This is the worst post you have ever made. My nikka you literally said it is more impressive for someone who has every resource to not fukk yo the bag than it is for someone with no resources to go get the bag. And that in a nutshell is why there is no class consciousness is the United States and why we have all this economic inequality. People of means think it was all their own merit or it was deserved and people without means are taught to admire them even when their story has little connection. Kobe is my favorite basketball player ever and there isn’t a single thing about his story more impressive than the LeBron James story.
But the bigger point that you’re missing is that nothing in America is a meritocracy but we always felt that sports was. It was the one place where you could get to the top off just talent and hard work. The recent trends have turned basketball into the same thing as every other facet of American society from law to finance to engineering and business.
This 100%.
Look at the NFL. If a breh wants to be a running back or defensive tackle, he can grow up in the projects...good to a hood azz high school and still end up a 1st rd draft pick.
However....if a dude wants to be a QB, he's going to need to attend more camps and utilize private coaches. There are still some rags to riches QBs like Dak and Lamar but we're seeing more Mayfield, Mahomes, Murray type guys that are being groomed from Day 1. Not surprisingly NFL QBs are starting to get contracts that rival NBA player contracts (see Deshaun Watson).
NFL has adjusted the rules to make the QBs more important and integral to team success. They've always been important but now they're A LOT MORE important. QBs tend to be much more white and middle/upper middle class than other positions...I'd bet compared to say, running backs. That's not an accident. They basically want all the money in the hands of mostly white QBs and any super talented black QBs over the Emmitt Smith, Barry Sanders brehs.
It would be like if the NBA had 60% of Centers being white...but everyone else was Black but then the NBA adjusted the rules to favor Centers to the detriment of other positions where mostly everyone was Black. Then all the money flowed to the Center position. That's the NFL.