Maybe I just feel like a little more self-awareness should be injected into the conversation, is all. I don't think that it's a question of fault or victimhood, and I find it hard to imagine that they'd see it that way, either. Like, I also agree that it's a wimpy way to conduct yourself, but I can also admit that my way of thinking is an artifact of a belief system that simply does not apply to the modern athlete. And, probably in less than a generation, it's not going to apply to the modern fan, either.
Frankly, I don't know what we're going to do, when we're all still alive, but we and those of us who consume sports and entertainment the way we do become the minority. AAU was the death of competition, as us dinosaurs understand it; that genie ain't never going back in the bottle. Now, that doesn't mean that I'm ever going to get on board with it: I ****ing hate it. I'm going to gripe, moan and complain about it, all the way until they put me in the ground, but that doesn't change the fact that I am acutely aware that I've become the NBA equivalent of "Get off my lawn!" guy. It's only getting "worse" for those of us who hate what it's become; the rest of them like it just fine. This **** is passing us by.