Bardsley wants to "draft" Steve Kerr into politics

Analyzing the article

San Francisco Chronicle

appeal to emotion

Our Analysis: 1 Fallacy

Sometimes you need to nudge people to their ultimate destiny, the true calling that awaits them.

I know what you're thinking. Steve Kerr? The nine-time NBA champion (five as a player, four as a head coach)? The most accurate 3-point shooter in NBA history and one of its best coaches? ...Although Kerr has achieved greatness in basketball, I believe he's capable of much more in another arena: leadership in public affairs

The author makes a compelling case for Steve Kerr's potential in public affairs by highlighting his leadership, communication skills, and activism on important issues. However, the argument leans on Kerr's sports achievements and personal tragedies as indicators of his suitability for political leadership, without thoroughly examining the specific skills and experiences that effective political leadership requires. Nonetheless, other than an appeal to emotion, the essay is largely free of fallacies.

1. appeal to emotion • The author uses Kerr's personal tragedy and emotional response to gun violence to argue for his suitability in public affairs:

Kerr himself spent a large portion of his early life in the Middle East, including Beirut, where his father was a Lebanese-born American academic specializing in the Middle East until he was gunned down in 1984...
"I don't want people to feel what my family felt when my father was killed," he once said. "I know what it feels like to have a family member ended by a bullet."

This leverages emotional appeal rather than logical reasoning related to Kerr's qualifications for political leadership.

References

Greg Bardsley (2024, Mar 20). Why California should 'draft' a reluctant leader into politics -- Steve Kerr.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/steve-kerr-california-politics-19258709.php

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Disclaimer

Note that there being one or more apparent fallacies in the arguments presented in this article does not mean that every argument the arguer made was fallacious, nor does it mean there are not other arguments in existence for the same or similar position that are logically valid. Also note that checking for fallacies is not the same as verification of the premises the arguer starts from, such as facts that the arguer asserts or principles that the arguer assumes as the foundation for constructing arguments. For more about this, see our 'What is Fallacy Checking?'

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