Morale is low. I'm rehashing some of what was touched on earlier on this site, but it's necessary.
A lot of people are angry at LeBron for one reason or another. They're angry that he's shrinking away from his responsibilities and destiny. Well then everyone was reading from the wrong scripture, because the reason the basketball gods gave us LeBron James was never to save Cleveland or strike down legends and build empires as one lonely mercenary. He was put here to fundamentally and aesthetically change how basketball is played, and giggle while doing it. Shit got way too serious in Cleveland for him to follow through with this promise. He was shackled in Mike Brown's non-system, surrounded by well-meaning, unskilled peasants. The result (that is true, but too rarely stated): Watching LeBron James play basketball hasn't been too much fun for the past few years. When he "does what he's supposed to do," it resembles football to the point of nausea. He cradles the ball, cranks his head down and bulls his way to two free throws. When he goes his own way, he settles for jumpers that he makes at a clip just high enough to keep shooting recklessly.
But in Miami the basketball will be better. It will be playground ball meets ballet, visceral fun meets high art. It'll be like listening to a Gucci Mane mixtape through an opera house's sound system, while Dr. Cornel West stands on stage telling dick jokes.
Some people are angry at how this new Miami Heat was constructed, saying that it all seemed too inorganic or something, that LeBron and company didn't work or put in the time to earn this team. What? How are teams constructed, then? It's not like getting lucky in the draft is more honorable than signing a few very talented free agents one day. Teams aren't cultivated, cucumbers are. Just because some teams take a few years to grow and gel as a championship unit and others take the plunge into the elite overnight doesn't mean one is more meaningful or impressive or right. When a veteran does this same exact thing to try to win that one elusive ring, we applaud him. Three guys doing it in their prime? We should be throwing parades. This is what we've always asked of stars, to value winning over everything else.
But the biggest contingent of anger over this South Beach jaunt is that now we know the champions for the next five years. First of all, let's all just relax for one second here. These two superstars and Chris will win most of their games, but there are a few holes here, no? Starting with all those empty roster spots. Surely they'll try to fill them with defenders and shooters who'll take the minimum salary just to wear boat shoes, meet Rick Ross and go to clubs with these nice young fellows, but let's wait to see just exactly who boards the yacht with them before we disregard the competition at hand. Plus, doesn't anyone remember the last time we tuned in to the LeBron show? He was busy giving up on his 60-win team in the playoffs. So there's that.
But more to the point, there's never been actual parity in the league. Last season, everyone said the Lakers would win, and they did. The year before that, the very same thing happened. The year before that, the Celtics were the pre-season picks and the post-season celebrants. The 2010-2011 season may not be any different, and there's nothing wrong with that. Only one team wins the championship every year, it doesn't matter who.
Which brings us to the things that do matter. I think we've all forgotten why we're here (which is understandable considering the nonsense we all just went through). So, let's renew our No Regard vows, shall we?
Are the elite teams really why we watch this league? Except for the playoffs and a few event games here or there, the elite teams aren't that interesting. They are the constant by which we judge the rest of the league, but the glory of the NBA lies not in the constants, but for the variables.
Isn't artistic basketball why we watch this league? Remember how great it was watching Don Nelson's Warriors forget what the five positions are and fall into some chaotic rhythm of fast breaks, dunks, swag and three pointers? Won't this be the same thing? Think of your five favorite NBA highlights of all time. Got 'em? If you just embrace this, you'll have five new ones by the end of this season.
When crazy shit happens, don't we of the blogosphere normally embrace it fully? What do I mean by crazy shit? One good example would be the two best players in the league hopping on a tandem bicycle together (letting a dude named Chris ride in the sidecar) and pedaling towards a ring. We are fans of this league above all others because good-natured, wonky stuff goes on constantly. How fun is it going to be to talk about all of this 10 years from now?
Isn't this what we all would have done were we in the same circumstance? How is it evil for three friends to decide that they'll finally be the ones to overthrow the dictatorship of this league on their own terms? Yeah, the free agency period was a gratuitous mess culminating with an hour of absolute drivel. The way they all handled this was gauche, but the outcome will prove to be heroic: Three wild and crazy guys trying their hardest to add another team to the list of greats, just because they can.
So I get that we're all jealous because we're not Miami Heat fans (I've literally only met one in my life) and a superhero becomes a supervillain if he's not yours. But as NBA fans, how can we not embrace this? By the time the season starts, we'll all have watched enough Summer League to forget how gross the whole free agent process was and we'll be able to focus on the basketball, which will be unlike anything we've ever seen outside of the Dream Team, the Redeem Team and the All-Star game. I'll probably change my tune after they steamroll their way to two or three championships, but for now, it sort of seems like the basketball that's about to be played in Miami will have no regard for... what's the phrase?
Reaffirmation Response
ReplyDeleteTo reiterate some of the points of the above argument:
- We shouldn't be angry with or disappointed in LeBron James because this is what we all would have done given the same circumstance.
- We should embrace what's happened here because it gives the blogosphere wonky stuff to write about, and it's going to be lots of fun to talk about in 10 years.
- We're gonna have some great highlight reels to check out on espn.com for the next few years.
While "Andrew Abides" has taken a good-natured, let's-all-go-along-for-the-ride approach to LeBron's move to the Heat, I'm afraid I find myself unable to join the fun. I'm not a blogger, so all this craziness has been useless to my daily activities (up until writing this response). I do enjoy a good highlight reel, but I prefer watching the drama of an entire game unfold to checking out the most impressive moments the next day. And as for the question, "Isn't this what we all would have done were we in the same circumstance?", I have no honest answer. I'm not one of the most talented basketball players alive, I didn't foster a reputation as the "King" of basketball, I never donned the number 23 to invite comparisons to Michael Jordan and, as far as I know, I do not have "witnesses" to my greatness.
I am, at the end of the day, a simple sports fan. As such, I respect hard-working players, scrappily lovable teams of young upstarts (my love to the OKC Thunder), and great players who embrace the game, work hard at the game, and love the game. It helps when such great players let their love pour out in occasional smiles of joy, which has made LeBron much more easily likable than the mechanized robot known as Kobe Bryant. But what Kobe has, and what LeBron has now undoubtably proven himself to lack, is a greater sense of his place in the game.
The truly great sports figures in history have not necessarily been honorable or selfless men. Many have chased big contracts, deserted their hometown teams, or engaged in any number of backroom deals that put business above all else. All of this is to be expected. It's the fate of every young boy to grow up and realize that his sports heroes are not mythical forest creatures who live by The Order of Fandom and seek love, duty and honor above all else. They are men with careers who seek career advancement, and sometimes hope to have fun along the way.
But the best of the best, the players whose names we speak as if touching the face of God, are those players who, ultimately, are also fans. They understand that it's not just the millions of dollars, the minutes on the court, and the pursuit of trophies that make the man. It's the pursuit of that thing we call glory, that understanding of what you as a star mean to the game you play. Magic Johnson had it. Larry Bird had it. Michael Jordan had it. Kobe Bryant seems to have some sort of diluted understanding of it, complicated by the fact that he treats the game like a series of army drills leading to a tank fight.
We hoped LeBron understood it. We hoped that this obnoxiously fun media storm he'd honed around his talent in Cleveland would lead to the next great player of our time, like a red carpet rolled out for a new hero. The fact that this young guy had laid the carpet out himself was of little issue to us, so long as he paid off his promise. "It's okay that he took Jordan's number," we reasoned, "because once he leads a team to six straight championships, he'll be wearing the inherited digits of his own greatest hero. It's like paying homage." "It's okay that he puts his face on billboards telling us that we're witnesses to his Kingdom," we assured ourselves, "because once he flashes two fistfuls of rings, we WILL be witnesses."
Continued below...
We readily excused his willful cultivation of one of the most brazen campaigns of self-promotion in the history of sports, because we expected the greatness that he promised. That was our mistake. Making the one-hour 'Decision' special was like rubbing our own naivete in our faces. Except that it wasn't. Because LeBron James has no concept of what his talent, his promise, and his recent decision mean to the game of basketball. He understands only what they mean to him. He's chosen to go play with his buddies in Miami, to take a backseat as the leader of a team and join another leader. It's more fun there, the game will be easier, and there are beaches open year-round with lots of hot women. Forget the fact that a real "King" of sports doesn't play second fiddle or take the path of least resistance.
ReplyDeleteWhat are we witnesses to, in the end? We're witnesses to an all-too-typical story of a young, talented guy who tasted greatness and seemed to chase greatness before deciding that it'd be more fun to play and win with other superstars in a warmer climate. We're witnesses to the creation of an organization that has stacked itself with some of the biggest talents in basketball, a Yankees/Red Sox approach to championship-chasing. We're witnesses to the same old shit we've witnessed for years.
Michael Jordan wasn't the same old shit. The rivalry between Bird and Magic wasn't the same old shit. Just imagine how much less dynamic the '80s would've been if those two guys had joined forces to eradicate the rest of the league, rather than create one of the most entertaining and amazing tug-of-war's in sports history.
Yes, parity in the NBA is an illusion. But part of us all hoped that LeBron James wouldn't be part of the same old shit. Part of us believed he would be one of The Great Ones. Part of us believed he would carry a team like the Cavs or the Knicks or the Bulls, lift the game to new heights not seen since the Jordan era and give us a reason to keep buying his goddam T-shirts.
No highlight reel will erase the disappointment. LeBron James' talent is undeniable, but it turns out he was just kidding about all that other stuff. He just wants to go have fun and win a ring the easy way.
Roll up the red carpet.
Shit. Our fans are smarter than us.
ReplyDeleteBack to making Don Nelson likes booze jokes for me.
We just got the X-rays back. We mostly got served here [a rib] and here [forearm]. But the worst serving was here in the pelvic region. The road to recovery will be a long one.
ReplyDeleteI've been struggling with a response for a little now, because I think a comment this thoughtful deserves something equally intelligent. But I don't know. I guess my main point here is this: With LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, the Miami Heat will make the NBA more entertaining this year and I watch the NBA (and sports in general) for entertainment purposes. I'm starting to think that the way I evaluate entertainment differs from how others do. Well actually, I guess I've know that for a while now, probably since around the time Spider-Man 3 was released...
ReplyDeleteI LOVE Spider-Man 3!
ReplyDelete