Admittedly, I’ve never been much of a gamer. My parents
bought me a Nintendo 64 about two years after they were cool, and I recall
getting a Sega Dreamcast for 50 bucks at an after Christmas sale once, but for the
most part my video game knowledge is elementary at best. However, as a product
of the 90s, I am more than familiar with the Bowser battling, Yoshi riding,
Italian plumbing duo of Mario and Luigi Mario. That’s right. Look it up. Their
last name is Mario. Mario and Luigi Mario.
The one game I had a real affinity for was Mario Kart 64. As
is the case with most video games, I was terrible, but I did figure out a few
shortcuts that allowed me to win a race or two. Or perhaps that’s just a bit of
revisionist history. I really should have played a few games with Howard Zinn
when I had the chance.
The following is a list of Mario Kart 64 characters ranked
by popularity:
D.K.
Yoshi
Mario
Toad
Wario
Bowser
Peach
Luigi
Luigi, despite his crucial role in the world of Mario Bros.
(Venice?), always got the shaft. Although never completely forgotten, he most
certainly never got the credit that his red-hatted brother garnered.
And this got me thinking. Maybe it’s in the name.
Luigi “Geno” Auriemma is undoubtedly one of the greatest
basketball coaches of all time. At age 58 his accolades already include an
overall record of 804-129, 7 D-1 National Championships, 6 Naismith Coach of
the Year Awards, a spot in both the Naismith Hall of Fame and Women’s
Basketball Hall of fame, and an insane 90 game winning streak. Ho hum. And now
go ahead and add to that already astonishingly impressive resume an Olympic
Gold medal, as Coach Geno lead the US women to its 5th consecutive
championship at the Olympic level.
Earlier in the week Franklin wrote a piece praising Coach K.
The content in the piece was spot on, as he perfectly summarized a career that
can only be defined as sublime. What really piqued my interest was the title of
the article, “The Smartest Man in the Room.” The case could certainly be made,
and was made, that Coach K deserves that title but how and why was no real major attention given to Coach Geno during
these 2012 games?
Part of what we do here at The Diss is to critically
highlight and explore the external factors associated with the NBA and
basketball at large. We have discussed everything from racial issues to mental
health in an intelligent and objective manner. I don’t want to come off as
preachy, and I have no intention of stirring the pot just for the hell of it,
but the only plausible answer to this question is rooted deeply within the idea
of how gender roles are defined in basketball. Do you know how many male head
coaches Team USA has had in their history?
One.
Recap: We had the premier of the first male head coach in
the history of US Women’s Basketball however NBC opted instead to cover the
enthralling escapades of Ryan Lochte’s sex life.
So as I sat in my living room watching Coach Geno and the US
Women celebrate I decided that instead of bashing the mainstream media for
their ambivalent attitude towards this amazing basketball mind, I would
canonize him here on our humble blog. While many will argue his accolades
aren’t as impressive because it’s Women’s basketball as opposed to men’s, I’d
argue they’re even MORE impressive for that very same reason. How you choose to
understand and follow women’s basketball is assuredly up to you, but it’s
foolish and unfair not to give Coach Geno the immense credit he deserves.
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