By Marc Livitz: It goes without saying that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Such trains of thought are often what shapes us as individuals and allow us to make decisions in our lives. There are things we say for the right reasons; just as there are mumblings we choose to keep to ourselves. Perhaps it is to maintain the status quo or simply to avoid conflict. We choose to do so because for most of us, our actions can lead to consequences.
Even so, what can be outright baffling at times is the choice of words emitted from those who feel they are persons of privilege and beyond any recourse.
Race can be a touchy issue. The color of our blood and bones may be the same, yet some feel the need to poke and prod deeper into popular events and happenings that might cause their own personal agenda to take a temporary back seat. Just as he did with his comments about the impoverished upbringing of Victor Ortiz, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. felt the need to lambaste the improbable yet noteworthy accomplishments of New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin.
All Lin has done is set NBA records for most combined points scored in his first five career starts. It’s a feel-good story to be sure. He graduated from Harvard with a degree in economics. He wasn’t drafted by an NBA team and so he jumped around from a few teams before he landed in one of the largest media markets in the world, Manhattan, NYC…on a couch in Manhattan to be correct.
Yet Floyd activated his jet powered motor-mouth and used his Twitter account to assure us that Lin is only receiving the amount of attention he is getting because he is Asian. Maybe somewhat true, but not cool…so very not cool.
More to the point, it’s unpalatable. Tasteless. Fodder. Insipid. Not that he cares, of course. “You don’t like what I have to say? Shut me up, then”, Floyd has often said. Maybe we’d rather just not talk to him at all.
Nevertheless, “Money” Mayweather felt it necessary to sail his opinions once again across the social networking sea. With all due fairness taken into consideration, we won’t go so far as to say that Floyd has a wicked heart. That is likely quite distant from the truth. Celebrities often describe their lives as one inside a fish bowl. Their acts of kindness can be missed, while their malcontent habits are often magnified tenfold.
Someone like Floyd has no actual supervisor, so perhaps he feels as if his opinion matters more than anyone else. In the meantime, we are constantly reminded how much money he has, how much he will make and even how much he just made at the sportsbooks. He’ll even go so far as to post the pictures of his winning betting slips on Facebook.
Has he ever guessed as to why his house was burglarized?
Warren Beatty briefly dated Madonna in the early 90’s. One of the sticking points he made concerning the Material Girl rings true for Floyd as well. “Why ever do anything if it’s not on camera? What point is there of doing anything off-camera?” asked Beatty. Whether it’s his comments, interviews or charitable work, Mayweather is much more enthralled when the tape is rolling. Yes, he helps the needy. That is commendable. Cut immediately to the scenes of the undefeated fighter using a generous stack of “mazuma” to place an imaginary phone call to an imaginary friend who may give an imaginary “happy, joy” to Floyd Joy.
Call it outspokenness. Call it candor. Real, fake, or whatever the case may be.
Someone who really has a chance to go down in history as one of the all-time greats should perhaps spend even more time at work than at play, especially when his days as a free man are numbered. Floyd’s not likely to incessantly tweet from jail about how nice his broom closet sized cell is. He may not care at all just yet how he is viewed by the general public.
Any news about Mayweather is an attention grabber. So, just as his comments on one of his stints on “24/7” about his special skill as noticed by his mother when he was youngster (Floyd asked if he being unique meant a seat on the “short bus”) could have offended a group of less fortunate individuals, the comments posted about Lin potentially carry the same type of incendiary promise.
At the same time, however it’s never classy to cheer someone simply because of their racial/cultural background as throngs of bandwagon Knicks fans have recently done. Does Lin carry a triple helix in his genes? No.
All things considered, Floyd knows exactly what he’s doing. Let’s not forget that he has an upcoming fight on May 5th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. More likes, dislikes, distastes, despicable or despondent just means more zeros in his bank account.
He’s free to say whatever he wants and he doesn’t have to apologize. He just has to live with himself and his actions. Many sports fans are the first to admit that although they feel that “Money” can bring them easy money, a TKO loss for Floyd wouldn’t exactly crumble their cookies. “I’ll never pay to watch one of his fights again”, is the phrase thrown around by many a jilted customer. Smart cash says that he’ll go to a friend’s house and watch it instead.
Words are very powerful.
By all means, please go ahead and speak your mind. Just try not to speak before it.
Floyd’s not quite 35, so we can’t brush aside his comments as affects of senility. Did Jeremy Lin almost drop 40 on Kobe and the Lakers because of his skin color or because he can play the game? Ditto, Floyd. You win because you work hard more than and far above anything else. Enough with the tags and stereotypes. Joe Louis had to live with being called “The Brown Bomber”. Have you ever wondered why?