Throughout the latter half of the 1980s and well into the 90s, I had what might be described as a love-hate relationship with John Stockton and the Utah Jazz. The diminutive—by NBA standards—Stockton and his primary partner, the massive Karl Malone, were a joy to watch, with Stockton’s breakneck pace and splendid passes complemented by Malone’s thunderous dunks and surprisingly soft shooting touch.
Yeah, I loved watching the Malone-Stockton duo—when they weren’t playing against Clyde Drexler and the Portland Trailblazers. All too often, the Jazz put a whuppin on my Trailblazers, despite Drexler’s heroics. Then I hated Stockton and his Jazz teammates.
But the thing I loved about John Stockton was that he was a quiet, seemingly humble assassin—just like Clyde Drexler. I never saw either of these two members of the 1992 Olympic Dream Team and all-time greats thumping their chests or bragging about their exploits. Both seemed like humble, genuinely nice guys.
Quiet Does Not Necessarily Mean Humble
But, as I’ve recently observed, quiet does not necessarily mean humble. John Stockton’s recent rebelliousness and rants regarding COVID reveal an arrogance hidden behind his self-effacing façade. Gonzaga officials were right to ban him from the team’s games. His basketball exploits and fame should not give him a pass when it comes to public-safety rules. He has the right to reject vaccines and mask mandates, but he does not have the right to put other human beings at risk for catching a dangerous virus. His assuming he has that right reveals a shocking arrogance.
I should not have been surprised, though. The whole anti-vax, anti-mask movement is propelled by arrogance. “We know more than the experts who have devoted their lives to studying and fighting these viruses,” is their attitude. Imagine a virologist at an NBA game running out onto the floor, shoving one of the players aside, and insisting another player throw him the ball because he knows he’s better at basketball than the athletes beside him who have devoted their entire lives to the game.
Beyond the COVID Controversy
This is where the anti-intellectual attitude increasingly embraced by Trumpist-style conservatism has gone. And it has clearly infected not just the COVID controversy. These same folks also assume their instincts and personal observations are more authoritative than careful, long-term studies performed by climatologists and weather specialists with years or decades of training and experience. Climate change is a hoax, they say.
They know more than Secretaries of State, sociologists, and election specialists about voting rights and election violations. They know more than professional educators about how to teach. They know more than professional historians about the history of this nation. They know more about the effects of fluoride than professional dental experts. Like their messiah, they know more about the military than the military’s generals and admirals, and more about international diplomacy than professional diplomats.
These are the folks largely responsible for—as Tom Nichols' book labels it—The Death of Expertise. These are the folks who embody the Dunning-Kreuger Effect; they assume they know much more than they actually know, and because of their arrogance, they will not accept correction.
More Than Just Expressing an Opinion
In 2018, Fox “News” talk-show host Laura Ingraham famously charged NBA legend LeBron James to “shut up and dribble the ball.” In that instance, James didn’t contradict any experts in any field of study; he merely expressed his opinion that President Trump “doesn’t understand the people [he was elected to represent].” There is a difference between expressing one’s opinion and deliberately contradicting experts on matters that can affect the health and well-being of one’s neighbors, as Stockton’s actions and words did.
True Humility
Thankfully, another quiet NBA star spoke up to contradict Stockton’s dangerous contradictions of the medical experts. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar—in my opinion, the greatest NBA player of all time—wisely stated, “I think statements like [Stockton’s] make the public look upon athletes basically as dumb jocks, for trying to explain away something that is obviously a pandemic. It doesn’t make sense what he’s saying. This is a preventative measure that has been useful in many different circumstances.”
Abdul-Jabbar is humble enough to recognize that he is not omniscient; others know more than he does about many topics. Humility is the foundation for wisdom. Arrogance is the foundation for folly. John Stockton—and millions of similarly deluded Americans—have chosen arrogant folly over humble wisdom, and the hideous trap of arrogance is that it opposes repentance. John Stockton serves as a symbol of the intransigent arrogance that will destroy this nation.
So, as much as I loved watching John Stockton’s tremendous basketball skills, I hate his destructive arrogance. My love-hate relationship remains. But hate—of his arrogance—is beginning to overshadow the love.