"Due to dwindling neuroplasticity, or some general souring toward the world, they can no longer appreciate how a game evolves. It's similar to when a music fan stops checking for new artists and plays only albums that they loved in high school. As an aging NBA fan, I'm trying to stay vigilant. I never want to catch myself ranting endlessly at the bar about the inferiority of younger stars. When I watch them on the court, I look for fresh expressions of basketball beauty."
"Wembanyama, the league's most promising young player, is only 21 years old and he's French, but I don't hold either of these things against him. Nor do I resent him for playing for San Antonio, a rival of my beloved Lakers. In fact, his fiery desire to improve reminds me of a young Kobe Bryant. I enjoyed his off-season jaunt to China, especially the 10 days that he spent at a Shaolin temple, learning kung fu."
Middle-aged sports fans can become reactionaries, losing the capacity to appreciate how a game evolves because of diminished neuroplasticity or a general souring toward the world. One aging NBA fan vows to stay vigilant and to seek fresh expressions of basketball beauty rather than denigrate younger stars. The fan respects Victor Wembanyama's promise, youth, nationality, rivalry status, ambition, and off-season pursuits, yet finds the player's on-court presence emotionally unmoving. Wembanyama's extraordinary 7'4", 235-pound frame invites nicknames like praying mantis or alien, making him less relatable even as he needles rivals and strives to improve.
Read at The Atlantic
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