Terrence Hayes, aka Comedian Petty Murphy, has been a comedian and podcast host for the last 16 years and is an avid sports fan and ambassador for mental health awareness and social injustice.
Today's climate in this world is bad, just like the weather outside. It seems like we celebrate failure more than we celebrate success, and to me, that's a problem. It is a problem that this generation does not see. They are celebrating failure over success. It is fueling the hate that we have in this country.
And Sunday night's All Star game was an example. Now, I watched last week's Super Bowl, and I saw how much hate and disdain there was for the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. Having fun, making the memes, making the jokes, and everything else about the Chiefs, all right, it happens. But you gotta understand, that team has been to five of the last six Super Bowls. You have a quarterback who made it to five Super Bowls before he turned 30.
How can you hate that? You hated the Super Bowl halftime performance of Kendrick Lamar when the message was clear, especially in this political climate. There was a message that people missed, so I suggest you go back and watch the halftime show. Fully watch it on YouTube, watch the behind the scenes footage, and really understand the message behind it.
But last night took the cake. As I am sitting there watching TNT's last broadcast of the NBA All Star Game as they move on from NBA basketball, especially the guys from Inside the NBA, Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, and Charles Barkley, I see Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors hating the fact that they had to put the Rising Stars team, that rightfully earned the right to play in that game, into the Skills Challenge. They played against the All Stars, and they gave them a good run. It showed competitive edge, that is what we have been missing in the NBA All Star Game for the last ten years.
And I want to say this because I do respect Draymond Green as a basketball player and as a man. But you gotta stop hating. If it wasn't for your generation of basketball players not playing defense and not making the All Star Game exciting, things would be different. When I grew up watching it, Magic, Bird, Dr J, Jordan, Barkley, Pippen, Malone, Kobe, Allen Iverson, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Carmelo Anthony, they played the game differently. This generation of NBA players ruined it, so changes had to be made.
Well, unlike the NFL with the Pro Bowl, the NBA All Star Game actually started a new trend, and I can see it on the rise. But what we need to realize is that we should celebrate success more than failure.
And I think that is the whole point Kendrick Lamar was trying to make last week, if you paid attention. I have been paying attention to a lot of things people are doing, and I see that you all would rather hate someone succeeding than celebrate the fact that they actually made it. We have to stop that as a culture.
Every single day, someone's success is clouded because there is so much hate and people wanting others to fail. I know people wanted this All Star Game format to fail, but it didn't. The players understood the assignment. The fans understood the assignment. The NBA understood the assignment, and it gave us great entertainment for over two and a half hours yesterday. So, I commend the NBA for that. Thank you.
I hope you guys go back to the original format and learn your lessons from Sunday's game. Be more competitive. Take what you learned from Sunday and apply it to next year and future games as well. And I hope the NFL does the same thing.
But as a culture and as a country, we really need to stop celebrating failure. We need to start celebrating people's successes a whole lot more to gain a better understanding of one another. We gotta celebrate one another because life is getting shorter every day, and time is of the essence.
As the late Kobe Bryant once said, "The biggest mistake that we make in life is thinking that we have time."
So, for what we have seen in the last two weeks, where we may never see this moment happen again, embrace it. Celebrate it. Enjoy it. Stop with all the conspiracy theories and just live your life. But also, give respect where respect is due. Celebrate successes, celebrate wins, because there are more W’s in the world than there are L’s. Think about that.
I'm Petty Murphy, and I approve this message.
Read more from Terrence Hayes
Terrence Hayes, Comedian & Host Of The Petty Murphy Project
Terrence Hayes, aka Comedian Petty Murphy, has been a comedian and podcast host for the last 16 years and is an avid sports fan and ambassador for mental health awareness and social injustice.
