requires less energy than a 5-day workweek. We didn’t need science to figure that out.

The question is not whether or not extra days of rest help players' bodies feel better. Of course it does.

The question is one of principle: whether or not having a job means you are required to show up and do your job every day that the job requires, or if this is optional.

Then, there’s a bigger discussion that goes beyond basketball.

***

Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antentokounmpo might be the current Best Player In The NBA. Giannis has Nigerian blood and a Greek passport. But he’s not immune to the influence of American (and NBA) culture.

Giannis missed most of the first game, then sat out the next two games of his team’s first round Playoff series against the Miami Heat with a bruised back. He came back for the fourth game. Milwaukee has lost 3 of those 4 games and today they sit on the brink of elimination.

My theory: Giannis was healthy enough to play in both of the games he missed. The Bucks bet that they could beat Miami without him.

They went 1-1 without him, and lost again even with him.

Milwaukee has a strong team and was many people’s pick to win the Championship this year. Miami has an average-at-best team. The Bucks could very well come back and win this series (they'd have to win 3 games in a row, starting Wednesday, to pull it off).

I think Giannis and Milwaukee angered the Basketball Gods with the sitting out move. Now they’ll have to win the hard way if they’re to advance in the Playoffs.

***

A lot of NBA players sit out games when they’re healthy enough to play. This is frustrating for fans, especially those who buy tickets to attend games and those who remember when an NBA player actually playing in the games was a badge of honor, something to be proud of.

Michael Jordan, for example, played in all 82 regular season games and every playoff game in each of his last 3 seasons with the Chicago Bulls.

The Bulls won all 3 championships those years. MJ also led the league in scoring all 3 seasons, won 2 of 3 MVP awards and all 3 Finals MVPs. So much for needing rest to boost performance.

Even in his last two years with the Washington Wizards, Jordan stubbornly demanded to play in every game. So much so, that he only missed games when his knee was so damaged that he could barely walk.

But this isn’t about basketball, Jordan or the soft NBA.

It’s about ALL OF US.

You’re soft.
I’m soft.
We are ALL soft as baby shit.

***

NBA players didn’t create this. They’re a reflection of all of us.

Athletes and politicians get criticism because they’re on TV. We see them all the time, so they’re easy targets.

You are just as soft as they are.
The difference is you don’t have a million eyeballs watching you.

The culture and era we live in is soft.

So soft, that men who call themselves women are using women’s bathrooms — and MEN are afraid to say anything. You don’t want anyone calling you “transphobic.”

SOFT.

Minimum-wage earners are now calling it a “living wage” and demanding more pay, since a “living wage” sounds like a basic requirement for life.

If you have minimum-level skills, you get minimum-level pay. That’s a fair trade-off. That’s business.

But we’ve accepted this altering of language that makes fairness sound negative.

SOFT.

Transsexual crossdressers come to schools to have YOUR kids put dollars in their g-strings. They’re reading trans-affirming books to your second grader.

And you’re letting it happen.

SOFT.

Governments are banning books that teach kids to be gay, or to hate others based on skin color. I support banning those books. The news is reporting it as if it’s some dastardly propaganda campaign.

SOFT.

In March, a person entered a Christian school in Nashville and killed 6 people.

Politicians and media outlets focused on why this was a sign for needing more gun control, rather than on the identity of the shooter (a trans he/she) and the fact that this person specifically targeted a church.

What would have been the headline had a white person in a MAGA hat shot up a black school?

Trans defenders went on the attack, while alleged Christians stayed silent.

SOFT.

There’s an active campaign to “support women’s sports.” I support women’s sports. I have many women athletes in my audience. But there’s a difference between “support” and “pandering.”

More men play sports than women. Sports are a physical endeavor; men are bigger, faster and stronger — and thus better — than women in sports.

The result of this performance difference: More fans, more money, and bigger contracts for the men.

Women’s sports are smaller than men’s sports not because of a lack of “support.” It’s because the male athletes and male performances produce a better product. Better products produce more fans and more money.

Ask any entrepreneur what happens when you put marketing dollars behind an inferior product: You go out of business.

Yet many women athletes and their advocates are pushing for more money, better accommodations and more media coverage… just because it’s what the men get.

No. It’s what the men EARNED.

Many of you agree with all of this. But you wouldn’t dare say it out loud.

SOFT.

Many large organizations these days have Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) departments.

What exactly do they do? Someone tell me.

DEI departments were created to hand out jobs (and salaries) to otherwise unqualified women, monorities and LGBTQ folks.

If DEI department staff were traditionally qualified (read: they could do revenue-producing activities), they would compete with everyone else and get a job in the departments that do real work.

Instead, you have the NHL hiring black people, the NBA hiring gay people, and football teams staffing women, all in the name of DEI.

It’s not that the named people could never be seriously interested and even good in real roles at these places. It’s that most of them would never think twice about competing for a job if they needed real qualifications.

The only qualification for DEI is that you’re not a straight white male.

DEI has forced companies to create jobs to hand out to people who would never otherwise have a reason to be in the building.

It’s a handout. We all know it.

I spoke at a conference last month. I’m black. I earned and sold my way onto the stage. There was one other black speaker. She gave an hour-long presentation on “DEI In The Workplace.”

I attended her talk. It was garbage.

She gave her speech in a bigger room than I had for my speech. Not because she was good (she wasn’t). Because this is what companies have to bend to to survive today.

If you work at a company, corporation or university that has a DEI department, you can’t say any of what I just said, out loud, while keeping your job.

If you work IN the DEI department, you can be mad at me — but you can’t tell me I’m wrong, can you?

SOFT.

***

Yes, today’s NBA players are soft.

They display a lack of respect for the fans, the job, and the concept of professionalism.

Who raised them?
Who watches their games?
Who buys their jerseys?
Whose kids idolize them?
Who follows them on social media?

***

Look at your to-do list.

How many items are carried over from yesterday?

How many things have you done, already today, that you’ve told yourself you don’t want to do anymore — yet you don’t have discipline to stop yourself from doing them?

What are you continually tolerating and rationalizing as some I’m-doing-this-because-I’m-a-good-person bullshit?

SOFT.

Our whole culture is weak, ever-compromising, and afraid to speak up.
Always worried about who you’ll offend.
Going along to get along.
You can’t even hold yourself accountable, let alone anyone else.

THAT’S soft.

Don’t blame the basketball players. They’re a reflection of all of us.

If you’re done being soft as Charmin, schedule a call here: http://www.WorkOnYourGame.net/apply