ALL-STAR DRAW VS. CROWD THINNING APPEAL

Blake Griffin jumps over a car while the Crenshaw Elite mass choir sings R. Kelly’s I Believe I Can Fly. Javelle McGee literally dunked two balls into two baskets nearly simultaneously. Kobe made sure he locked up Most Valuable Player honors for the fourth and record time, by dropping nearly 40 points. Los Angeles did what it does, put on a great show that draws the droves. Thousands roll out, fly out to experience the convergence of talent in one of the most iconic venues. What’s the attraction you ask? It’s as simple as envy I think. People are drawn to things that impress and overload the senses. Music, pretty people, super human ability and overpriced food. That’s the universal good time of the masses. And while in the midst of the All-Star experience, the appeal is practically of addictive proportion.

I figure that getting close to greatness is the next best thing to being it so people pay whatever to see whatever, I think. Certain types of people get to be envied in our society. Others get to envy them. But as I thought about some things yesterday, after running a basketball clinic attended by 7 kids, I thought, I’m not the envy of the neighborhood. It was amusing but not hilarious. I remember the old theme song from an early 1980s television show called FAME. A line in the theme song said, “People will see me and cry…” That one line expressed the desire for significance that we all have. And rather than have fame evade us, we experience a sliver of it through association with larger-than-life events like All-Star weekend.

But on the other side, the dark side away from the hype of dunks, 3-pointers and Cee-Lo Green is Monday morning. And for me yesterday, I told my wife after the basketball clinic, “I think I may be in the wrong business. I keep trying to do things that attract people. Maybe that isn’t my thing.” What if you’re a crowd thinner? What if when you talk, the truth tends to come out and people kind of wanna punch you in the mouth? You’re looking at the antithesis of All-Star weekend. And it’s like life is lived in the non-All-Star moments. Is there anything appealing about us, the others, the non All-Stars? Absolutely. You, and hopefully I, live in close proximity to the truth. That’s not to say you can’t have loads of money and be a crowd thinner. But it’s harder. The people who watch the stars from the cheap seats are grinding everyday. And some of us grinders are deluded, living for the weekend, but if we were honest we’d admit that we are not attractive because we are committed to things like work, family, sacrifice, etc. A name can sell something I can’t but if it’s one thing I’m learning about being a crowd thinner, it’s that the value of what you offer is not diminished because Josh Groban didn’t sing the national anthem before you did it.