There are lots of things that could be considered culminations of human achievement. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel paintings. The Pyramids of Giza. Beethoven’s 9th. Sun Tzu’s Art of War. The Burj Khalifa. The moon landing. Some of these are individual accomplishments, some are group efforts displaying humanity’s limitless potential for cooperation. These and many others are more-or-less permanent monuments to our collective glory.
But it concerns me that footage of Gerald Green’s windmill alley-oop from two years ago may not be sufficiently backed up for posterity.We can not afford to lose the evidence of the greatest single achievement in human history.What happens if the YouTube goes down forever. Are there backups on Vimeo? NBA.com? We can’t even count on the Internet itself to last in perpetuity. Or even the ability of future humans to be able to play back our video files.
We need to do more. Paintings and statues need to be made. These need to accurately indicate just how far Gerald Green got his head above the rim. Inscriptions need to be made on stelae. These inscriptions need to describe in the greatest possible detail the full 360 degrees his arm rotated before slamming it in the hoop. Music needs to be composed to capture the opposing bench’s jubilant yet restrained reaction.
This needs to happen soon. My own feeble attempts to archive that momentous occasion do not do it justice. Artists of the world, heed my call.