Ryan Lochte is not the first person to get too drunk, wind up in an embarrassing situation, and get caught in a lie trying to cover up for it. Many of us have done it, but when Lochte did it, it was during the Olympics and he was one of the most famous athletes there, so he’s been roundly mocked by all corners of the internet. As Charles Barkley put it in his inimitable fashion, that’s just how it goes for people like Lochte.
Barkley on @RyanLochte: Being famous is great 2 out of 3 times
Great when u win
Great when u get paid
Sucks when u do something stupid— Chris Law (@ChrisLaw) August 18, 2016
That’s some folksy wisdom from one of the kings of folksy wisdom. But the best part about it is imagining that famous athletes only do three things: win, get paid, and stupid stuff. There’s gotta be more to life, Chuck! You were a famous athlete, you can’t have won all the time — unless all those times you lost to Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Karl Malone and Shawn Kemp fall under stupid stuff, in which case you really shouldn’t beat yourself up about it, Charles.
There’s no way we’ve seen the end of Lochte’s story, especially as new and strange turns seem to emerge every few minutes. So, using Barkley’s logic, hopefully Lochte can win this story or get paid from it (he should definitely license these story rights for an Adult Swim special at the very least) instead of staying on option three.
