No, I, like many of you, sometimes feel differently than the general sports community about certain issues or incidents, and this is my forum to defend and discuss those opinions. 

This week’s popular opinion: Simone Biles must be glorified and revered for having the guts and mental fortitude to step away in the middle of the Tokyo Olympics, citing her mental health as the reason for dropping out of the team finals, as well as the individual all-around finals.

I don’t have as huge of a problem with this as a lot of people, actually. Biles is the best ever. Agreed. She’s been the victim of horrible crimes. Unfathomable. 

Whether her mental health was the true reason she quit or not .. Biles didn’t feel like she could perform, so she quit. Okay. Like I said, I don’t have a lot invested in this. She quit, a vast majority of people immediately jumped to her defense, and somewhere in that time someone decided to compare the incident to when Michael Jordan retired briefly to pursue baseball.

I’m sorry .. what? 

I’ve seen it worded many ways, but basically, Biles’ defenders are pushing that Jordan quit on his team, the league and millions of fans when he “retired” the first time. They added that he was suffering from mental anguish when he made his decision, just like Biles, AND they insisted that Jordan was praised and revered for his decision to walk away from his team in ’94, and that people were sympathetic and understanding of Jordan and his decision.

Again .. what? 

Jordan was almost unanimously criticized and bashed! Yes, Jordan “retired” from basketball .. at the end of a season, not in the middle of the NBA Finals! Did his mental health have a part in that decision? I’m sure it did. His father had been murdered, and a lot of the country was blaming him for that. That will cause some mental anguish.

They said he was selfish for leaving his teammates. And for taking up a spot on a minor league baseball team when he decided to honor his father by trying to play his favorite sport, baseball, professionally. 

Jordan left his team for a year. That happens all of the time, more so now than when Jordan played, but it’s not like he walked out or refused to play DURING the season. 

And that kid whose place he took in the White Sox minor league organization? I’m sure he’s fine. It’s not like the kid had to wait another four years and try to become one of the best five or six players in the country to get to play his sport again! 

Bottom line .. Biles made the decision to not participate in her sport of choice on that sport’s biggest stage. People are split on whether it was “heroic” of her or if she is now the definition of “quitter”. 

Personally, I think she was injured. Had the “twisties”, exhaustion .. something. It doesn’t really matter, I just didn’t like that her camp, or whoever first started the “Michael Jordan Quit Too” campaign, tried to compare the two situations at all. 

Now, the Scottie Pippen quitting incidents? Or Vontae Davis? Of course no one in Biles’ camp wants to compare what she did to the incidents of quitting in the middle of seasons, even games, like Pippen did, and they certainly don’t want what she did to be compared to quitting at halftime of a Week 2 NFL game! 

I don’t believe Biles’ act had anything to do with being a selfish, jealous diva .. like Pippen .. or that she was planning on walking away completely .. like Davis did .. but their incidents have a LOT more in common than Biles’ and Jordans’ do!