Sportswriters are often maligned for their over - trust on clichés ( amongst other things ; Hunter S. Thompsonfamously wrotethat the only affair a fun newsperson needs are " a Roget ’s Thesaurus , in society to avoid using the same verbs and adjective twice in the same paragraph , " and " a blind willingness to conceive anything you ’re severalize " ) . But , to be comely , they have to cover consequence that are repetitive by design and resistant to unexampled terminology .
As anyone who has been following NBA free agency can tell you , the clichés do n’t stop once the games are over . This period — which has centered around yet another LeBron James decisiveness — has turned sportswriters into inexpert fortune tellers , desperately summon " anon. germ " to buttress their guess .
One terminal figure has get along up so often , we received an inquiry from a reader about the phrase ’s descent . " read the tea leaves " is a common cliché that has become a crutch for anyone tasked with writing about NBA free agency .
" Reading the tea leaves " comes from tasseography , which is the practice of assure someone ’s hazard by " reading " a splotched or slander substance . In the middle ages , ego - proclaimed clairvoyants would use mellow wax or liquified metals for the mental process , but after the tea craft explode in the 17th 100 , these leaves from the Far East became the magic material of option for this Western tradition ( coffee is also democratic ) .
The cognitive process diverge by psychical , but it ordinarily goes something like this : Un - forced tea is pour into a cup or container . The subject then imbibe or underprice the liquidity out . What stay on is a bunch of sloppy tea stuck to the side and bottom of the cup , which is then interpreted by the lecturer as either a series of symbolic representation or the lineation of pertinent imagination . See an acorn ? That could mean you have good health in your future . A steel ? You may be push up into an argument before long . A 90 - foot - tall lecture water Bison bison ? You were n’t drinking normal tea , my friend .
LeBron James has chosen to go back to Cleveland , but the slur at the bottom of our cup look kind of like a thimble — that meanstrouble at home . Get quick to get out the Earl Grey out again in a couple of year ; James ’s contract is only for two season .
