Darnell Jackson will outlive us.
Big Z, Il Gauske, the Big One-Dimensional, the Big Dismal, the surreal second center of the Cleveland Cavaliers...is in constant conflict with his superior, Shaq, but it is not the one-sided conquering the casual might expect. On his side Z has not youth, but the relentless consistency of mediocrity. Shaq is a million feet tall and can get into foul trouble quick. He is a force of nature that is actually...really inconsistent and unpredictable, for such a renowned competitor. Big Z can "accidentally" injure the Big Man when Mike Brown inexplicably plays both centers.
But whereas Shaq is incredibly inconsistent, and whereas Z is incredibly mediocre, and they are in ineffable dialectic, there is a third center on the roster: the little-used, invisble Darnell Jackson. Less than 25 and looking like an undistinguished Shaq, Darnell Jackson is Dustin Hoffman from the Graduate, but of the center position of the Cavs. He exists in the rare case that one of these two archetypes (that represent the two sides of Mike Brown's personality) is injured, and Mike Brown needs a dependable third wheel. He has no adjectives. When Darnell plays, he is the absence of form, structure, and meaning.
What is the meaning of Shaq? Many things, reader, many things.
What is the meaning of Big Z? Many things. Many (albeit obscene and perverse) different things.
What is the meaning of Darnell Jackson? Does he even have a nickname? I frankly doubt it, and am inclined to think that he was created by the same fusion mystic that gave us Lebron clones Jamario Moon and Mo Williams.
I don't know. Don't get me wrong. Perhaps he just hasn't had time to manifest his true form. Perhaps he isn't a non-entity but the very incarnation of the absence of an entity. The Buddhists have a saying. Emptiness is form, and form emptiness. Perhaps Darnell is not a player but an empty container, that has no need, and no want, to be filled with the ego of a player. And if that's the case then...when this great world should perish...then Darnell will be the one getting a single basket a year for a million years, becoming, at long last, the statistical powerhouse of the NBA.
If this is true, it is as monumental as the Crucifixion, and he will have only time to murder until he is known the world over. But know also, that, as his fame widens, so will his gaps. The consistency of gods, yes, but the field goal percentage of a ball where every dribble counts as a shot, and the minutes of a tenth-string meditating center.
Big Z, Il Gauske, the Big One-Dimensional, the Big Dismal, the surreal second center of the Cleveland Cavaliers...is in constant conflict with his superior, Shaq, but it is not the one-sided conquering the casual might expect. On his side Z has not youth, but the relentless consistency of mediocrity. Shaq is a million feet tall and can get into foul trouble quick. He is a force of nature that is actually...really inconsistent and unpredictable, for such a renowned competitor. Big Z can "accidentally" injure the Big Man when Mike Brown inexplicably plays both centers.
But whereas Shaq is incredibly inconsistent, and whereas Z is incredibly mediocre, and they are in ineffable dialectic, there is a third center on the roster: the little-used, invisble Darnell Jackson. Less than 25 and looking like an undistinguished Shaq, Darnell Jackson is Dustin Hoffman from the Graduate, but of the center position of the Cavs. He exists in the rare case that one of these two archetypes (that represent the two sides of Mike Brown's personality) is injured, and Mike Brown needs a dependable third wheel. He has no adjectives. When Darnell plays, he is the absence of form, structure, and meaning.
What is the meaning of Shaq? Many things, reader, many things.
What is the meaning of Big Z? Many things. Many (albeit obscene and perverse) different things.
What is the meaning of Darnell Jackson? Does he even have a nickname? I frankly doubt it, and am inclined to think that he was created by the same fusion mystic that gave us Lebron clones Jamario Moon and Mo Williams.
I don't know. Don't get me wrong. Perhaps he just hasn't had time to manifest his true form. Perhaps he isn't a non-entity but the very incarnation of the absence of an entity. The Buddhists have a saying. Emptiness is form, and form emptiness. Perhaps Darnell is not a player but an empty container, that has no need, and no want, to be filled with the ego of a player. And if that's the case then...when this great world should perish...then Darnell will be the one getting a single basket a year for a million years, becoming, at long last, the statistical powerhouse of the NBA.
If this is true, it is as monumental as the Crucifixion, and he will have only time to murder until he is known the world over. But know also, that, as his fame widens, so will his gaps. The consistency of gods, yes, but the field goal percentage of a ball where every dribble counts as a shot, and the minutes of a tenth-string meditating center.
I was reading a lot of Phillip K. Dick and Buddhism. Yeah.
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