How the NBA Explains Government

By Don Varyu

April 19, 2024

The National Basketball Association presents the absolute superstars of the sport—the biggest, fastest, strongest, and most confident players on Earth. Crowds scream and swoon over their thundering dunks, and the three-point baskets they nail from almost as far away as Caitlin Clark’s.

But these physical and cultural titans can’t get away with anything they want. That’s because there are also three other people on the court—the referees. They are shorter people who wear black and white striped shirts, and who decide what the superstars can and cannot do. Their work is widely vilified by fans, whether on site or watching from home. They only see the “blown calls.” Either the refs are being too lenient (“letting ‘em play”), or whistling minor (“ticky-tacky”) infractions. For the record, the refs don’t get to sit and rest for ten or 15 minutes at a time, like the players do. And even the most accomplished ref won’t make half the salary of the greenest, least-used rookie on the bench.
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Of course, there’s a wider world beyond the NBA court. It’s a world that’s also combative and punishing, but can be richly rewarding. It’s called capitalism.

Like the NBA, the titans of tech and business believe themselves to be the biggest, fastest, strongest (and unquestionably most confident) players in the game of wealth. These folks think they have “earned” their fortune and acclaim, even if they just inherited everything. from dad. (The latter have created a class of delusional and dangerous delinquents like Donald Trump, Jr., and Jared Kushner.)  But whether earned or bequeathed, the vast majority in the billionaire class believes its wealth and power equals wisdom, and thus the right to do anything it wants. After all, they’re smarter, so it's logical they should determine everything for everyone. These people call themselves “libertarians.”

A small number in their ranks—people like Warren Buffett, Mark Cuban and MacKenzie Scott--stand on the sidelines, shaking their heads, and use vast sums of their own wealth to make the world better. Not just their worlds—the whole world.
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Greed is an irrepressible force, in both humanity and society. Empathy and fairness are not. So, to prevent greed from befouling everything, a counterbalance is required—acting like the referees in an NBA game. Force requires counterforce. That’s why we have firemen and fire hydrants to quell voracious flames. In the history of capitalism, only two such counterforces have ever worked against it: labor unions, and governments. Capitalism has effectively de-capitated unions (pun intended) …which leaves only governments. However, in this battle, the power of the monied has rigged the game. It’s turned the fans (citizens) decidedly against the refs (government).

The “little people” have been convinced that:

• Tax cuts for billionaires will trickle prosperity down to them (it never has)

• Higher taxes for the rich are unfair and probably communistic (wrong on both counts), and,

• Every person connected to a government—from the Department of Justice to the IRS to your local DMV office—is a lazy, incompetent grifter. (To my mind, this is the most outrageous and false claim of all.)

In America, complaints about the government have existed since the day after the Constitution was signed. But in popular culture, they probably reached a zenith when Ronald Reagan claimed that the nine most “terrifying” words in the English language were, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” Very quippy—but, of course, not original. And that's very ironic coming from a man who ran the government of America’s largest state, and then the entire country. His real message was clear—get government out of the way and let the rich do as they will.
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Anyway, let’s finish by returning to the NBA. Let’s imagine what a game would be like with no referees—the way libertarians and other lying self-servers envision a perfect nation. There are no fouls…because there are no rules. The only purpose of the game is to put the ball in the basket, and without refs, anything goes. Any player intending to dunk could receive an elbow to the gut…or be felled by a cross-body tackle before his feet ever left the floor. A sharpshooter at three-point range might be able to get a shot off—but would then risk the likelihood of fists to the face. And even then, giants at the basket could block the ball before it ever reached the rim. If you’ve ever seen a rugby match, imagine that on a confined, hardwood floor.
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This is exactly the kind of Thunderdome in which the self-styled Mad Maxes of Silicon Valley and Wall Street see themselves. Not as fighters—heaven's no! But as the undisputed masters of capitalism, freed from all responsibility or morality toward any of society’s combatants. The rich stand high above it all, gloating from their luxury suites.
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I, for one, vote for refs—for strong government, despite all its flaws.
If you, on the other hand, decide to vote based on Ronald Reagan's "terrifying" threat posed by all those people and agencies working to protect us, you will be welcoming a national Thunderdome, where you most assuredly will suffer.

 Have fun.

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