I’ve been loafing in the 90s.

Just finished reading The Fresh Prince Project: How the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Remixed America by Chris Palmer. A love letter that revisits the beloved sitcom. (Chris does excellent work noting the various Jordans Will Smith rocks on the show.)

On Wednesday Netflix released Waco: American Apocalypse. A 3-part docuseries about the 1993 Waco, Texas combat when cult leader David Koresh faced off against the federal government in a 51-day siege. I wrote about it in late February in Don’t Let The F-U-N in Fundamentalism Fool You!

And we’re gonna kick off today’s proceedings with Charles Barkley’s classic I Am Not A Role Model commercial which came out in 1993. Same year as Waco.

The past is a candy-sticky 4 year old that persistently (and annoyingly) asks “why?”

Rollin With Role Models?

The entire text of this short Nike ad is: “I am not a role model. I’m not paid to be a role model. I’m paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents should be role models. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.”

Yo…yes! Even as a high school punk in 93 I was like high fives; this makes so much sense. I don’t “need” you to be a nice guy and like help the kids or whatever. You’re here to win basketball games and I’m here to enjoy that. Winning is the only value we agree on. We good! Proceed.

Barely 30 seconds and yet it was an elegant revolution: a rousing rejection of many of our culture’s core values. We’re shrines and shills for famous folks. We have always worship celebrity. Sometimes envied the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous especially when we see their Cribs.

Lamentably this warped worship leads to betrayal. As much as they’re known for being rich and good looking and enjoying the perks of fame…celebrities mess up. A lot.

Barkley said “I am not a role model” in 1993, 2 years after his dreadful spitting incident.

During an NBA game in 1991, Barkley spit in a fan’s general direction. Only he missed hitting a young girl, a second grader, sitting in the crowd. Fans turned on Barkley and for a while this hot mess refused to go away.

(You know how many dull variations of Spit Happens headlines we hadda endure back then? Barkley was Public Enemy No. 1 but many lazy newspaper copywriters weren’t far behind.)

Later Barkley confessed: “When the spitting incident happened…I remember sitting in a hotel room and I was like dude what the hell is wrong with you? What are you so angry about?”

So he changed how he played and he worked at addressing his untamed anger. An easy line for me to write that doesn’t truly convey the amount of work that takes. And he did change…and thankfully…he kept failing too. Whew.