No one can objectively look at the NBA and be all that happy that through the first two weeks it has predictably turned into the LBA… the Lebron Basketball Association. The NBA has had enough over-hyping during the last decade, that the thought of a game-by-game dissection of an 18yr old’s rookie season makes a true NBA fan a bit nauseous.
However, ‘the Lebron factor’ will be front and center (at least until Kobe’s trial) this season, whether one likes it or not. The comparisons will be made to everyone from Jordan to Magic to Bird, but what is most disturbing are not the comparisons, but the conclusions being drawn. Can we give him a half-season, before we put him in Springfield or declare him a bust? Can we?
ESPN.com already has page solely devoted to comparing Lebron to the NBA’s all-time greats during their rookie campaigns. Not too much pressure there.
Ahh, pressure. If this kid’s feeling it, he sure ain’t showing it. I’ve watched parts of 4 games thus far and found that he has a very natural style. He looks like he is doing what he was born to do. He looks like he belongs. What he does not look like, is a complete product. It’s gonna take time, like it did for Jordan, Magic and Bird.
Most media-types are already comparing the impact of Lebron and fellow hotshot rookie Carmelo Anthony to that of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in the winter of ’79-80. Wow. Talk about a high standard. Magic and Bird made the biggest single impact on this league ever. Wait make that any league.
How about some non-revisionist history:
The dynamics of the league in 1979 made Bird and Magic’s foray into the NBA, a perfect storm. The league was floundering with drug scandals, horrific attendance, abysmal television ratings and it culminated with the NBA Finals being on tape delay. Then Bird and Magic arrived. One to the east coast, the other to the west. One to the most successful franchises in the league, the other to the second most successful. Attendance went up, scandals went down and ratings went through the moon.
Bird (without McHale and Parish, who had not arrived yet), helped the Celtics to the largest single-season turnaround in league history and to the Eastern Conference Finals. Magic of course, along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, led the Lakers to the NBA title. His game 6 performance in the Finals, where he played center and scored 42 is the stuff of legend. The key to both of their stories was team success, every bit as much as individual success.
Will Lebron and ‘Melo enjoy the same team success? It’s unlikely. Neither team has gotten off to a good start, and while it is believed both have the same gift of making their teammates better, they will have to be truly gifted with their current group of teammates. Both teams seem destined for the lottery again.
I believe both will be great and Lebron for one will be on the dais one summer night in Springfield, say around the year 2021. By comparison, their numbers do not add up right now, but let’s not draw any conclusions. Let’s just root for them to make this league truly watch-able again.
Regardless of whether they match Jordan, Magic or Bird’s numbers, let’s hope they can do something else all three did in their day, and no one seems to be able to do now:
Live up to the hype.
It was 5 yrs ago when University of Connecticut Senior Nykesha Sales, lost for the season with a torn Achilles’ tendon, limped onto the court at the start of a game to make an uncontested lay-up that gave her the school’s all-time scoring record.
It was two years ago when Green Bay QB Brett Favre took a dive in order for New York Giant’s DE Michael Strahan to set the NFL single-season sack record. Both players deny this, but there is a problem with their story: we have the videotape.
Finally, there was the ridiculous display of selfishness, not to mention idiocy, last year when Cleveland Cavaliers G Ricky Davis attempted to get his first ever career triple-double by shooting and missing at his own basket in order to grasp the rebound that would take him over the top. Problem for Ricky is that it doesn’t work that way statistically.
Records (or milestones in poor Ricky’s case) are not meant to be broken like this. They are meant to be broken not just from a statistical sense, but also in the spirit in which they were set in the first place: in the context of competition. Not through pre-arranged deals. Not through empathy.
With all of this in mind, I bring you Nate Haasis, QB, Southeast High School (ILL). Never heard of him? Look in the Illinois high school record book. No, wait, you won’t see him there either. You see, a couple of Saturdays ago in the last high school game of what was a remarkable high school football career, Nate Haasis set the conference career passing record after completing a 37-yd pass on the final play of a 42-20 loss. He set the all-time record. And three days later, he gave it back.
You see, with less than a minute left in the game, his coach Neal Taylor called a timeout, walked onto the field and huddled with Cahokia coach Antwyne Golliday. They made a deal to allow Cahokia to score uncontested, in exchange for allowing Haasis to do the same the same on the record-breaking pass.
A few days after, Haasis learned of the deal that got him the record and he wrote a letter to league officials. “It is my belief that the directions given to us in the final seconds of this game were made in ‘the heat of the battle’ and do not represent the values of the athletes of the Southeast football team. In respect to my teammates, and past and present football players of the Central State Eight, it is my hope that this pass is omitted from any conference school records.”
Now THAT has to be some sort of record.
Look, his coach, the opposing coach and his teammates all had the best intentions. They honestly felt that is was the right thing to do for a kid who had already accomplished so much. We can’t blame them for trying to prop up someone undeserving or anything. He was very much deserving. But, they also forgot what competition and the resulting records are all about. They are about the absolute truth.
It is said that sports are the ultimate meritocracy in our society. You achieve or you don’t. True numbers and championships, measure you. Period.
Everyone on the field that day forgot that. Nate Hassis reminded them.