Before the draft, there is always at least one or two trades and much to my excitement, the Bucks were a part of the pre-draft activity this season. Upon hearing of the deal, I was ecstatic. As I played left field in the kickball game at the Gametime Sports Day Camp, my twitter feed started to blow up.
The first tweet mentioned the Bucks trading for the #7 pick of the draft. My reaction: surprise. Why would the Bucks want the seventh pick of the draft?
The second tweet mentioned a third team, the Charlotte Bobcats. And Steven Jackson. My reaction: mellowed excitement. I figured that Maggette would still be moved and we would only get the #7 pick in the return. This was still a good deal.
The third tweet mentioned the inclusion of John Salmons and the 9th pick. My reaction: Ecstacy. The Bucks had somehow managed to get rid of the contract albatrosses of Maggette and Salmons, all while getting the 9th and 19th pick in the draft. It was a masterful trade by John Hammond that managed to get the Bucks out of two of their three terrible contracts and stil remain active in the draft.
Finally, after all the dust had settled and I found out that the Bucks had gotten rid of Salmons, Maggette, and the #10 pick for Stephen Jackson, Beno Udrih, Shaun Livingston, and the #19 pick of the draft, I was still excited. I wasn't happy to hear that Jackson doesn't want to play in Milwaukee, but I am still happy that the Bucks were able to move Salmons and Maggette off of the team. Getting rid of those contracts is a matter of addition by subtraction. The Bucks had screwed themselves over with all of the terrible contracts they handed out last season and this trade elevates the pressure Hammond put on himself.
6:05 p.m: Just got set up at our headquarters for the draft tonight, the Schoettler Village Apartments Clubhouse. With me tonight is my roommate Jacob Dulle. We will be holding it down here. I'm sure he will have a few comments entered into this diary and hopefully I will have some texts from a few of my buddies up in Wisconsin entered into the diary as well.
6:10 p.m: As the ESPN draft coverage mentions the Cavaliers point guard situation, the first name Jeff Van Gundy mentioned was Boobie Gibson. Boobie Gibson. Come on. That is a joke.
Also, why was Baron Davis wearing #85 in Cleveland? Can't believe I didn't latch on to this earlier.
6:14 p.m: As ESPN throws the coverage to commercial, we see Jimmer Fredette dressed in what I believe was either a golf outfit from the 1940s or the outfit of a paper boy circa 1920 playing the drums. EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it! Jimmer has no fashion sense!
6:23 p.m: As ESPN goes to commercial, Enes Kanter is in the same outfit as Jimmer was at the previous commercial. What is this theme? I don't get it. Can someone enlighten me?
6:30 p.m: Final break before 1st pick of the draft. Even more players in the ridiculous costumes. Dulle and I are sitting here absolutely lost. Also just saw Chad Ford's last tweet about his mock draft. "7.3 will have Biyombo to Raptors. Leonard to Pistons. Brandon Knight to Bobcats. Alec Burks over Kemba to Jazz . I may really regret this." This is insane. So much different than everything that I've seen thus far. Also Knight falling to the Bobcats would be crazy.
6:33 p.m: I'm excited.
6:35 p.m: This is bulls**t. I don't want the Cavs on the clock. They need to be making a pick. They've had months to figure out who they want. Why do they need these extra five minutes?
6:37 p.m: Love Stu Scott's line. "When the shorts were short and the socks were high." Good description of the NBA in the 1980s.
6:38 p.m: Getting to see the Cavaliers roster is both hilarious and heartbreaking. Alonzo Gee in a starting lineup. Check out his basketball reference page: http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/geeal01.html. Also, Anderson Varejao needs to be on a winning roster. It's just not right for him to be hustling for an awful team.
6:39 p.m: Kyrie Irving gets drafted. Dulle: "You get to try to be the next Lebron. Good Luck." Well said. Feel for whoever got drafted first. The Cavs need a lot of help and the city of Cleveland is heartbroken. They need something to help them out of their ugly divorce with Lebron and will immediately look to the 1st overall pick. Bad spot to be in as the #1 pick.
6:42 p.m: First Wisconsin text entry: "Cavs gonna win it all this year. Irving is good. Not injury prone at all and dominated all year for Duke. Looks like Dan Gilbert's prediction will be correct." Thanks, Steve Mahne. You claim you will be giving reactions to each pick. These reactions will certainly not be included after each pick.
6:45 p.m: Stuart Scott just said Timber'Wuvs not Timberwolves. Figured you should know. T'Wolves made the right pick. I'm interested to see if they hold on to Williams. I think they should keep Williams and move Beasley or one of their other wing players. That's just me, though.
6:49 p.m: Still makes me sad that Jerry Sloan is no longer in the league.
6:50 p.m: Utah Jazz go with Enes Kanter. Somewhat surprised. If you're Cleveland, are you now upset that you didn't take Williams first overall with Brandon Knight available at 4? Williams and Knight looks better this next year to your fans than Irving and Jonas Valanciunas. I'm not saying that is who they will take, but it seems like that is where they will go.
6:53 p.m: This pick makes it seem as though the Jazz might be higher on Devin Harris than we had originally thought. Also, Kanter might be in the perfect place to learn the ropes in the NBA. Mehmet Okur can shoot it better, but as a foreign big man, he can be a good mentor to Kanter. I like the pick.
6:55 p.m: Cherrypicked this tweet from my feed. "Nikoloz Tskitishvili's name appears on the bottom of the screen...So sexy" Tweeted by my good friend Dan Schaefer.
6:56 p.m: What just happened?!?! Amazing draft analysis by ESPN highlighted by JVG attempting Jonas Valanciunas name and then completely giving up, Jon Barry calling JVG Johnny Most and no one else on the crew selling the joke, followed by a few seconds of silence, and then the Cavaliers picking Tristan Thompson. Honestly, what just happened?
7:00 p.m: Upon hearing Jamaal Magloire's name mentioned as an active member of a team, Dulle says, "Magloire is dead somewhere. They just put his body on the bench to use a roster spot."
7:03 p.m: Jonas gets selected by the Raptors. I don't get this pick. The Raptors could use some help now and Dwayne Casey is a guy that is all about defense. Doesn't seem to be Jonas' strength.
7:05 p.m: To quote Valanciunas: "I don't knowwww....I don't knowwww....Good on my feet....I don't knowwww." Real insight from him there.
7:07 p.m: Jan Vesely knows how to get drafted. Pick announced. And just goes for it with his girlfriend. Showing off his trophy girlfriend and he just got drafted. That was AMAZING!
7:11 p.m: First text entry from Dan Schaefer: "Who the f**k was that kid...I might have to watch a Wizards game next year."
7:12 p.m: Before the Biyombo pick, JVG mentioned that a team either needs to get really good or really bad to get good. The really bad part is an idea I've always prescribed to. I hate mediocre teams. Being mediocre year in and year out does absolutely nothing for you as a franchise.
7:14 p.m: I really like Biyombo. I think he will be a good NBA player for years to come. He's a good defensive player and can rebound. A player like that will always have a spot on an NBA team. Not going to be an All-Star, but he has a lot of potential and does a few important things very well.
7:17 p.m: I love that Ben Wallace was back on the Pistons this year...and wildly effective.
7:18 p.m: I think Brandon Knight to the Pistons is a steal to Pistons. He was seen as someone who could be picked as high as #3. Though he is good, I think the Pistons need to officially start their rebuilding effort and move some of their older players.
7:21 p.m: Can't believe it took me this long to figure this out, but I just remembered that with the 19th pick of the draft the Bucks are in a very good position to get Kenneth Faried. I love Kenneth Faried. I think he will be a great role player in the league for years. I would really, really like that.
7:24 p.m: I think this Kemba Walker pick stays in Charlotte. This is a very Michael Jordan pick. Just the kind of great college player Jordan typically selects. I'm not sure how he will be in the league. Might struggle to find a position.
7:26 p.m: "You've always been about WINNING." Well played, Mark Jones. Well played. Text from Mahne: "Does Charlie Sheen get some money for the Winning question asked to Kemba?"
7:27 p.m: My Ball Don't Lie show co-host Cody Steger just pointed out the Kawhi Leonard is in freefall. I can't believe that he has not been picked yet and the Bucks could have got him at 10. I'm a little hurt, but still overall happy.
7:33 p.m: "Teach me how to Jimmer?" "I love seeing Jimmer in a Bucks hat. Any chance they can go back on the trade?" "Bucks too Jimmer...Dammit I wish we could keep Jim"
7:34 p.m: All texts that I received after Jimmer was drafted. I'm not sure how Jimmer will be in the NBA. My biggest problem with Jimmer is people claiming that he will be okay in the NBA because he is fast at a dot drill or a cone drill. You can practice these things. You can't practice staying in front of Derrick Rose. Russell Westbrook. Dwayne Wade. I'm still not sold.
7:35 p.m: Klay Thompson to the Warriors. Thought the Bucks would take him tonight if they kept their pick. I'm sure the Warriors were happy when the Bucks traded to the 19th pick.
7:36 p.m: As I look at the upcoming picks, I don't think it is unrealistic to think the Bucks could get Alec Burks, Kawhi Leonard, or Markieff Morris. This makes me happy. Extremely happy.
7:39 p.m: This text made me laugh. I'm not sure its okay for me to laugh though. "I don't care what they say Klay Thompson's dad isn't black. This guy is white."
7:41 p.m: There goes Burks. Shoot. Really liked him.
7:46 p.m: I would have much rather heard "Hand Down, Man Down" or "Mama. There goes that man again." I don't care about the Warriors being in the playoffs.
7:53 p.m: Location change. Back in my living room. Thanks for the hospitality, Schoettler Village Apartments. Twins go back to back. I would assume that is some sort of first in the NBA Draft. I thought Marcus would go higher and Markieff lower, but with them going back to back, I feel like they've been drafted at the exact same time. I feel the same way about their birth and the birth of all other twins. I don't care who was born 5 minutes earlier. It's not cute to tell me either.
7:59 p.m: Kawhi Leonard's suit is nice. My two favorite suits of the night belong to Leonard and Kemba Walker. Walker's suit was tight. Not tight as in "cool", but as in form fitting. Very unusual. I canNOT believe that the Pacers didn't take a white guy. It's two years in a row. They have so few white people on the team that I'm not even sure they can put a full whitewash on the floor at this point. I'm disappointed in you, Larry Bird.
8:04 p.m: Getting more and more nervous for the Bucks pick. Hoping for Kenneth Faried. Have a feeling I will be disappointed.
8:07 p.m: Don't sleep on Tyler Honeycutt to the Bucks at #19.
8:08 p.m: Attempting to decipher Kawhi Leonard to the Spurs for George Hill. I like it for the Pacers. Another shooter on that team makes them very difficult to deal with on the perimeter. Leonard to the Spurs, on the other hand, confuses me a little bit. Not sure what direction the Spurs are going. Are they going to start rebuilding? Do they think Leonard can contribute immediately?
8:12 p.m: Still a little weirded out that the draft is in New Jersey and not New York. I don't think it's right. It takes away from the atmosphere quite a bit in my opinion. Knicks take Shumpert. Thought they would take Brooks.
8:13 p.m: The tension builds. Marshon Brooks could be available at 19. Lots of scouts have raved about Brooks. Bucks had him in for two workouts. They like him. Can't figure out if the Bucks have worked out Kenneth Farried. Because of this, I doubt that the Bucks will take Farried though I rave about him.
8:18 p.m: What will the Bucks do?!?!?!
8:20 p.m: I've been studying the different players that the Bucks could possibly draft. Really have no idea where they will go. Thinking Honeycutt or Trey Thompkins. Really wouldn't mind Faried.
8:22 p.m: Tobias Harris.
8:24 p.m: Tobias Harris?
8:24 p.m: Tobias Harris?!?!
8:25 p.m: Thanks for all of the analysis, ESPN. Really happy to hear about the Timberwolves' next pick. Awesome. I really don't like the Tobias Harris pick. Think it is too early for him. Don't really like much of what he does. It's going to be hard for the Bucks to sell me on this one. I've been wrong before though and I hope I'm dead wrong on this one.
8:33 p.m: Can honestly say that I'm surprised with the reaction to the Harris pick. Every scout or analyst I follow on Twitter is raving about the pick. Like I said in my last post. I may be dead wrong.
8:37 p.m: Missed Motiejunas to T'Wolves. Nolan Smith to the Blazers. Jokes started flying about Kyle Singler when we discussed the last part of the Dukie trio being drafted. Hoping for the Jazz or Pacers to take a round at him in the second round.
8:38 p.m: Maybe I'm missing the boat on Tobias Harris. A lot of people really like the pick. I don't see it, but then again I don't watch a lot of SEC basketball. We will see how it turns out.
8:42 p.m: My interest in this draft is wavering.
8:43 p.m: Nuggets draft Kenneth Faried. I really like him in the league. I'm not sure he fits in Denver, but it will be really hard for him to not fit in somewhere with his motor and work ethic. Plays a lot like Birdman.
8:46 p.m: Really enjoyed getting to hear Faried's interview. Could tell getting drafted really meant a lot to him.
8:50 p.m: So Mirotic goes to the Timberwolves. Makes sense he will be ready in four years. Just in time for the T'Wolves to figure out that Darko and Pekovic aren't going to pan out as the Twin Towers of the Twin Cities.
8:53 p.m: The Reggie Jackson situation confuses me. This guy hasn't worked out for anyone. He didn't even work out for the Thunder. They gave him a promise in APRIL that they would select him with their pick. That was two months ago. The Cavs weren't sure they were going to select Irving at #1 until this afternoon and the Thunder knew Jackson was their guy in April. Are you kidding me?
8:57 p.m: Epic fail on the T'Wolves joke. Thanks for all of the trades, NBA Draft. You're impossible to keep up with.
8:59 p.m: Brooks to Boston makes a lot of sense. The Big Three is getting old. He can fill in for one of the guards that will be leaving. Could pair well with Rondo for years to come.
9:05 p.m: I'm done for the night. I have an internship to get to. I'm sure most of you paying attention to this blog have looked away a long time ago. I hope my spelling and grammatical errors haven't been too bad tonight. I had a lot of fun and hope you enjoyed reading. Have a great night everyone!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Happy Father's Day
Anyone that knows me knows that I am an absolute diehard Brewers fan. I live and die by the Brewers. I've paid insane* amounts of money to watch their playoff games. I've made seven hour road trips in the middle of the night to see them play. I absolutely love the team and support them like nothing else in my life. (I mean I can only have one insane obsession right?)
***By insane, we're talking 1000% face value. Yes that would be 10x face value. There you have it. I paid ten times face value of a bleacher seat to see Game 4 of the National League Divisional Series in Miller Park against the Phillies. And you know what the sick thing is? I would happily do it again. Wouldn't even think twice about it.
So when I was at my internship at 101 ESPN this Friday and Cliff Saunders, the show's host, started discussing the idea of asking callers to recall the first sporting event they attending with their Dad for Father's Day, memory after memory started to flood in to my brain.
I remembered calling my Dad after the final game of the 2008 season and hearing the excitement in his voice as we discussed Ryan Braun's home run. I remembered watching game after game in Miller Park with him as he cheered on possibly his favorite Brewer of the last ten years, Bill Hall. I remembered him literally booing Jeff Suppan.* I remembered taking advantage of my sister's spot on the honor roll and watching the Brewers from the upper deck during Miller Park's inaugural season. But none of these memories were my first ballgame with my Dad.
***This is one of my few memories of him booing an actual player. I think this truly speaks volumes to the infamously terrible time Suppan spent with the Brewers.
Welcome to Milwaukee County Stadium.
I remember hearing these words as I walked through the turnstiles with my family for my first Brewers game. I wasn't in Miller Park. There was no corporate sponsor. No retractable roof. No fancy glass paneling. There was just County Stadium. A stadium that reflected the hard-working, blue collar workers of Milwaukee.
From what I remember of this first game, it was a cool spring evening. The most vivid memory I have is walking in the corridor of County Stadium as I prepared to walk up the stairs to our seats in the bleachers. The only thing I could think of when walking up those stairs was not the stadium. Or the game. Or our seats. I was only worried about batting practice!
Batting practice was the only thing I was concerned with. During the previous Brewers season, my brother had attended one of his friend's birthday parties and they went to batting practice and returned with a few baseballs each. Because of his story, I was convinced that if you stuck your glove in the air you were going to catch a baseball. Something like this. I think it almost goes without saying that the five year-old kid didn't catch any balls during batting practice. Though I was crushed, I settled in for the rest of the game.
I would be lying if I told you I remembered who the Brewers were playing or what the final score of the game was. But at that point it didn't matter. I was at County Stadium with my family and sitting next to my Dad. One thing I can guarantee is that my Dad was telling me about the finer points of the game.
My Dad is an absolute baseball junkie. He absolutely loves the game and is always willing to discuss it with just about anyone. To this day, if you are wearing a Brewers shirt at Nehm's Greenhouse and Floral, you will end up talking about the Brewers with my Dad. There is no way to escape that conversation. He just wouldn't have it any other way.
Sure, there were plenty of other things to distract me at that game. There was Bernie's Chalet in centerfield. For those of you non-Brewer fans, Bernie's Chalet was a little house that hung over a giant mug of beer that Bernie Brewer would slide down into when the Brewers hit home runs. Maybe that night Brewers first basemen John Jaha lifted one into the bleachers and Bernie slid down his slide, but I don't remember this. There was the World Famous Klement's Sausage Race, which at the time occurred virtually and featured little red dots racing around a virtual stadium. I don't remember this either. But I do remember having a ton of fun and wanting to go to Brewers games again and again.
I truly believe that the fun I had and the love that I developed for the game of baseball was due to my Dad's passion for the game. As the game went on, I'm sure he pointed out that hitting the cutoff man would have kept the hitter at first instead of second and kept the double play alive. And he was probably upset that Greg Vaughn didn't hustle down the line on his single to left field.
At the time, these small details met very little to me, but as time went on it showed just how much enjoyment you could get out of watching a simple game. And as I look back, I can honestly admit that I wouldn't have the same appreciation for such a simple game if it wasn't for my Dad. Thanks, Dad.
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Feel free to share your first sporting event experience with your Dad in the comments section of the article. It's always great to hear other people's experiences and their memories. And be sure to wish your Dad a Happy Father's Day and thank him for all of the things he has done for you in your life.
Welcome to Milwaukee County Stadium.
I remember hearing these words as I walked through the turnstiles with my family for my first Brewers game. I wasn't in Miller Park. There was no corporate sponsor. No retractable roof. No fancy glass paneling. There was just County Stadium. A stadium that reflected the hard-working, blue collar workers of Milwaukee.
From what I remember of this first game, it was a cool spring evening. The most vivid memory I have is walking in the corridor of County Stadium as I prepared to walk up the stairs to our seats in the bleachers. The only thing I could think of when walking up those stairs was not the stadium. Or the game. Or our seats. I was only worried about batting practice!
Batting practice was the only thing I was concerned with. During the previous Brewers season, my brother had attended one of his friend's birthday parties and they went to batting practice and returned with a few baseballs each. Because of his story, I was convinced that if you stuck your glove in the air you were going to catch a baseball. Something like this. I think it almost goes without saying that the five year-old kid didn't catch any balls during batting practice. Though I was crushed, I settled in for the rest of the game.
I would be lying if I told you I remembered who the Brewers were playing or what the final score of the game was. But at that point it didn't matter. I was at County Stadium with my family and sitting next to my Dad. One thing I can guarantee is that my Dad was telling me about the finer points of the game.
My Dad is an absolute baseball junkie. He absolutely loves the game and is always willing to discuss it with just about anyone. To this day, if you are wearing a Brewers shirt at Nehm's Greenhouse and Floral, you will end up talking about the Brewers with my Dad. There is no way to escape that conversation. He just wouldn't have it any other way.
Sure, there were plenty of other things to distract me at that game. There was Bernie's Chalet in centerfield. For those of you non-Brewer fans, Bernie's Chalet was a little house that hung over a giant mug of beer that Bernie Brewer would slide down into when the Brewers hit home runs. Maybe that night Brewers first basemen John Jaha lifted one into the bleachers and Bernie slid down his slide, but I don't remember this. There was the World Famous Klement's Sausage Race, which at the time occurred virtually and featured little red dots racing around a virtual stadium. I don't remember this either. But I do remember having a ton of fun and wanting to go to Brewers games again and again.
I truly believe that the fun I had and the love that I developed for the game of baseball was due to my Dad's passion for the game. As the game went on, I'm sure he pointed out that hitting the cutoff man would have kept the hitter at first instead of second and kept the double play alive. And he was probably upset that Greg Vaughn didn't hustle down the line on his single to left field.
At the time, these small details met very little to me, but as time went on it showed just how much enjoyment you could get out of watching a simple game. And as I look back, I can honestly admit that I wouldn't have the same appreciation for such a simple game if it wasn't for my Dad. Thanks, Dad.
-----------------------
Feel free to share your first sporting event experience with your Dad in the comments section of the article. It's always great to hear other people's experiences and their memories. And be sure to wish your Dad a Happy Father's Day and thank him for all of the things he has done for you in your life.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The Enigma: Lebron James
I’ve been an ardent supporter of Lebron James his entire career. As he tore through his rookie season, torching defenses with flashy passes and creative drives, I marveled at the vast potential of his talent. As he led the Cavaliers to the playoffs in his third season, I smiled. He was beginning to develop into the player I thought he could be. And what was that potential? There was a potential for him to develop into the greatest of all-time, the GOAT.
As a fan, there is a certain obsession with each sport’s GOAT. There is a thrill in figuring out who that player is at an early age and watching him develop. When people started to obsess about a young Tiger Woods, we were all enthralled with the abilities of a player so young. As Peyton Manning and Tom Brady started to put up astonishing numbers at the quarterback position, battles were waged regarding their place in history. As Kobe Bryant won his fifth championship, of course people started to discuss whether or not he was basketball's GOAT.
THE VISION
The possibility of Lebron James joining this discussion occurred on Thursday, May 31, 2007. I’m not saying that this is when you could start claiming he was basketball’s GOAT, but in the mind of just about every fan there was a glimmer of hope. When Lebron James scored 48 points against the Detroit Pistons in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, his performance forced any basketball observer to think about what they had previously thought about James and envision something greater. Maybe something that had never been seen before.
I remember exactly where I watched that game. The couch I sat on. The people I watched it with. The reaction I had after each play. In fact, I remember lowering my friend’s hoop down to seven feet and attempting to recreate each of the moves Lebron made during that game until 1 a.m.*
****Obviously, the hoop needed to go down to seven feet just to make the superhuman things Lebron was doing even plausible for any of us to attempt.
To the basketball fan inside of me, it didn’t matter that the Cavaliers got swept in the NBA Finals by the San Antonio Spurs. It did matter to me that through sheer will power and athletic ability, Lebron was able to take his team nearly single-handedly to the NBA Finals. I cared that he was able to absolutely dominate a game and take over a game in the fourth quarter. It was impressive. It was mind-blowing. It was impossible…or so it seemed.
I cheered for James, not because I thought he was the most skilled or most talented, but because I believed he could do things on a basketball court that I had never seen before. I thought there was a chance he could be someone I wanted to tell my children about. I can vividly remember seeing a statistic comparing Lebron James to Oscar Robertson and my dad immediately saying, “Oscar Robertson. Now that was a basketball player. I’m sure you think of him as a Buck, but I can still remember getting to see him play on Saturdays when he was still with Cincinnati. He was amazing.”
I can remember watching Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals with my dad and marveling at the shooting display Ray Allen put on. I even made a remark about him possibly being the greatest shooter of all-time, but then discounting that remark because I had faint memories of Reggie Miller. Once again, there was my dad ready to set me straight. “Those two have nothing on Jerry West. Now that was a shooter. He had such a great jump shot. If he was firing, there was no way you were stopping him.”
After Game 6 in Detroit, I was ready to have that moment with my kid. I was preparing myself to set my kid straight. I was relishing the moment where I could tell my kid about how Lebron could take over a game at any time. Or the fact that he was a guard the size of a power forward. Or about the time he won his first NBA Finals. Even though Lebron has won two NBA MVPs and returned to the NBA Finals since that fateful night in Detroit, the vivid picture I have of this future moment has now turned into a hazy Polaroid yet to develop.
THE BACKLASH
People keep asking whether or not, Lebron deserves the backlash he has received in the aftermath of this year’s NBA Finals. Before attempting to decipher if he deserved the backlash he has received it is first necessary to understand why there is such backlash against Lebron.
The reasoning seems simple:
"He joined up with two of the top 30 players in the league to form a superteam. The greatest of all-time don't do stuff like that. Those guys wanted to kill each other. Not team up together."
Let’s not kid ourselves. Bird, Magic, and Jordan would have never joined forces to create a superteam. It's not because they were hypercompetitive super humans, but rather because they didn't need to. There was no reason for them to join forces. They all had good teams.
In the cases of Bird and Magic, both were drafted by great franchises. Magic was welcomed into the league with Kareem Abdul-Jabaar as his main running mate and later got to be teammates with Michael Cooper, Byron Scott, James Worthy, Norm Nixon, and Jamaal Wilkes. Bird's rookie team was very good as well with Hall of Famers Nate "Tiny" Archibald and Dave Cowens on the squad. Bird would lose Cowens in the next season, but was joined by Robert Parish and Kevin McHale in his second season.
Jordan's rookie team was certainly not even close to the same level as these other teams, but in his second season the Bulls drafted Scottie Pippen and those two would remain together for the remainder of Jordan's career. Sounds like a pretty good situation in comparison to anything Lebron saw in his years in Cleveland.
"He turned his back on a city that loved him and a state that raised him. They loved him. They revered him. And he could have cared less."
There is no denying that Cleveland loved Lebron. The fans of Cleveland would have done anything for him. Most of them would have jumped in front of a speeding freight train to save his life. They absolutely loved him. Though the fans might have loved him, the ownership of the team did not reciprocate this same love.
Dan Gilbert knew that he had Lebron until his rookie contract expired and in those seven years his general managers needed to find a suitable running mate for Lebron. Just one. One would be enough to keep him there. Did he find that running mate? No. He trodded out Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Anderson Varejao, Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes, Daniel "Boobie" Gibson, Shaquille O'Neal, Mo Williams, and Antawn Jamison. That was all he could do. In seven years. Are you kidding me?
"How could he not tell the team first? How could he make his decision into a publicity stunt?"
This is undoubtedly the most attractive reason to come down on Lebron. And honestly there is no defense of "The Decision". It was an absolutely terrible public relations decision and those around Lebron should have stopped it, but it happened. And then the Heat Welcome Party occurred. These terrible public relations decisions are a legitimate reason to not like Lebron, but unfortunately have nothing to do with his play on the court. And from a media perspective, "The Decision" was one of the greatest things to ever happen to them. It gave them something to talk about for months. So the media's backlash against Lebron cannot be ascribed to this reasoning either.
THE YEARNING
The answer to the reasoning behind the backlash against Lebron is not as simple as the three reasons I outlined above. It is a much deeper and complex issue. In my opinion, the criticism Lebron has received is not necessarily solely directed at him, but also at ourselves. Though Lebron has always had doubters, for the most part, people believed that Lebron could be something we had never seen before.
As a culture, we yearn to see something we have yet to see. When we watch a movie, we hope the plot confuses us to the point that we question ourselves and look for something deeper. When we listen to a new artist, we hope their music transcends time and space and takes us on a journey we’ve never been before. Basketball is no different. Seeing a basketball player do things we didn’t think were possible drives us to watch basketball. It drives us to live. Seeing any artist do something that we thought was impossible drives us to believe we can do that same thing in our own lives. Maybe we can’t dunk on a 7-footer, but the obtainability of the seemingly impossible that we see in sports can inspire each and every one of us to do something great ourselves.
When someone destined for greatness with God-given tools seen very few times before fails, we start to feel the odds begin to be stack against ourselves. I know it seems childish, but perhaps in our culture more than any other in the entire world, we look to athletes to be motivation and inspiration. We love hearing the story of the down on his luck grocery store bagger that went on to win a Super Bowl. We want to hear about the group of lovable losers that went down 3-0 against the richest team in the world and came back to win. We go to sports to prove to us that anything is possible.
That’s why it has become so easy for sportswriters and fans to pile on Lebron. He was given a rare set of skills and didn’t use them to the extent he should have. There are people in the NBA who could be given ten years to improve their game and would still not be better than Lebron was out of high school. There have been few players given the skills Lebron has and we love the idea of what he could become.
Therefore, the backlash we have doesn't represent hatred or anger, but rather disappointment. We're not honestly mad that Lebron decided to play on the team that gave him the best chance to win. We're disappointed that he wasn't actually superhuman and couldn't bring a championship to downtrodden Cleveland all by himself. We're not mad that Lebron didn't play well in the last few games of the NBA Finals. We're disappointed that he didn't do what he did in the previous two rounds against Chicago and Boston. With those series fresh in our minds, we KNEW that it was possible. We KNEW how the story was supposed to end. We KNEW Lebron would easily dismiss the Mavericks and continue on the path to becoming the Greatest Of All Time. But then he disappointed us. We don't like to be disappointed. We like knowing what is going to happen next and for what is going to happen next to be a happy ending.
THE MEMORY
The backlash Lebron has received has been completely deserved. It is not acceptable for Lebron to stop attacking the basket. It is not acceptable that after eight years in the league, Lebron hasn't developed any semblance of a post game. And it is not acceptable, that he has not become an unbelievable mid-range shooter or developed a go-to mid-range move. These are all things we remember other great players, including Jordan and Bryant, doing as they got older and more mature. We remember how these players became nearly unstoppable as their careers progressed because of the skills they perfected. Nobody could stop MJ's turnaround. Kobe's mid-range game and footwork is impeccable. This is what we remember.
That's the thing, though. When it comes to sports, we have very selective memories. We remember the things we loved and the things we want to remember forever. The type of things we want to tell our kids. When it comes to Jordan's legacy, we remember the Flu Game and his last shot against Bryon Russell. We remember the shot against Ehlo and Jordan running down the sideline shaking his head. We choose not to remember that he didn't shoot his last shot against Byron Russell, but instead he shot his last shot in a meaningless game wearing a Wizards jersey. We don't remember his struggles against the Bad Boys in Detroit. We remember the things we love.
When it comes to Kobe's legacy, we remember the comeback he helped orchestrate against the Trailblazers in 2000. The alley-oop he threw to Shaq. Wiped from our memory is Game 5 of the 2000 Finals in which Bryant only scored 8 points in 37 minutes played. Vivid in our memories is the night Bryant scored 81 points. We love thinking of Bryant's huge playoff shots against the Suns and Spurs. We forget about the way Bryant sulked during the 2007-2008 season. We forget about his attempts to force a trade out of Los Angeles before the Lakers were able to appease his demands and get him Pau Gasol. We remember him being the ultimate closer in big situations. We remember the things we love.
With Lebron, we remember what is most vivid in our memory. We remember Game 5 against the Celtics last season. We remember the debacle that was his performance in the NBA Finals this season, but since we haven't had time to reminisce about the things we loved about him, we can't get the bad memories out of our mind. In attempting to define his legacy, we focus on the here and now, but forget Lebron is still only 26 years old.
Only five years ago, Dirk Nowitzki was a sorry excuse for a basketball player. He had choked away an NBA Finals that he should have won in 2006. The following year he won an MVP award he didn't deserve. Even though he led the Mavericks to the league's best record, his team became the first #1 seed to lose to a #8 seed in a seven game series in the NBA Playoffs. He was a choke artist. He was an overrated scorer.
Now. Nowitzki has been called one of the 20 greatest NBA players of all-time. He is a clutch player who absolutely dominates the fourth quarter. He might even be the best forward of all-time not named Bird. Five years ago, though, this seemed impossible. The odds were stacked against Nowitzki and he needed to do something improbable. Something that people had never seen before.
Just like Nowitzki, Lebron has now set the table for his redemption story. A great career seems improbable, maybe even unattainable for Lebron at this point. It seems like it is out of reach and out of the question. To become the GOAT, Lebron needs to obtain the seemingly impossible. If Lebron somehow manages to turn his career around and allow us to forget about these past two years, he will do something that no one thought he could do. He will defy the odds. He will give us something we have never seen before, the moment we all yearn to see each and every time we watch sports. I know I will be watching. Will you?
As a fan, there is a certain obsession with each sport’s GOAT. There is a thrill in figuring out who that player is at an early age and watching him develop. When people started to obsess about a young Tiger Woods, we were all enthralled with the abilities of a player so young. As Peyton Manning and Tom Brady started to put up astonishing numbers at the quarterback position, battles were waged regarding their place in history. As Kobe Bryant won his fifth championship, of course people started to discuss whether or not he was basketball's GOAT.
THE VISION
The possibility of Lebron James joining this discussion occurred on Thursday, May 31, 2007. I’m not saying that this is when you could start claiming he was basketball’s GOAT, but in the mind of just about every fan there was a glimmer of hope. When Lebron James scored 48 points against the Detroit Pistons in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, his performance forced any basketball observer to think about what they had previously thought about James and envision something greater. Maybe something that had never been seen before.
I remember exactly where I watched that game. The couch I sat on. The people I watched it with. The reaction I had after each play. In fact, I remember lowering my friend’s hoop down to seven feet and attempting to recreate each of the moves Lebron made during that game until 1 a.m.*
****Obviously, the hoop needed to go down to seven feet just to make the superhuman things Lebron was doing even plausible for any of us to attempt.
To the basketball fan inside of me, it didn’t matter that the Cavaliers got swept in the NBA Finals by the San Antonio Spurs. It did matter to me that through sheer will power and athletic ability, Lebron was able to take his team nearly single-handedly to the NBA Finals. I cared that he was able to absolutely dominate a game and take over a game in the fourth quarter. It was impressive. It was mind-blowing. It was impossible…or so it seemed.
I cheered for James, not because I thought he was the most skilled or most talented, but because I believed he could do things on a basketball court that I had never seen before. I thought there was a chance he could be someone I wanted to tell my children about. I can vividly remember seeing a statistic comparing Lebron James to Oscar Robertson and my dad immediately saying, “Oscar Robertson. Now that was a basketball player. I’m sure you think of him as a Buck, but I can still remember getting to see him play on Saturdays when he was still with Cincinnati. He was amazing.”
I can remember watching Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals with my dad and marveling at the shooting display Ray Allen put on. I even made a remark about him possibly being the greatest shooter of all-time, but then discounting that remark because I had faint memories of Reggie Miller. Once again, there was my dad ready to set me straight. “Those two have nothing on Jerry West. Now that was a shooter. He had such a great jump shot. If he was firing, there was no way you were stopping him.”
After Game 6 in Detroit, I was ready to have that moment with my kid. I was preparing myself to set my kid straight. I was relishing the moment where I could tell my kid about how Lebron could take over a game at any time. Or the fact that he was a guard the size of a power forward. Or about the time he won his first NBA Finals. Even though Lebron has won two NBA MVPs and returned to the NBA Finals since that fateful night in Detroit, the vivid picture I have of this future moment has now turned into a hazy Polaroid yet to develop.
THE BACKLASH
People keep asking whether or not, Lebron deserves the backlash he has received in the aftermath of this year’s NBA Finals. Before attempting to decipher if he deserved the backlash he has received it is first necessary to understand why there is such backlash against Lebron.
The reasoning seems simple:
"He joined up with two of the top 30 players in the league to form a superteam. The greatest of all-time don't do stuff like that. Those guys wanted to kill each other. Not team up together."
Let’s not kid ourselves. Bird, Magic, and Jordan would have never joined forces to create a superteam. It's not because they were hypercompetitive super humans, but rather because they didn't need to. There was no reason for them to join forces. They all had good teams.
In the cases of Bird and Magic, both were drafted by great franchises. Magic was welcomed into the league with Kareem Abdul-Jabaar as his main running mate and later got to be teammates with Michael Cooper, Byron Scott, James Worthy, Norm Nixon, and Jamaal Wilkes. Bird's rookie team was very good as well with Hall of Famers Nate "Tiny" Archibald and Dave Cowens on the squad. Bird would lose Cowens in the next season, but was joined by Robert Parish and Kevin McHale in his second season.
Jordan's rookie team was certainly not even close to the same level as these other teams, but in his second season the Bulls drafted Scottie Pippen and those two would remain together for the remainder of Jordan's career. Sounds like a pretty good situation in comparison to anything Lebron saw in his years in Cleveland.
"He turned his back on a city that loved him and a state that raised him. They loved him. They revered him. And he could have cared less."
There is no denying that Cleveland loved Lebron. The fans of Cleveland would have done anything for him. Most of them would have jumped in front of a speeding freight train to save his life. They absolutely loved him. Though the fans might have loved him, the ownership of the team did not reciprocate this same love.
Dan Gilbert knew that he had Lebron until his rookie contract expired and in those seven years his general managers needed to find a suitable running mate for Lebron. Just one. One would be enough to keep him there. Did he find that running mate? No. He trodded out Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Anderson Varejao, Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes, Daniel "Boobie" Gibson, Shaquille O'Neal, Mo Williams, and Antawn Jamison. That was all he could do. In seven years. Are you kidding me?
"How could he not tell the team first? How could he make his decision into a publicity stunt?"
This is undoubtedly the most attractive reason to come down on Lebron. And honestly there is no defense of "The Decision". It was an absolutely terrible public relations decision and those around Lebron should have stopped it, but it happened. And then the Heat Welcome Party occurred. These terrible public relations decisions are a legitimate reason to not like Lebron, but unfortunately have nothing to do with his play on the court. And from a media perspective, "The Decision" was one of the greatest things to ever happen to them. It gave them something to talk about for months. So the media's backlash against Lebron cannot be ascribed to this reasoning either.
THE YEARNING
The answer to the reasoning behind the backlash against Lebron is not as simple as the three reasons I outlined above. It is a much deeper and complex issue. In my opinion, the criticism Lebron has received is not necessarily solely directed at him, but also at ourselves. Though Lebron has always had doubters, for the most part, people believed that Lebron could be something we had never seen before.
As a culture, we yearn to see something we have yet to see. When we watch a movie, we hope the plot confuses us to the point that we question ourselves and look for something deeper. When we listen to a new artist, we hope their music transcends time and space and takes us on a journey we’ve never been before. Basketball is no different. Seeing a basketball player do things we didn’t think were possible drives us to watch basketball. It drives us to live. Seeing any artist do something that we thought was impossible drives us to believe we can do that same thing in our own lives. Maybe we can’t dunk on a 7-footer, but the obtainability of the seemingly impossible that we see in sports can inspire each and every one of us to do something great ourselves.
When someone destined for greatness with God-given tools seen very few times before fails, we start to feel the odds begin to be stack against ourselves. I know it seems childish, but perhaps in our culture more than any other in the entire world, we look to athletes to be motivation and inspiration. We love hearing the story of the down on his luck grocery store bagger that went on to win a Super Bowl. We want to hear about the group of lovable losers that went down 3-0 against the richest team in the world and came back to win. We go to sports to prove to us that anything is possible.
That’s why it has become so easy for sportswriters and fans to pile on Lebron. He was given a rare set of skills and didn’t use them to the extent he should have. There are people in the NBA who could be given ten years to improve their game and would still not be better than Lebron was out of high school. There have been few players given the skills Lebron has and we love the idea of what he could become.
Therefore, the backlash we have doesn't represent hatred or anger, but rather disappointment. We're not honestly mad that Lebron decided to play on the team that gave him the best chance to win. We're disappointed that he wasn't actually superhuman and couldn't bring a championship to downtrodden Cleveland all by himself. We're not mad that Lebron didn't play well in the last few games of the NBA Finals. We're disappointed that he didn't do what he did in the previous two rounds against Chicago and Boston. With those series fresh in our minds, we KNEW that it was possible. We KNEW how the story was supposed to end. We KNEW Lebron would easily dismiss the Mavericks and continue on the path to becoming the Greatest Of All Time. But then he disappointed us. We don't like to be disappointed. We like knowing what is going to happen next and for what is going to happen next to be a happy ending.
THE MEMORY
The backlash Lebron has received has been completely deserved. It is not acceptable for Lebron to stop attacking the basket. It is not acceptable that after eight years in the league, Lebron hasn't developed any semblance of a post game. And it is not acceptable, that he has not become an unbelievable mid-range shooter or developed a go-to mid-range move. These are all things we remember other great players, including Jordan and Bryant, doing as they got older and more mature. We remember how these players became nearly unstoppable as their careers progressed because of the skills they perfected. Nobody could stop MJ's turnaround. Kobe's mid-range game and footwork is impeccable. This is what we remember.
That's the thing, though. When it comes to sports, we have very selective memories. We remember the things we loved and the things we want to remember forever. The type of things we want to tell our kids. When it comes to Jordan's legacy, we remember the Flu Game and his last shot against Bryon Russell. We remember the shot against Ehlo and Jordan running down the sideline shaking his head. We choose not to remember that he didn't shoot his last shot against Byron Russell, but instead he shot his last shot in a meaningless game wearing a Wizards jersey. We don't remember his struggles against the Bad Boys in Detroit. We remember the things we love.
When it comes to Kobe's legacy, we remember the comeback he helped orchestrate against the Trailblazers in 2000. The alley-oop he threw to Shaq. Wiped from our memory is Game 5 of the 2000 Finals in which Bryant only scored 8 points in 37 minutes played. Vivid in our memories is the night Bryant scored 81 points. We love thinking of Bryant's huge playoff shots against the Suns and Spurs. We forget about the way Bryant sulked during the 2007-2008 season. We forget about his attempts to force a trade out of Los Angeles before the Lakers were able to appease his demands and get him Pau Gasol. We remember him being the ultimate closer in big situations. We remember the things we love.
With Lebron, we remember what is most vivid in our memory. We remember Game 5 against the Celtics last season. We remember the debacle that was his performance in the NBA Finals this season, but since we haven't had time to reminisce about the things we loved about him, we can't get the bad memories out of our mind. In attempting to define his legacy, we focus on the here and now, but forget Lebron is still only 26 years old.
Only five years ago, Dirk Nowitzki was a sorry excuse for a basketball player. He had choked away an NBA Finals that he should have won in 2006. The following year he won an MVP award he didn't deserve. Even though he led the Mavericks to the league's best record, his team became the first #1 seed to lose to a #8 seed in a seven game series in the NBA Playoffs. He was a choke artist. He was an overrated scorer.
Now. Nowitzki has been called one of the 20 greatest NBA players of all-time. He is a clutch player who absolutely dominates the fourth quarter. He might even be the best forward of all-time not named Bird. Five years ago, though, this seemed impossible. The odds were stacked against Nowitzki and he needed to do something improbable. Something that people had never seen before.
Just like Nowitzki, Lebron has now set the table for his redemption story. A great career seems improbable, maybe even unattainable for Lebron at this point. It seems like it is out of reach and out of the question. To become the GOAT, Lebron needs to obtain the seemingly impossible. If Lebron somehow manages to turn his career around and allow us to forget about these past two years, he will do something that no one thought he could do. He will defy the odds. He will give us something we have never seen before, the moment we all yearn to see each and every time we watch sports. I know I will be watching. Will you?
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