Karl Malone Made Headlines With Major False Equivalence

NBA teams are resting their superstars. People have opinions. Hall of Famer Karl Malone was asked for his opinion. Here it is:

You’ve seen takes like this — usually by your uncle on Facebook. That Malone would take this stance is not surprising. Broadly, it lacks the nuance of stating that resting players is in the interest of individual teams but may prove to be detrimental for the league at large.

What I want to focus on, though, are the two points Malone strings together. The first: saying that basketball is more play than work clearly delineates a difference between NBA jobs and those with more demanding blue-collar jobs. It seems odd to follow that up with his second thought: that people with other jobs aren’t afforded the opportunity to rest, and therefore, NBA players shouldn’t rest.

He just stated that the profession is unique! Why then would he suggest that the norms of another profession be applied universally? It doesn’t make any sense. This is the problem with putting these two thoughts in order.

Different jobs come with different responsibilities. One cannot insist they all operate in the same way.

Also, service members, police and first responders do get time off. It’s called vacation.

Anyway, that’s Malone’s opinion. Take it or leave it. I’ll leave it, for several reasons.