Finally tonight, a few words about championship rings. Just when did they become the all-important barometer of who does or doesn’t count in sports? When did they supersede personal excellence or exemplary character as a standard of greatness?I don't know how many titles James will have to win in Miami to be beloved and universally admired again. All I know is that there has yet to be a pro-James backlash to counter the massive anti-"ESPN Presents The Decision" reaction (regardless of how people feel about the choice itself), and he's in quite a hole right now.
I got to thinking about that the other night after the self-anointed chosen one, LeBron James, embarrassed himself as he tried to make his decision to seek rings in Miami sound like a search for the Holy Grail. It’s when he essentially admitted to placing a higher priority on winning than anything else.
LeBron’s decision is typical of our immediate gratification era, but it flies in the face of history. Even though he never won a title, Dan Marino is still the biggest hero in Florida. And in Boston, all those Celtics championships are dimmed by the unforgettable brilliance of Ted Williams, who never won anything. In Chicago, Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus have legendary status despite playing on losing teams. And even in the NBA, where guys seem obsessed with being viewed as ‘the man’, real men like Barkley, Ewing and Baylor are ringless, but revered.
Despite such evidence to the contrary, LeBron James seems to think he needs a ring to change his life and secure his legacy. Maybe he’ll get one, maybe he won’t, but it’s probable that no amount of rings will ever remove the stench he wallowed in last week. LeBron may yet find that in the court of public opinion, just as putting on a tux can’t make a guy a gentleman, winning a ring can’t make one truly a champion.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
THIS MAY LEAVE A MARK: Bryant Gumbel on LeBron James, tonight on HBO's "Real Sports":
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Well, it took two championships and seven years for people to forget that Kobe Bryant was accused of rape and admitted to cheating on his wife by having rough sex with a 19-year-old. I can't imagine that getting people to forget about about one terrible TV interview will take much more than that.
ReplyDeletePutting the question of taint, or overcoming poor judgment or bad behavior, to one side, my college friends and I used to debate the title/no title question back when Jordan hadn't won a ring yet. One faction held, quite vehemently, that Jordan would never be considered a great, like Bird or Magic or Russell, until he was a champ. I don't think the nature of the debate has changed much over the past 20 years.
ReplyDeleteI agree that players like Marino or Williams or Sayers were transcendent. But they also failed to achieve the pinnacle of their sports. Does that tarnish their legacies? No. Is it fair that Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl and Marino didn't? Well, yeah - you have to have a lot of things fall into place, no matter how sublime you are as an athlete, to win a championship in the major pro sports.
I think that failure to win a championship in the NBA is much different than in the NFL (or MLB) because of the impact that a single player can have on an outcome. It's ridiculous to judge an NFL player by championships, and absolutely insane to judge a baseball player by that measure, but in basketball, where a single player can have an outsized influence on a team's success, it's slightly more justifiable.
ReplyDeleteI agree, to a point. Even in basketball, though, there is so much that is out of a single player's control, particularly in the salary cap era. But yes, any single player can have more of an impact than in the other sports.
ReplyDeleteKobe and his PR/legal team also handled that so well. Ended it before courtroom testimony, issued an appropriately regretful yet murky apology, public story is that no money changed hands. And once you've set the bar at "was it rape?", the subsidiary question of "did he commit adultery?" drops out of the public consciousness.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to take this opportunity to say what an excellent TV show Real Sports is...
ReplyDeleteI am not a sports fan, at all, but absolutely love the show.
Seth Meyers from the ESPYs last night: "Don't feel bad, Cleveland. Literally every NBA team that has won a championship has done so without LeBron James."
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ramar to an extent. I think many of these negative feelings toward James will fade away in a few years, assuming the Heat have won a title or two and the Cavs are regulars in the lottery. The one thing that might not change is the impression that James has forfeited his right to be declared one of the best of all-time. The changing feelings toward Kobe came in part because he finally won a title without Shaq. James probably won't ever have the chance to win a title without Wade, and he always will have a blemish against him for his failure to win a title in Cleveland.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder how much the generation gap is a factor here. I get the feeling the under-30 crowd roots for players as much as teams, while older fans are much more loyal to the teams they grew up rooting for. I wouldn't be surprised if you see tons of younger fans wearing James' Heat jerseys tihs season while older fans are still seething over the decision and how it was handled.
Neither Bird nor Jordan nor Magic ever won a title without at least one other HOFer on the roster, and in many cases two. Do we see James differently just because he decided to join an existing superstar, as opposed to having the pieces (existing or falling) in place around him?
ReplyDeleteYet despite the other Hall of Famers, the Lakers were clearly Magic's team, the Bulls were clearly Jordan's team and the Celtics were clearly Bird's team. It was always Parish and McHale helping Bird win a championship, or Pipper helping Jordan, not the other way around. Not all HOFers are created equal. The question here is whether a Heat championship will be viewed as Wade leading the team with LeBron's help, or the other way around?
ReplyDeleteWhat does that say about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then? 5/6 of his titles were with Johnson.
ReplyDeleteBird, Magic and Jordan (who also won all of his titles with a Hall of famer playying alongside him) all won titles for their original teams. I believe Kareem also won one title in Milwaukee before heading to L.A. James joined Hall of Famers only after failing to win a title with his original team. So, yes, I know I'll see James differently.
ReplyDelete<span>Bird, Magic and Jordan (who also won all of his titles with a Hall of famer playying alongside him) all won titles for their original teams. I believe Kareem also won one title in Milwaukee before heading to L.A. James joined Hall of Famers only after failing to win a title with his original team. So, yes, I know I'll see James differently.</span>
ReplyDeleteBut that's still holding James responsible for an accident of the draft. I guess luck is always an important part of greatness, but it seems odd to judge a player differently for spending the first half of his career with players like Ilgauskas and Varejao instead of McHale and Parrish or Worthy and Abdul-Jabbar, due to factors mostly beyond his control.
I'm with you on Bird and Magic to an extent, though I don't think either of those guys would have made the move that James did. But Jordan didn't exactly walk into an ideal situation in Chicago. And the fact is the Cavs had the best regular-season record in the NBA (albeit largely because of James) the last two years. I disagree with this notion that the Cavs were far away from ever winning a title. I think he defintely could have won a title in Cleveland in the next year or two.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry but WTF? "It’s when he essentially admitted to placing a higher priority on winning than anything else." I mean, we're talking about professional athletes here. Isn't that drilled into athletes as the entire point? I mean, has he seen Damn Yankees? He's what, supposed to be playing for fun and hoping for a "participation" medal at the end of the season?
ReplyDeleteAnd I say this having no real opinions about LeBron James specifically, or the NBA more generally.
Adlai beat me to it. It seems justifiable to ridicule how LeBron made a spectacle of himself, but I don't see how his desire to win -- and, in particular, to win championships -- is selfish. Is he supposed to go somewhere where he thinks he'll be a star who loses, to prove he isn't selfish?
ReplyDeleteI look forward to his stint on the Washington Generals.
ReplyDeleteSimmons's interesting take on LeBron is that he lacks the killer instinct of an MJ, Kobe, Bird, or Magic. Wade, on the other hand, has that killer instinct but not quite the talent of that group. I don't think there was a time when you could say that Kareem on a Magic-led team was the best player in the league, but it looks to me like the only precedent for the LeBron-Wade situation is Wilt on his various teams (where he wanted his touches, but otherwise didn't captain the ship) and Kobe for the three years he played with Shaq. Those present two very interesting possible analogues, in part because of the debate over where Wilt ranks among the greats, and in part because the Shaq-Kobe relationship deteriorated as Kobe grew into an elite player, rather than just a really good one.
ReplyDelete