Fuck you Michael Phelps

Seems to be the "in" thing after these Olympics, to downplay what Michael Phelps has done. Some people have mentioned that a track athelete would have to win like, the long jump as well as every possible racing thing to equal eight medals. That the eight medals is as much about opportunity as anything, that Phelps has done something very similar each time. I have some time for these stories, but much of it seems to be unnecessarily contrarian and just raining on the world's parade.

Some have taken the form of comparison, especally with uber-sprinter Usain Bolt, who was pretty amazing, I never ever thought I'd see Michael Johnson's record beaten, truly. I'm more or less fine with this, albeit riddled with the absurdities of comparing sprinting to swimming. After all, both are amazing, both beat world records, both are, statistically speaking, undoubtedly the best at what they do. We're lucky.

I don't have an easy segueway to this, by Mike Freeman. It's just the definition of wrong.

Redeemers Better Story than Phelps

The basketball gold medal game was stunning, the officials absolutely awful but in the end the Redeem Team lived up to its name.

It wasn't their best night. The Americans at times played defense with the intensity of a Sunday afternoon jogger.

fine, although for all their lauded expertise, it's amazing how lazy and boring sports writers metaphors are. You'd think for all the practice they get they'd be as proficient at them as a bug is in winter.

That's why I am humble blogger.

Maybe not so humble.

...overall in these Olympics the Americans were spectacular, particularly Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

fuck you Dwayne Wade (27 points, 4 steals in the gold medal game). Seriously, Wade led the team in scoring throughout, I think he ended up in the low twenties despite coming off the bench, including many spectacular plays. If you are going to single anyone out (and I kind of think the whole point of this has been not to do that Mike), he would without question be the story - Wade is back!

They enabled you to root for USA basketball again, they rebuilt our image, and they mostly handled themselves with class and dignity. If you can't be proud of what they did -- and the women as well -- then you're more cynical than I am. Which is impossible.

how dare you even hypothetically suggest it! Fuckers.

While these Olympics will be remembered for Michael Phelps what the basketball team did was far more impressive. Yes. Far more.

it's just not at all. The American basketball team clearly has the greatest pool of players to draw on, the best coaching, facilities, largest population of the major contenders, so on and so forth. Phelps enjoyed some of these advantages too, but he was competing against other Americans, and he was in an individual sport. Ugh, first Tiger Woods not retiring because of Brett Favre and now US basketballers eclipsing US swimmers. At the end of the day, Phelps swam in seventeen races in like eight days, broke six world records, I don't really think if I flew to the moon in a box with "SPACESHIP" written on the side and touched back down safely, with evidece of extra-terrestrial life, it would be more impressive. Let alone far more. No, that emphasis wasn't arbitary, he meant it.

The reason why is pressure. If Phelps had earned five gold medals instead of eight he wouldn't have been called a failure.

that's opportunity not pressure. I admit he's in more events, so it's harder for him to fail as abjectly as the basketball team could have, but to suggest Phelps was under less pressure is totally unfair. As much as I trust your "pressure meter", I think Phelps being the great hope for the US medal charge (he one one in every eight gold the states won) comes along with a ton of pressure. *sigh* Can't we just say being an Olympic athelete is very impressive? Do we have to downplay the achievements of these men and women? Do we have to be douches about it? According to Mike Freeman, yes we do.

If the United States won a silver or bronze the players would've been treated like total losers. They'd be called embarrassing. Media and fans would be screaming for massive changes.

their lives would be totally over you guys! OMG they'd be so devastated, they'd never be able to show their faces around the cafeteria again. They'd be pelted with tomatoes. Put in the stocks. Be despised, outlaws, chased from county to county with pitchforks.

Give me a fucking break. It'd be a dissapointment, just like Phelps losing, and he had eight opportunities to fail, don't forget.

The world and many people in this country waited for the Redeemers to fail so everyone could wag their fingers and portray the Americans as street ballers incapable of playing the precision International game.
no one was saying that that I heard. Some, maybe even many, were hoping the US would fail because it's way more interesting if they look human, and it's generally more fun and a better story (that's right, this was supposed to be the best story) if the underdog wins. Redemption, yes, but they were still massive favourites.

You don't think the Americans knew this? You don't think they felt this pressure and it didn't weight on their chests like Shaquille O'Neal's backside?

ZING!

Phelps had only Mark Spitz to worry about.

...b-but what about the athetes that were trying to beat him? There were like a hundred. And seven others each time. Are we going to disrespect them too? Why not huh? It's not like winning swimming medals is hard or anything right?

The basketball team was fighting the failures of the recent past as well as our cynicism.It's late on the East Coast and the game just ended. My eyes are barely open but I'm nevertheless giddy. Actually, I'll say it, as corny as it sounds, I'm proud as hell.

it's not corny, it's fine, it's one of the things the Olympics are for. I have no problem with your being corny, I have a problem with you disrespecting one of the greatest athletes of our time.