Before Thursday night's big game, Very Smart Brothas' Damon Young offered some very direct words of advice to basketball novices, including must-know facts and essential etiquette.
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… 1. Shut the f*ck up
There's nothing wrong with being an NBA novice. Basketball isn't everyone's cup of tea, so it's perfectly understandable if you just don't happen to possess a working soul or the mental and emotional capacity needed to appreciate it. Different strokes and shit.
Anyway, novices are basically tourists. And, while there's nothing wrong with being either, there is something wrong with being a tourist who acts like they're f*cking tour guides. Basically, now is not the time to start arguments about [s—t] you know absolutely nothing about but think you might know something about cause you happened to watch First Take yesterday morning. You wouldn't go to the Guggenheim and start debating curators during exhibits just because you happened to read a damn pamphlet about Frank Lloyd Wright would you? Own your tourism by cheering, asking appropriate questions, and respecting the fact that you don't know [s—t]. The tour guides you're watching the game with will appreciate it.
I understand that shutting the f*ck up may be difficult if you're an opinionated person who is used to each of your generally inessential opinions being acknowledged. But … I don't care. Shut the f*ck up.
Read Damon Young's entire piece at Very Smart Brothas.
The Root aims to foster and advance conversations about issues relevant to the black Diaspora by presenting a variety of opinions from all perspectives, whether or not those opinions are shared by our editorial staff.
Damon Young is the editor-in-chief of VerySmartBrothas.com. He is also a contributing editor at Ebony.com. He lives in Pittsburgh and he really likes pancakes. You can reach him at [email protected].
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