I really enjoy ESPN’s “ESPN Daily” podcast hosted by Mina Kimes and produced by some kind of cavalcade of all star producers. At 2X playback it’s only around a 10 minute commitment. Frequently I fall behind and binge a few of them at once to squeeze around a half hour of entertainment out of it.
There’ve been plenty of topics like hockey dentists that wouldn’t have been anything I’d have sought out on my own. But I have enjoyed those too and also learned that I’d probably be much better off spending a single traumatic day with a dentist in Belarus than hassling with the dental care I’m getting in the desert southwest.
Today’s podcast was on the New York Knicks firing David Fizdale and where the Knicks go from here. Mina & Romana Shelburne brought up Ulysses, the Sirens and their song but as it pertains to this discussion, I think they left out the best part of that story.
Ulysses (Odysseus in the original Greek version) was a man who believed “a goal without a plan is just a wish” and he had the goal of resisting the song of the Sirens and he had a plan. He had his shipmates tie him up and plug up their ears.
It worked!
That kind of simple “Ulysses trap” can be very effective and I can’t imagine Masai Ujiri going to work for Jim Dolan without ensuring Dolan sets some kind of anti-meddling trap for himself. It’d need to be so financially onerous that I can’t imagine Dolan’s lawyers letting him do. I’m not optimistic.
Same for the Redskins and Daniel Snyder and whoever the poor soul is who coaches them next and, if the Redskins fans are lucky, whoever the poor soul is who replaces Bruce Allen.
I have no doubt both organizations will find people who can’t resist the Siren song and won’t enforce anti-meddling Ulysses traps for the owners. But without such traps, meddling is a certainty.