Bethlehem Shoals takes the conversation of ‘soft’ in the NBA in the other direction by examining the implications of ‘tough.’
With Pau Gasol having possibly cost the Lakers their three-peat (that’s one reading of it), and Chris Bosh still not living up to the high expectations all had for him in Miami, “softness” is a big topic of discussion among, ahem, NBA nerds. On this site, Ryan O’Hanlon illustrated the furtive link between this label and either Otherness, gender stereotypes, or even sexuality. Beckley Mason then took it a step further, asking what actually makes Gasol and Bosh so supposedly soft.
Tom Ziller and Andrew Sharp responded at length on SB Nation, which included Ziller’s trenchant point: “Anybody that plays in the NBA is tougher than the fans and writers that criticize them.” Ziller also suggests that “soft” might well be the only way of describing a certain style of play. “Finesse” is less loaded, but not nearly as portable.
Lost in all this, though, is the opposite of softness: “toughness.” Obviously, all of these discussions of “softness” have contrasted it with what is expected of players, what they should be to measure up to—either 1) the physical and psychological standards required to succeed at the highest levels, or 2) the standards of everyday manhood that somehow ally themselves with these very sports-specific qualities.
The problem, though, is that “toughness” comes with its own can of worms. In these playoffs, we have glorified the Grizzlies, a team that practically corners the market on toughness. Yet not only is Memphis possessed of great mental resolve and plenty of big bodies, they’re brash, unflappable, not afraid to hit hard, and more than a little threatening. That especially goes for their unofficial mascot, defensive wiz Tony Allen.
It’s a double standard: If a player behaves himself, he’ll be lauded for his rough and raw qualities. If not, he’s destroying the game and jump-shooting needs to be taught in public schools pronto.
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The problem is, a player like Allen can—if he’s not winning basketball games—easily slide over into the “thug” category. This is part of a long sports discourse of fearing, or being intimidated by, black masculinity at its most aggro. Of course, if one of “those people” fails to channel his energy into productive effort, then that itself is a form of weakness. The Grizzlies, though, are exactly the kind of team that glorifies something many fans might be put off by in real life.
What’s tough? Not to slip into some particular noxious halftime show clichés, but spend some time in the neighborhoods—yes, also referred to as “tough”—where many players come from. All the beer commercials in the world won’t save you from feeling out of your depth and longing for a bourge-y comfort zone. The ultimate “tough guys” in the NBA (notice how that term borders on sarcastic) walk a fine line, in part because they represent a constant threat to the masculinity of the fans who judge them.
It’s hard to reconcile criticisms of Bosh and Gasol with the paranoia of the late ’90s and early 21st century. The league was overrun by these so-called thugs, whether of the swaggering Allen Iverson variety, or the more down-to-earth Ron Artest. Fundamentals had gone the way of the dinosaurs, and the NBA was, supposedly, defined by gun charges and prison tats. If fans value toughness so absolutely, and will only respect the hardest of the hard, then why did the league experience a crisis when it felt overrun with athletes who wore a certain kind of machismo on their sleeves? Again, maybe the trapdoor comes with the “toughness” necessary to focus and overcome some sort of “ghetto mentality.” That’s what makes the Spurs, and the (according to some) notoriously dirty Bruce Bowen, a real profile in toughness.
Then again, it just doesn’t take much for yesterday’s thug to become today’s avatar of masculinity. It’s wholly absurd, seeing as “tough” in sports has nothing to do with “tough” in the fan’s life, which has nothing to do with “tough” in an athlete’s private life. Yet the Grizzlies prove that, in an almost fetishistic manner, we look for reformed thugs, not just solid citizens, to really signify toughness in the NBA. It’s a double standard: If a player behaves himself, he’ll be lauded for his rough and raw qualities. If not, he’s destroying the game and jump-shooting needs to be taught in public schools pronto. It’s part of a complicated relationship between black and white masculinity that goes back to slavery and isn’t about to be sorted out in a column that began by addressing Pau Gasol. Yet every time we call a player soft and mean anything more than “finesse,” maybe it’s high time we think about what we imply by its opposite. In its own way, it’s every bit as offensive.
—Photo AP/Mark Humphrey
This article seems to be written based on the assumption that only White folks are reading it.
I’m African American,and I live in a ghetto – West Harlem in New York City, to be specific.
So yeah, when I think of toughness I have a real world counterpart to compare it to – and, of course, I’m not scared of tough Black men!
I can’t comment on any particular individual’s intentions in using the terms hard and soft in the NBA context. And I think it’s a mistake to think that Shoals is pretending that he can either. As I understand the column, he’s talking about the connotations of terms, the way that their chains of possible meanings drift off and can get away from what any particular individual might think he or she means by using a particular term. In other words, there’s what we consciously mean when we use a term (which is what DaddyFiles seems to be defending) and then… Read more »
Yeah, Tony sounded perfectly articulate there.
I think it’s so hard to parse out the meanings of these words because each person may use them differently. Daddy Files (the commenter above) doesn’t incorporate notions of masculinity, but just skill and performance.
Tom, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I could understand everything in that audio perfectly. Tony Allen seemed like a nice guy.
Just for yucks here is my interview with Tony Allen:
http://www.thomasmatlack.com/audio/tonyallen.mp3
My son and I have become huge Memphis fans in part because of the emergence of Tony Allen, who was always miscast here in Boston. I will tell you that I once interviewed Tony for an article about the long-time boston trainer Vlad Shulman (who was Tony’s best friend here) and I honestly could not understand a word the man said. He is borderline brain dead. No, I take that back. He is brain dead. But on the court that is in a good way. Kind of like the way Manny had no recall of the last pitch, could go… Read more »
Slavery? Did you really just incorporate slavery into a conversation about toughness/softness in the NBA?? Sorry, but you’re way, way off base. When I call Pau Gasol soft I can guarantee you it has nothing—NOTHING—to do with slavery. And when I call Ron Artest tough, the same is true. This conversation is so far out of whack at this point it’s laughable. Black, white, yellow, gay, straight…none of that matters when I talk about a player being tough or soft. I’m basing it on his play, behavior and any comments he has made publicly. Case in point, Big Baby Davis… Read more »