I am not the sports fanatic that my friend Maddog (and let me say how pleased I am that this appellation has returned) and have little regard for professional sports aside from soccer (football), but having lived in Akron, OH when LeBron James was a high school player of stupendous skill, I have a weakness for the Cavaliers.
The odds are against the Cav's winning the NBA championship, in part because LeBron simply does not have the depth of talent on his team that the other contenders have. Talent for talent he is the finest player in the league right now, and has the potential to be a star on the order of Jordan, Irving and Bird. The rest of his team, while competent, is just that. But I hope for a Cav's victory, because with that in hand I believe James will stay in Cleveland rather than bolt for the Knicks when his contract expires. I can't blame the fellow for wanting a championship ring, but it would reinforce everything that is wrong with professional sports, the equation of money and market strength to on-field success that will eventually cause baseball, football and basketball more than a few franchises.
Everything I know about James indicates he takes his local roots seriously and would like to stay if the management can find him enough quality teammates.
We'll see.
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The interesting thing about James is that even though he is by far the most gifted basketball player in the world right now, he is also one of the best teammates. Nobody gets his teammates, even the guys who rarely see the floor, so involved and pumped during the actual game. That is something that Jordan could never do. Jordan is undoubtedly the greatest basketball ever - up to this point - but he was also a (relatively) poor teammate, incredibly selfish, and by all accounts, an asshole. Lebron appears to be none of those things.
ReplyDeleteAs evidenced in the Pistons series, basketball is the one game that allows for an inferior supporting cast not to matter if you have a once-in-a-generation (lifetime?) talent on your team. Barry Sanders couldn't play defense, Barry Bonds (circa 1998) couldn't pitch, but Lebron is able to control the flow of the game at every moment he's on the court. The only thing that will stop him is a comparably over-the-hill Kobe with a much better supporting cast.
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