Saturday, June 16, 2012

LeBron James and the "gotta-win-a-title" argument - phillyBurbs.com (blog)

I come not to bury King James of LeBron but to praise him â€" sort of.

Looking deep into myself and trying to get my innermost thoughts on the Miami Heat forward, I have come up with...meh.

Now, if I lived in Cleveland, I would stick a pin in my LeBron James doll every day for the rest of my life, hoping he somehow he feels the pain that I suffer over his leaving for Miami.

But since I do not have the pleasure of living in Cleveland, my feelings are basically that I have no feelings at all.

He played out his contract with the Cavaliers, gave a lot of great memories to a sports town that has few and became a free agent. He was entitled to go wherever he wanted to. It’s a free country. If you wanted to move to Miami, should anyone stop you?

Now, making a TV show about it and basically tearing the heart out of every Cleveland sports fan because they assumed he was coming back may not have been the nicest thing to do. But to me, that is about having really stupid public relations people, not about being a bad guy.

As far as I know, LeBron has not been on trial for attempted rape, or caught doping or fathering 11 kids in 10 states or snorting coke or other not-nice things many of our sports heroes have been accused of.

But I still will get a kick if Oklahoma City beats him in the finals.

Why? Because it is just kind of a fun to see someone so rich, so famous, so unbelievably talented get put through the wringer by the national media and fans.

Like he said last year, he goes home to a mansion, we don’t. But we have won as many NBA championships as he has: Zero. So there!

I have to admit it is kind of fun to see someone who has everything but a tiny ring get hit from all sides.

Oklahoma City built its team the traditional way. They were horrible for years and got lucky in the draft. Sometimes the No. 2 pick in the draft is Steve Stipanovich. Sometimes it's Kevin Durant. The year they picked, it was Durant.

Miami is a made-up team put together by a cabal of superstars looking for a title.

If they don’t get the title, we can kind of snicker. They might have millions, but we still have the right to snicker at their failure.

Looking back in history, this ‘not a great player unless you win a title’ is a very recent phenomenon.

Used to be, if you were a great player, you were a great player. End of story.

When I was growing up, Rod Carew of the Minnesota Twins was recognized as the best player in baseball. The Twins stunk so he never got to be in the playoffs (until the end of his career with the Angels) but that didn’t stop him from being the leading vote-getter for the all-star game year after year.

He was a great player, case closed. The fact the other 24 players on the team were lousy wasn’t his fault.

In individual sports like golf and tennis, if a player fails to win a title, yes, it is all on them and no one else.

I have failed to see the logic of blaming one player for their team not winning a championship.

It is like Peyton Manning said after he won the Super Bowl. People were saying he had to certify his greatness. If the Chicago Bears return the final kickoff for a touchdown in the Super Bowl and win the game, does that make him a lousier player. He wouldn't have even been on the field on the play.

Do you think Eli Manning is twice as good as Peyton because he has won two Super Bowls to his one?

In sports, with 12-, 25-, and 58-man rosters, you can have the best player in the league and still go nowhere.

I think this ‘gotta win a title’ thing started with the proliferation of playoff rounds.

In baseball, until 1969 only one team from each league got to the World Series - the only playoffs there were. In the NFL, same thing until the Super Bowl, one conference winner would face the other conference winner.

You would have great players (Ernie Banks in baseball comes to mind) who could play 20 years and never get a sniff of making the playoffs, let alone winning a title. Back then, peoples’ reactions were more like "that is a shame he didn’t play for a better team" rather than the current "he’s overrated."

If LeBron James does not win the NBA title this year, it would not be because he is suddenly not a great player. It will be because the Thunder had a better team.

But it will be fun watching him having to dodge the slings and arrows he will take afterward, while sitting poolside at his mansion.

Stuart London is a confirmed Hoopaholic. Read his usually provocative views on the many levels of basketball right here on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Reach him at slondon@phillyburbs.com or follow him on Twitter at @realstuartl

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