The Ravdin Report. Weekly thoughts on sports, life, and culture

Hey! The Ravdin Report is switching to a new format. From now on, it will be more of a live blog or a diary of my thoughts on sports and life. As opposed to a proper long read once a week or a fortnight. This would allow me to react more quickly to sports events and share my impressions while still fresh. The latest posts will go topmost.

Dāvis Bertāns has never been an NBA star. But with eight years of NBA experience under his belt, he's been a decent role player shooting threes like there is no tomorrow and averaging 7.7 PPG. Having been waived by the Charlotte Hornets on 6 July 2024, he rejected an offer from the ULEB Euroleague regulars Real Madrid and signed for the newly created Dubai Basketball Club of UAE.

He became the biggest signing for the club that will play in the Adriatic League, or the ABA League, next season. That's right, a Dubai-based basketball club will play in a European competition comprising the best teams from Serbia, Slovenia, and other former Yugoslavian countries. Dubai will pay all the European clubs’ travel expenses and reportedly donate additional funds to them annually.

The deal with the league has been signed for three years, but I don't believe the project would end after that. This is a rehearsal for the Dubai BC to settle in European basketball before moving to the Euroleague. I have no doubts they will eventually be there. Their youth team already made their debut in the Euroleague Basketball Next Generation Tournament last season.

Just look at numerous examples of Middle East countries winning over international sports markets.

There is UAE money behind Manchester City. Qatar is funding Paris Saint Germain and has hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Saudi Arabia continues to invest heavily in sports. The likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, and Karim Benzema play for Saudi clubs. Saudi Arabia is hosting the Spanish Super Cup and the biggest boxing fights in the world. They will deliver the inaugural Olympic Esports Games 2025 and the 2032 FIFA World Cup.

I am sure Bertāns will do well in the Middle East. Apart from his basketball skills, he has a decent beard to blend in with locals.

But I wonder something else. How long will it take before we see Barcelona battling it out on Camp Nou against Riyadh United FC in the UEFA Champions League?

Cristiano Ronaldo launched his YouTube account last Wednesday. In 90 minutes, he had 1 million followers, a platform record. Eight days later, he has 52 million with the likes of Lionel Messi (3.2m), English Premier League (7.4m), and Real Madrid (15.1m) left in the dust and the biggest modern music star Taylor Swift (60m) in plain sight. What does it tell me? That he is not a footballer.

Just do not kick me yet. Of course, he is a footballer. Maybe even the footballer. And yet he is not a footballer, not anymore.

For he is a pop star.

He is a part of popular culture more than any football player has ever been. Perhaps, it is the wrong Ronaldo that has been dubbed Fenômeno.

Cristiano Ronaldo & Ronaldo Nazário de Lima are the only 2 players to win the Ballon d'Or with 2 different clubs. pic.twitter.com/fuz0JPup36

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) July 17, 2016

Cristiano is much more of a phenomenon in the sense that The Beatles were. I can easily imagine him taking the stage in 1968, dressed in a turtleneck, and all the girls in the stadium pass out screaming and crying tears of ecstasy.

MrBeast, the biggest YouTuber ever, is still far far away with 312m followers. But Ronaldo is not going anywhere soon too. He is one strike shy of 900 senior career goals for club and country as of 30 August 2024 and he would hardly retire before reaching 1,000. Given his scoring rate at the Saudi-Arabian FC Al Nassr and his plans to feature at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, his YouTube flock will continue to grow actively in the next two to three years.

And when he does retire, I will not be too surprised to see him start singing. What would it be? "The Long and Winding Road"? Or perhaps, "Taxman".

In high school, I despised The Prodigy. I was into rock and heavy metals of all sorts. If one listened to pop, techno or, God forbid, rap, it automatically meant we had nothing in common.

Fast forward several years, and I discovered hip-hop through Fugees and Cypress Hill. I was in my late 20s when I first heard The Prodigy for real, without a teenager's bias. And I fell in love. I still believe they are one of the modern era's most iconic and influential music bands.

It was on their gig in Riga in 2016 that I was introduced to the mosh pit concept. I had seen metalheads moshing before, but my attitude always was “Get away from me, you animal!”. Then I became that animal myself. And I liked it.

Last Sunday, they were in town again (RIP Keith). I went to see them. I slammed, and I jumped, and sweated, and pushed, and got pushed, and fell, and was helped up, and I found somebody’s phone on the floor and returned it, and I was exhausted, and I was happy.

The Prodigy at Rock Am Ring in 2009

As I was wandering home, I thought that was an experience very similar to a game of basketball. Basketball just because it is the game I like to play the most, but it can be any team sport.

Both are group events that create an immersive vibe, and if you catch this flow your body starts acting on its own, without any conscious effort from your brain. Both require a lot of energy and tough physical contact. Both are legitimate outlets of stress and encourage certain levels of aggression.

But what I like the most, is not the physical but the psychological effect. Both these activities make you surrender your ego as Freddy Mercury urged us in his Innuendo.

Innuendo by Queen

First, you are allowed to do what is normally not socially acceptable. That is to push and shove other people while they willingly accept it and do not condemn you. You feel welcome the way you are.

And more importantly, you allow others to do socially unacceptable things to you. Just imagine your reaction if someone pushed you and knocked you off your feet in a street. Oh, the rage! In the crowd or in a team, you do not feel so self-important anymore because it’s not just about you.

So if someone ever asks me "Are you in therapy?" I know what to reply.

"No. I’m in Prodigy."