Pride and petulance

Appreciate the little things in life — especially if they piss you off

Oct 07, 2022

After the Warriors won the NBA title, you could see all the usual championship merchandise, but one big fan site had a T-shirt that reached right into the soul of MVP Steph Curry. Here it is:

Curry remembers life’s little slights, maybe because his body has always been a little slight compared with other NBA greats. Look closely at the T-shirt and you’ll see two pundits signaling zero — how many titles they expected the Warriors to win once Kevin Durant left. Look even closer and you’ll see Curry himself, signaling a zero to mock them.

He’s part of a petty party. Teammate Draymond Green was drafted 35th in 2012, and knows all the names, in order, of those chosen ahead of him. A column in The Athletic described how irked Klay Thompson was when a Memphis Grizzlies player tweeted “Strength in Numbers,” a Warriors slogan, after Memphis won a meaningless regular-season game.

And amid their celebration in the locker room, Warriors players starting chanting “Fuck you, Draymond” — mocking what Green had heard from Boston Celtics fans.

Lots of self-help gurus will tell you not to sweat the small stuff, and they’re right. You shouldn’t let life’s little rejections and disappointments turn you into some self-pitying clump of fetal-position yoga, but by all means use them as fuel.

Aspiring novelists are told that if you’re going through a rough period — anything from having your heart broken to waiting two hours at the DMV — use it as inspiration for a scene, a character, a narrative. Read about celebrities from Tom Brady to Mark Zuckerberg to Lizzo and you’ll see how they were doubted. Or, more accurately, underestimated.

Then there was the time Seth Meyers mocked a businessman during the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican,” Meyers said, “which is surprising since I just assumed he was running as a joke.”

Trump. Was. Not. Amused.

There’s a great line from Ted Lasso in his darts scene: “Guys have underestimated me my entire life.” But don’t forget a dash of this from Rudyard Kipling: “If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too.”

If Steph Curry were 5-foot-4, all the pettiness and heart and work ethic might not have been enough. Just as there are tons of great actors roaming the streets of Hollywood, there are even more great unemployed actors — ones who never got a big break, just little heartbreaks.

There’s a not-so-great line between petty fuel and pitiful.

How do you avoid crossing it? If you’re in a competitive field, are you better — and better off — than you were a year ago? If your honest answer is “no,” is that OK? Maybe instead of climbing the mountain, you’d rather take in the vista. Great.

But if it’s not OK, how will you be better next year? Do you need to take classes or add skills or find a more challenging job or rediscover your passion? Can you find something to motivate you, even if it’s petty? Sometimes the little things are what helps you see the big picture.