Whitlock: Lionel Messi showed America’s GOATs how to lose
Lionel Messi may have lost on the field, but BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock believes he won something far more important afterward. Following Sunday’s World Cup match, the soccer legend publicly praised Spain and celebrated the emergence of young phenom Lamine Yamal — the same player who helped end Messi’s championship hopes.
“Now, here’s what turns this from a soccer result into a sermon,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock says on “Fearless.” “Nineteen years ago, a 23-year-old Messi posed with a baby for a charity calendar in the Barcelona locker room. He bathed that baby. That baby is Lamine Yamal, the kid who just dethroned him.”
Just before the match, Messi said of the young star, “His success will be Barcelona's success. He is one of the best in the world.”
“That’s Messi publicly blessing the young man. And then in the same breath, he said, ‘We’ll give it our all to make sure he doesn’t become a champion this time.’ Catch that. Messi honored Yamal, and he competed to beat him,” Whitlock says.
“That’s not weakness. That’s a secure man. That’s a man who understands he’s part of a story bigger than his own name. You can want the crown and want the next man to be great. Messi lost the match, and somehow he looked bigger than the trophy,” he adds.
And while Whitlock likens Messi’s attitude to Michael Jordan’s in that he’s willing to fade, he points out that Jordan never took interest in the younger generation.
“Michael Jordan has never embraced LeBron James, never mentored him, never passed him a thing,” he says, pointing out that American athletes “guard their GOAT status like it’s the last piece of bread on earth.”
“It’s a scarcity mindset. There can only be one. If you rise, I fall,” he adds.
However, while Jordan didn’t mentor, he did go silent — which Tom Brady has not done. In fact, he’s only gotten louder.
Whitlock plays a clip of Tom Brady in a “little slap fight” with Logan Paul for Fanatics Fest.
“I didn’t see greatness in that clip. I saw a 48-year-old man who won seven Super Bowls reduced to a warm-up act for a YouTuber,” he says. “And it made me ask a question nobody in sports media really has the courage to ask.”
“What happens to a champion when the applause stops? Because there are two answers to that question. There’s the Michael Jordan answer and there’s the Tom Brady answer. And the difference between them tells you everything about what we’ve become,” he explains.
“Michael Jordan understood something. Tom Brady doesn’t. Absence creates myth. After basketball, MJ didn’t chase relevance. He withheld it,” he continues.
“Greatness isn’t just what you build, it’s what you refuse to sell. Jordan knew where that line was. Brady keeps stepping over it for a check and a viral clip. Michael Jordan built an empire,” he says, adding, “Tom Brady is building a highlight reel for other people’s content.”
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A comfortable couch and pillow is all you need to enjoy World Cup soccer. Enjoy the extra sleep, and hope for a scoreless game for maximum pleasure.
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