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Sports

Larry Sanders and the Cult of Sports

With rumors swirling that Larry Sanders wants to quit basketball, it's been forgotten that he doesn't deserve criticism for acting in his own interest.
Photo by Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports

In an Eastern Conference full of misshapen teams at conflict with themselves and the toxic runoff of an oligarchic spending spree, the Milwaukee Bucks have been the most, née only, interesting team. Atlanta and Toronto are worth a damn for their respective improvements by committee, and Philly only exists as a two-minute trailer for an NBA team, but Milwaukee stands out for their season of left turns, successful renaissance projects, and the growing guru-ish aura of coach Jason Kidd. Giannis Antetokounmpo has broken the language of positionality and his partner on the wing, Jabari Parker, was the front-runner for Rookie of the Year before he tore his ACL. It's a mostly happy story so far, longtime NBA backwater makes it work with a bunch of odd, likeable players. The oddest of those players is Larry Sanders, talented and misunderstood malcontent. After four years and change in the NBA, Sanders allegedly doesn't want to play basketball anymore.

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Sources tell me that Bucks center Larry Sanders recently told some Bucks officials that he doesn't want to play basketball anymore.

— Gery Woelfel (@GeryWoelfel) January 5, 2015

Sanders has been a very good NBA player, considered to be one of the top young big men in the league. He developed into an elite rim pick-and-roll defender and for three years looked like the type of player to anchor a defense around. Zach Lowe took to calling him LARRY SANDERS! and went as far as comparing him to Roy Hibbert and Tyson Chandler. The 2012-2013 Bucks were an identity-less carbon copy of a team that aspired to nothing more than treading water near the margins of playoff contention. Sanders made them matter. He hinted at a better future. His skills were as popular as his punk sensibilities.

Read More: Can Less Be More For Josh Smith?

Prospects and bright young starlets burn out all the time for many reasons: injury, they were never that good to begin with, the pressures of NBA life cause them to crater, whatever. Across all sports, investing in any player is a risk because sports are too entropic for anyone to predict or control. It's telling of the warped conscious of the sports machine that Sanders hollowing himself out by injury would be more palatable than an adult realizing that he has the right to exert his agency as a human being and not stay in a line of employment that makes him miserable. If Sanders blew out his knees, would he find himself scorned for cashing in the remainder of his contract?

We know how to talk about tribulations like injuries because they slot into a familiar, circular narrative that the love of the game is the most important thing and that sports are themselves sacred entities. This logic ignores how they've become endlessly commodified by owners. Players are held to an uneven standard. It's not in our parlance to consider that playing in the NBA can be a means to an end, not the end itself.

Like Andrew Bynum before him, Sanders' height and athleticism are curses, enabling him to earn NBA contracts, but shackling him to a life he wasn't passionate about in a city he didn't choose to live in. There's an easy impulse to point at the sad millionaire and mock him for having the nerve to be sad about having a job that pays him eight figures a year. This not only buys into the sinister line of thinking that money solves everything, but it also dehumanizes Larry Sanders. Life as an NBA center can be a thankless affair that requires you to grind yourself down to a nub. Expressing frustration at that life isn't lunacy.

This season, Sanders has played better than his utterly lost 2013-2014. His efficiency has ticked up and he is protecting the rim ably. If his stated desire to leave basketball doesn't come to fruition, he will certainly have the tools to play as a competent big man for about another decade. And if he finds a love for the game, he can be great. But he isn't obligated to. The NBA is big enough that his departure won't change the course of the league, and Milwaukee is set up for a bright future regardless of Sanders' status.

So, don't cry for billionaires who may or may not have to pay Sanders for basketball he won't play. He's not an android defying his programming. He is a human person with interests outside of basketball, like opening up a shelter for abused women and designing skateboards (which his NBA contract prevents him from riding). Players like Larry Sanders who have passions outside of sports should be celebrated, not viewed as deviants from the cult of sports.