Diana Taurasi's Comments Prove She Lives In An Alternate Reality
At any point in time, through no fault of their own, a person can be a victim. They could be a victim of a crime or even something as trivial as a snide comment. While being a victim in a moment is a harsh reality, choosing to identify as a victim afterward is a choice. According to comments made by Diana Taurasi during Team USA media availability, she is choosing to have a victim mentality.
The crazy thing about her comments is that Taurasi isn't a victim of anything. She's chosen to manifest an alternate reality in her own mind and fabricate an injustice that she has suffered, and continues to suffer from. "I don't care about the last 20 years, I'm worried about the next 20 years, " she lamented to the press. "Only a woman would have 20 years of experience and it's an Achilles heal instead of something that is treasured and used as a way forward for our sport and for women, so hopefully we can change that narrative."
Women have suffered injustices throughout history, and even in recent history. Sexism in sports is still as rampant as ever, and every day someone becomes a victim of it. Taurasi's error was viewing the world she lives in as the real world. There are two problems with her comment, and both illustrate this disconnect from the average citizen.
The first mistake she made was assuming that 20 years in professional sports is the same as 20 years in sales, marketing, or any other professional normal people have. For people who operate in reality, 20 years of doing something is considered expertise and wisdom. In the world of sports, 20 years is considered excess wear and tear.
Athletes don't play until they retire at 62 and collect a pension; they are in and out of their sports before many people can blink. Many athletes don't make it 10 years in any sport. The age bias against her isn't as a woman, it's as an athlete.
The second faux pas in Taurasi's squawking, even if she accepts the reality that she's a dinosaur in her sport, is that ancient women in sports are treated differently than ancient men. Tom Brady's age was questioned in his 30's. Bill Belichick brought it up in a press conference about why he drafted Jimmy Garoppolo.
LeBron James has been called too old. Tiger Woods has too, and these are two of the greatest to ever play their sport (something Taurasi is debatably not). Choosing to play the role of victim, and invoking her gender as the reason is a giant disservice to woman athletes around the world. They should do themselves and everyone else a favor, and tell her to "Zip it!".