Will Cain is auditioning to replace Skip Bayless on First Take, and he's wasting little time in proving he can be just as hateable as his predecessor. Reacting to LeBron James' post-Finals Instagram post directed at his haters, Cain is upset about the fact that LeBron sometimes used incorrect grammar.
Here's what LeBron posted:
They said u lost a step, wasn't explosive as once was, the best days was in the real view, questioned your drive, your leadership, your commitment, you don't have killer instinct, going back home is the worst mistake in your career, he got the coach fired, players traded, won't work between him and Kyrie, Him and Kev won't work, love your teammates to much, there's no way he can deliver a championship in his hometown, etc etc etc.... But guess what THATS NONE OF MY BUSINESS #StriveForGreatness #ThisOneIsForTheLand #PutSomeRespeckOnMyName Hahahaha!!! Yes sir
Typing out full paragraphs of thought on your phone is pretty hard – if I ever have more than a sentence to say to someone, I just call them – and I think most people are willing to give each other a pass on the occasional misspelled word. But if the thing you want to say about LeBron winning his third NBA title is that he used incorrect grammar on Instagram, well ... I don't really know what to say to you.
But Cain stumbles heedlessly upon a bigger issue handled eloquently by J.A. Adande,writing for the The Undefeated about the folly of "cleaning up" athlete quotes for print.
I want to see flawed quotes, in all of their glory, presented without fear of backlash. If Kevin Durant leaves out a letter of an indefinite article when disparaging an owner or Brazilian Leandro Barbosa uses broken English during a postgame interview, it could end up being the best part of the series — as long as they are allowed to truly speak for themselves ...
For one, it’s patronizing, with the implication that anything that deviates from the norm is inherently inferior and must be corrected. Black English, for example, isn’t a referendum on intelligence — it’s a reflection of centuries of segregation, just as American English is a linguistic representation of our country’s split from Britain. Passing judgment based on speech can often say more about the listener than the speaker. (Do we consider Yoda any less wise because of his mixed-up syntax?)