Arguably the best player in the National Basketball Association, San Antonio Spurs center forward Tim Duncan stretched out on a tufted leather couch in an NBA promotional advertisement during the NBA playoffs in April.
In a book-lined office, gray haired “analyst” Julius Erving, universally known as “Dr. J,” sits in a chair in the analyst's classic position behind his patient, commenting on Duncan's competitiveness, envy, and yearnings. Featured in the office, and never far from the patient's awareness, is Erving's championship trophy which Duncan obviously covets.
When Erving delivers an unwelcome interpretation, Duncan sticks his fingers in his ears and makes meaningless noise so he can't hear the doctor's emotionally painful conflict.
Conflict, envy, yearning, resistance, gentle interpretation, a classic analytic couch and chair—all on prime time, Saturday night, first round NBA playoffs—have we finally begun our return to popular cultural consciousness? It's hard to say. But having one of sports' greatest icons, Dr J, associated with the analytic profession, and one of its most admired current players cast as a conflicted patient, is a psychoanalyst's fantasy ad.