Very interesting FreeDarko discussion about Darfur, China, Team USA ... and the suggestion that if anyone is going to speak up about Darfur, it might as well be Yao Ming.

I'm not on board.

Stories about activism might sometimes seem to be stories about complaining, but if the activisim is any good, they are ultimately stories about helping.

I think everyone has to think about being generally compassionate, and helping other people where it's doable. But you get to choose your own spots.

Yao Ming has not, to my knowledge, expressed any interest in Darfur. That's fine. Not everyone has to be in on every issue. Sure, he'd be in a good position to make a difference. But so is Hu Jintao, you know?

Yao Ming jumped in with both feet to help at the time of the SARS epidemic. And he has been the face of some environmental campaigns. I'm sure there is more to that story.

The expectation that Kobe Bryant and LeBron James might put in the good word for Darfur comes from Bryant and James telling us that they understood the issue, it was important to them, and in LeBron's case he implied it was so important that it would transcend the politics of the moment. (And in the case of Bryant, he even told us to get more involved: "Please take a stand with us," he says in that PSA. "We have the power to save lives.")

When people in that situation keep their mouths shut, you get the feeling they are doing so because they don't want to rock the boat. Not rocking the boat, being a good team player ... those are things that are important. But if you're putting yourselves out there as leaders in a struggle against genocide -- just about the worst thing on the planet -- then who cares about a distraction or two for some sports team?

So, in effect, James and Bryant pointed at the left field wall. So it makes some sense, to me, that people might expect them to hit one out of the park.

Or at least hit a single, for instance, by joining calls for a truce to endure the three weeks of the Olympics. Who could be against that?

That excellent video report the other day seemed to paint a picture of Jerry Colangelo telling the team that it was time to focus on basketball, and then we saw everybody on the team who was asked about it falling neatly in line, quoting almost the exact same words.

It's great to see players sacrificing for the team. And I'm sure Jerry Colangelo -- who has worked tirelessly to pull this team together against some long odds -- has his reasons for saying what he said. (He has to balance the needs of players against those of the sponsors he has courted, the U.S. Olympic Committee, and the various other powers that be.)

But if a few words from Colangelo was really enough to end the public activism of some passionate players, well then the whole thing seems a bit deflating, doesn't it? Standing for something is inspiring. It's leadership. And at times it's scary and difficult. What we're seeing now, that's the opposite of standing for something. It's safe. It's comfortable. And it's not what we were led to expect.

UPDATE: It's not just basketball. Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post on the athletes' group Team Darfur:

... a number of athletes from other countries who belong to Team Darfur have quietly called to drop out of the group in the run-up to these Games, because they were pressured by their Olympic committees to disassociate from the group.