It's possible no athlete has ever come into the professional ranks with so much expected of him. In this case, the assignment was essentially to save his home town, to win with a team that had never won, in a city whose teams haven't won in decades. Elway, as smothered as he was in Denver in the early years, didn't grow up in the Rockies feeling obliged. Chicagoans paid attention to Michael Jordan only after he started winning.At least Wayne Gretzky won four Stanley Cups in Edmonton before leaving.
added: Bill Simmons. "I always thought his ceiling looked like this: Jordan's DNA crossed with Magic's DNA crossed with Bo Jackson. Nope. Take the Jordan DNA out. Have to. Jordan was a ruthless mother******. Jordan was a killer. Jordan didn't care if his teammates despised him. Jordan never, ever, not in a million years, would have allowed his team to quit in the final two minutes of last night's game like LeBron did. His teammates feared him, loathed him, revered him and played accordingly.... [L]ast night, LeBron's DNA finally made sense to me. Throw Jordan out. Throw Magic out, too, except for the 'controls sections of a game with passing/rebounding' part. Keep Bo. Now, add this guy ... Julius Erving. I will explain."
