Setting the Mahmud
Abominable Apocryphal Deplorable Illustrious Wonder
This weekend provided some flat out taint tickling and nipple pulling excitement golf at the Masters. And...guess what....because...wait for it.... Tiger Damn Woods was in the middle of it. Shocker.
If Tiger isn't playing, I'm not watching. If Tiger isn't in the hunt, I'm usually running naked through the yard, among other Sunday things on my to-do list.
The thing with Tiger is it's so rare to watch someone be the absolute best at something. Jazz-wise we have Coltrane, Armstrong, Miles, Ellington, Parker, Ornette. Once in a lifetimers. I'm not necessarily a golf fan, but I am Tiger fan. I want him to get back to just assassinating the field every weekend he plays. It brings me joy to see anyone he's paired with pee his pants and lose his s***, or as Ralphy Wiggums would say, "I have two kinds of wet in my pants."
It's not about how nice he is or was to the fans, or exceptionally boring and emotionless to the media. I couldn't care less. It's not about his love of whooouures. And it's not about me watching to see a devoted, faithful husband church goin family man.
I want the stone cold killa. I want him to murder people. The way he used to.
I had no problem when Michael Jordan would talk trash, or be a complete pr!ck to his teammates; because his play was legendary. His competitiveness was legendary boarding on hilariousness. "Dude, Jordan just knocked out Horace Grant in practice! He's so competitive..." "Did you hear Michael put arsenic in Cartwright's Cheerios to motivate him? SO COMPETITIVE..."
To me, Barry Bonds was different because he cheated the game. Big Mac (Mark McGwire) cheated the game. I loved Jose Canseco (mostly for trading card purposes) as a kid, but he cheated and ever since he retired he has been completely worthless, (other than exposing some other users).
I was a Bulls fan growing up, but I know non Bulls fans across the world that prayed that they could witness in person what M-Jeff could do on any given night. To be there transfixed on the master transforming the court, baseline to baseline, into a cathedral of windmilling-above-the-rim-artistry. Poetry in white-hot electric motion. Also, the only guy ever who could pull off a Hitler stache....
The same goes for Tiger. Putts that always fall at the most clutch times, power rips from the rough, bunker shots that no one will ever make one out of 1000 times.
In baseball, (believe it or not), some of the worst people ever are LEGENDARY PLAYERS. Or....as I would like to dub, the Veda Pierce division, (fyi, watch the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce. Amazing. The daughter Veda Pierce is the worst, most vile piece of filth I've ever encountered in a film character. Yeeshh...WOMEN are awful to each other. The things women say to their own friends is unbelievable. We'll save this for another time.)
A short list in the V-Pierce division........Ty Cobb, (beat up a man with no hands once), Mickey Mantle (showed up wasted to games and told young endearing fans to buzz off), Bonds (liar...liar...cheat), Jeff Kent (renowned male member), Roger Clemens (no explanation necessary), Ugueth Urbina, (not so legendary but assaulted servants unwarranted with a machete for swimming in his pool, now in jail for 20 years...) etc.....
Tiger doesn't have a great rep with the fans, but how many times were Nicklaus and Palmer miked up and how many times did they yell at fans to shut up or trash talked or cussed up and down the course that we'll never know about?
We don't ask the legends to be humanitarians, nor wonderful people. We need them to be heroes of their game. Our heroes won't always be nice. But they DO things no one else can or ever will do. Everything else is perception mixed with irrational desire for purity. The true pureness is the game played at the highest level.
That's all I want.
And Latrell Sprewell choking P.J. Carlesimo, because don't we all want to choke P.J. Carlesimo at some point?? I mean....he tried to play Kevin Durant at shooting guard???
--Johanna Mahmud
