Last night a division three basketball player named Jack Taylor scored 138 points in a single basketball game. That sounds impressive. It sounds impressive because it is impressive - but maybe not quite as impressive as you may think.
If you saw that headline and thought this wasn't a planned thing for even half a second, you should see a doctor. The whole system was designed to get this kid as many points as possible and make the news. It's not even the first time this school has done it apparently. They were fouling the other team on purpose and playing four man defense to let them score quickly, just so they could get Taylor as many shots as possible (he took 108 of them at the end of the night, which wasn't even an impressive shooting percentage).
A lot of sports analysts are appalled by this and saying that it shouldn't be news because Grinnell is basically ruining the integrity of the game just to get some play in the media.
I think it's brilliant. I would even go as far as to say that every other D-III school should be ashamed of itself for not attempting similar shenanigans. Grinnell College realizes how irrelevant they are in the scope of NCAA athletics. They don't play to win, they don't play to further the integrity of their athletes, they don't play for honest competition, they play to make a name for themselves in an absolutely ridiculous way. And if you can't get your name out there legitimately, what excuse do you have to not try ridiculous things to accomplish it? Waynesburg University is doing basketball wrong. Every D-III basketball program not named Grinnell is doing it wrong. Jack Taylor scored more points in a single game than any other basketball player in history ever did. And he's probably not even that much better than I am at basketball. This kid has no future. I mean just look at him:
Sometimes in life you have to realize that you aren't all that special. But guess what, that's okay. You don't have to be famous or attractive or good at something to have a successful and happy life. Jack Taylor will be able to tell his kids that at one point he was mentioned in the same sentence as some of the greatest basketball players ever mentioned. Then he'll go off to his job at a gas station and his kids will head to school and probably get bullied because they're tiny and have no confidence.
Accomplishment doesn't have to be legitimate - it just has to be accomplishment. I encourage you all to accomplish something in the most loop-holey and pathetic way possible.
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