Even without Bill Simmons heading the conversation with semi-controversial jabber, ESPN still has some poignant points to make on occasion. It happened recently when SportsCenter’s Scott Van Pelt took a shot at entertainment media for choosing to refer to Lamar Odom as a reality TV star over a sports champion. Check it out.
This is probably the calmest method of mentally whooping an ass I’ve seen in some time, with all the bravado and snark of a Daily Show segment, but without the same amount of hoopla. (And it’s no small victory to hear Van Pelt say Bun B’s name.) With the emotion of an educator standing before a class, he rips the media for ignoring Odom’s former glory on the basketball court, where he was an Olympic athlete, a two-time champion, as well as the Sixth Man of the Year in 2011. It was this level of fame that led him to the point where he was involved with Khloe Kardashian and the Keeping Up with the Kardashians spinoff. This wasn’t how things always were.
Odom has been in the headlines more and more in the time following news of his divorce from Khloe, for drug problems and other troublesome instances. And while news coverage has recently given more time to the behind-the-scenes problems of sports stars, Odom might not have had to worry about this if people just thought of him as a basketball player and not an E! reality staple. But I guess it’s like Van Pelt said, it depends on what kind of a person you are.
Regardless of where you stand, it’s hard to argue that this segment-ending quote was an excellent punctuation to his sentiments.
I understand not everyone watches sports, but Kardashian reality star? His name is Lamar Odom. And we knew it long before he got married on a TV show that we don’t watch.
Odom is currently in a coma in a Nevada hospital, where he’s been since Tuesday after he was found unconscious at a brothel, allegedly with cocaine and sex-enhancement pills in his system. He’d spent days at the brothel to get away from his normal life, which has taken some tragic turns in the past year. Things aren’t exactly better now, though.
It’s definitely a strange time in entertainment when players can be known for so many things that aren’t their main claims to fame. I don’t think anyone would refer to Michael Jordan as “Hanes’ pitchman” or Terry Bradshaw as “Failure to Launch star.” But some people’s obsession with the Kardashians and other reality show stars definitely stretches the boundaries it seems. Thanks for saying what some of us have been thinking, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am voice actor Scott Van Pelt.
