…is to use argument-inciting hyperbole as a distraction. Please, keep reading.
This Rockets team reminds me of the protagonist in John Knowles’ “A Separate Peace.” Knowles’ hero suffers a crisis of identity after a traumatic injury.* Referring to the asterisked book report below, Houston’s team lost its identity in the spate of injuries early in the season. If Yao’s injury was tragic, the loss of Aaron Brooks to a sprained ankle suffered during a half-court heave to beat a half-time buzzer is Shakespearean (obviously not at the level of Macbeth, but more at the level of crayon doodles from Stratford-Upon-Avon pre-K).
Yes, I am fully prepared to eat the crow I unwittingly began preparing a few months ago.** When I called for the trade of Aaron Brooks, things were different.*** I still think his trade value is inflated by <my presumption that the first metric typically seen on an individual level is> average scoring. Brooks also has something else, because this team was not as erratic last year with largely the same cast of players.
*I hate this book for the same reason every dumb extremist**** hates books: it’s boring and it pissed me off. Writing from a 9th grader’s memory: The antagonist in this book was actually the hero, albeit tragic. Knowles’ provides a unique vantage as the book is narrated by the antagonist; a consciously flawed adolescent envious of the perception of ease in which the hero conquers life. The hero has grand plans for himself that are literally shattered when he severely breaks his leg and is sapped of his identity. Yada Yada…the book is deep in meaning and metaphor, but the only reason I remember it is because Knowles’ denounces sarcasm as a cheap imitation of real humor, which is funny only in the irony that the book could only be funny to a depression suffering sadist.
**Is this the Aaron Brooks bandwagon? Because I left my favorite hoodie somewhe…is that seat taken?
***Different = full of promise.
****”I was elected to lead, not to read.” –McBain, Simpsons
