Starting off with the obligatory "Congratulations" to the Dallas Mavericks. I don't mean as a slight- any time a team comes together over the course of a season and survives a grueling playoff run, it's a big deal. But I'm not a Mavs fan. I didn't watch any of their games. Actually, I didn't really watch any games this season. You know, since me and basketball called it quits.
But because of my desire to see the Miami Heat fail, I did follow this season quite a bit (pretty much exclusively via reading articles about the Miami Heat on ESPN.com). It wasn't because I was interested in hoops again. It wasn't because I got The Book of Basketball for my birthday (amazing read for anyone who enjoys basketball and/or pop culture references). Even Bill Simmons, with all his basketball acumen and writing prowess, couldn't suck me back into what many have been calling the most compelling NBA season in years. I watched a grand total of one quarter this season- which was the last quarter of the 2010-2011 season. Even then, I didn't watch because I wanted to see the Dallas Mavericks win their first title. I watched because I wanted to see the Miami Heat lose.
And I wanted to see the Miami Heat lose because of LeBron Raymone James.
I've talked about LeBron before. I'm sure I will again. Sadly what I have against LeBron is not entirely his fault. Our society has this nasty habit of exalting individuals merely based upon certain characteristics that are esteemed at that particular time. Sometimes those characteristics are noble. Sometimes those characteristics just involve the ability to put a sphere into a cylinder. I don't know LeBron personally, so I can't speak to his possession or lack of noble qualities. But I don't think national sports magazines put him on their covers while he was in high school because he was voted Most Helpful Boy.
And having never been the target of mass adulation, I can't honestly say how I would respond in a similar situation. I can imagine that having all sorts of constant praise heaped on you from every angle probably warps your sense of standing within the human community. It's not all LeBron's fault that's he's an self-obsessed ego-maniac. All of us sports fans are at least a little to blame.
But still- he has bought into the hype pretty hard core. The "King James" moniker. The random acts of violence towards talcum powder. Snubbing the Orlando Magic after a playoff loss. The "Decision". The "We Did It" party. LeBron has come to represent, in my mind, everything that is wrong with sports in our culture today. It's probably too much to pin on one person, and realistically I know there are other athletes and additional things to blame.
Then he ripped out the heart of a sports city (Cleveland) for the sake of his own brand, prematurely celebrated victory with his newfound buddies, and then spent the year playing the "Woe is me" card when everything blew up in his face. And that sort of surgically grafted scapegoat horns onto his headband. The sins of sports got tatted on his biceps. What did he think was going to happen though? Did he honestly think he was bulletproof?
Enough about James. I've decided to take my talents to Germany.
The 2011 NBA finals provided my NBA voyeurism with a perfect contrast to LeBron- Dirk Nowitzki. I've always been enamored with Dirk. It's partly because the German perversion of the letter 'w' (BTWs, did anyone else think that it was funny that NBA commissioner David Stern mispronounced Dirks last name? How long has Dirk been in your league? Global game what?) led me to mispronounce his name for most of my adult life. Partly it is due to the fact that he is 7' tall and can shoot threes like nobodies business. And he has crazy hair and a face that sorta looks like he's transforming into Teen Wolf. Oh, and he was on Punk'd. Basically this guy bleeds awesomesauce.
But as I watched some highlights and read articles about the NBA finals, I was really confronted with the stark contrasts between Dirk and LeBron. LeBron is one of the most explosive athletes I have ever seen. Dirk is....well, he's sneaky. I feel like when he jumps, you'd need a mongoose to slide a dollar bill under his feet. Dirk has a jump shot that could bring tears to the eyes of a swan. LeBron's shot makes you run for cover. Dirk's movements are very herky-jerky, like Wall-E trying to operate in the low post. LeBron combines the grace of a gazelle with the power of an eighteen wheeler.
But it was more than just their physical differences. There's just something about the way they conduct themselves. And this really hit home to me when they showed a shot of Dirk's fabled shooting coach, Holger Geschwindner, watching the celebration with teary eyes.
I don't want to say that LeBron is not a hard worker. But he strikes me as someone who is gets by on his athletic gifts than someone willing to put in the hard hours of work. I'm generalizing surely- but doesn't it seem like LeBron has basically stagnated as a basketball while Dirk has just grown as a player over the years? I mean, Dirk Nowitzki put in so much work that his shooting coach was brought to tears when he finally won a title. LeBron? I think that if he ever had a shooting coach, that guy probably died by being struck in the head by a wayward carom of a LeBron James laser-throw.
What's my point? Well, a little bit of gloating. A little bit of explanation of said gloating. A little bit of analysis. And a moral to the story- kids, no matter how great your natural gifts and talents are, you have to bust your booty twice as hard as the next guy- because when your time comes, you can't just hope you win because you spent last summer expecting the victory party.
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