Anybody who's played competitive sports understands that choking -- performing worse than expected in pressure situations -- is a real part of any game. That muscles can tighten, mouths get dry and feet sometimes move slower when the game is on the line. Or are today's professional athletes, whose absurd pay and media adulation have taken them further and further away from mainstream American life, supposed to be immune to such everyday occurrences?

Perhaps, but does anybody really think the Kings, playing "the biggest game in Sacramento's NBA history," as the Sac Bee put it, who've been struggling to surpass conference rival the Lakers for three years running, whose entire 61-win regular season goal was within their grasp Sunday night, did not feel the pressure as they squandered the game away? That the Kings, who have never won a championship in their 17-year NBA history, did not choke?

The general reluctance to address choking likely revolves around access. Professional athletes understand sports commentators aren't always going to be kind, that it's part of their job to criticize failure. Yet those commentators don't want to wander too far out on a limb and risk losing access to the athletes. So it seems a line has been drawn at "choke," and scribes understand not to cross it.

As one network television sports producer told Salon, "The announcers want players to continue giving them interviews, and the former coaches [who announce] want the chance for future employment. So they're as polite as possible."

But like all journalists, sportswriters and broadcasters are supposed to report accurately, not what their hometown readers -- or the athletes -- want to hear. That's not to suggest local papers ought to ridicule the high school QB who stumbles on the three-yard line with seconds to go in the championship game. Perhaps college athletes should be immune to the painful charge of choking as well, even if they clank a couple of free throws to lose a big game. (Duke player of the year Jason Williams showed a real knack for that at season's end; few scribes seemed to notice.)

But why shouldn't professional athletes, many of whom earn five figures a day, be judged realistically and harshly if need be? A choke is a choke.

What else can you call Michelle Kwan's hesitant performance in this year's Olympics? (And yes, Kwan has earned millions without turning "pro.") Trying to capture an elusive gold medal, the favored American ice skater stumbled badly while young, carefree Sarah Hughes skated her way to gold.

While there was lots of media talk about "choking back" tears the next day recounting Kwan's collapse, an electronic search indicates there was virtually no talk of the obvious. Mark Lund, publisher of International Figure Skating magazine, was an exception. "She came out, and she just choked. She was going way too fast into that triple toe-triple toe combination," he told CNN.

And he was right on the mark. After years of practice and anticipation, Kwan succumbed to the pressure of championship competition and choked. So did the Sacramento Kings.

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