I have a feeling this will go over better than “The Decision” did…
The only thing he did wrong was not use Comic Sans for the font.
Tag: Cleveland Cavaliers (Page 11 of 53)
On Monday, I wrote a long piece about how Michael Jordan’s assertion that he never would have called Larry Bird or Magic Johnson up and figured out a way to join forces with them isn’t a fair comparison to Miami’s new Super Friends.
Now Magic Johnson is getting into the act, per Bloomberg News:
“We didn’t think about it cause that’s not what we were about,” said Johnson, whose Michigan State squad beat Bird’s Indiana State team in the 1979 National Collegiate Athletic Association championship. “From college, I was trying to figure out how to beat Larry Bird.”
“It was never a question in our mind because nobody has ever done that,” he said.
So which is it, Magic? You didn’t think about it because that’s not what you were about or because nobody had ever done it before? Because those are two completely different reasons not to do something.
While Michael’s comparison holds a little bit of water since the Bulls didn’t look like a championship-caliber team until after his fourth season (when he signed his eight-year deal), Magic Johnson joined a stacked Lakers team and won a title as a rookie. In fact, he won two titles in his first three years and went to eight Finals in his first 10 years (winning five titles total). What about that situation gives him the perspective to comment on LeBron’s decision to leave Cleveland to chase a ring? Of course he didn’t try to join forces with Larry or Michael — HE WAS ALREADY ON A STACKED TEAM.
Next up, Larry Bird. Let’s get this over with.
(By the way, I’m still trying to figure out who Chris Bosh is supposed to be in this comparison. He’s a good player, but Larry or Magic he’s not.)
For at least a year now, we’ve been hearing people criticize LeBron for potentially (and now actually) leaving the Cavs to play with another superstar. One of the arguments they often bring up is how Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, or Magic Johnson would never have left Chicago, Boston or L.A. to form a dynasty elsewhere.
Now, even Jordan has said that he wouldn’t have called those guys up and tried to join forces.
“There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team,’ ” Jordan said after playing in a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada. “But that’s … things are different. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. It’s an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.”
Skip Bayless, in his infinite wisdom, has been saying this for months, and took this moment to gloat a bit about what MJ said.
“Michael said, ‘I’m going to stay in Chicago.'”
In September of 1988, coming off his first MVP, Jordan signed an eight-year deal worth $25 million. (Soak those numbers in for a moment…the greatest player ever to play the game made about $3 million a season in his prime. Amazing.) The Bulls were 50-32 the previous season (Scottie Pippen’s first year in the league) and were eliminated in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. So his playing situation was not unlike LeBron’s, though I don’t think too many NBA stars would choose the city of Cleveland over Chicago.
Waiting For Next Year has a transcript of Bryant Gumbel’s end-of-show editorial on HBO’s Real Sports:
Finally tonight, a few words about championship rings. Just when did they become the all-important barometer of who does or doesn’t count in sports? When did they supersede personal excellence or exemplary character as a standard of greatness?
I got to thinking about that the other night after the self-anointed chosen one, LeBron James, embarrassed himself as he tried to make his decision to seek rings in Miami sound like a search for the Holy Grail. It’s when he essentially admitted to placing a higher priority on winning than anything else.
LeBron’s decision is typical of our immediate gratification era, but it flies in the face of history. Even though he never won a title, Dan Marino is still the biggest hero in Florida. And in Boston, all those Celtics championships are dimmed by the unforgettable brilliance of Ted Williams, who never won anything. In Chicago, Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus have legendary status despite playing on losing teams. And even in the NBA, where guys seem obsessed with being viewed as ‘the man’, real men like Barkley, Ewing and Baylor are ringless, but revered.
Despite such evidence to the contrary, LeBron James seems to think he needs a ring to change his life and secure his legacy. Maybe he’ll get one, maybe he won’t, but it’s probable that no amount of rings will ever remove the stench he wallowed in last week. LeBron may yet find that in the court of public opinion, just as putting on a tux can’t make a guy a gentleman, winning a ring can’t make one truly a champion.
I wish when pundits spouted off about LeBron’s decision to leave Cleveland that they would say implicitly whether or not they have a problem with the decision itself or with the way the decision was made. Gumbel talks about “the stench he wallowed in last week,” so I can only assume that he’s talking about the controversy around “The Decision,” which most of us think crossed the line.
At the same time, he criticizes LeBron’s desire to win. Whether or not Gumbel gets it, a superstar has to win a title to cement his legacy. While Ewing, Malone, Barkley and Baylor are considered great players, there’s always the phrase “but they didn’t win a title” that comes at the end of any discussion about their relative greatness.
Would Grant Hill trade the classiness of his career for a ring? Only he can answer that question, and he’s a special case, so he might say no. But LeBron knows that if he stayed in Cleveland and failed to win a title, then his legacy would always have that asterisk.
Five, ten, twenty years down the line, I don’t know how much we’ll remember “The Decision” versus what LeBron and the rest of the Super Friends accomplish in Miami over the next six seasons. I’m sure the city of Cleveland will remember it vividly until the end of time, but if LeBron plays Magic to Wade’s Jordan and facilitates three or four titles in the next few seasons, the storyline won’t be about “The Decision,” but about where LeBron ranks amongst the league’s all-time greats.
Dwyane Wade has come to the defense of his new teammate, responding to accusations by Cavs owner Dan Gilbert that LeBron James quit against the Celtics in the playoffs (and against the Magic in last year’s postseason).
Wade said he watched every game in Cleveland’s second-round series against Boston, the team that eliminated the Heat in the opening round of the postseason. The Celtics used a similar defensive scheme against James as they did against Wade to open the playoffs, throwing a slew of challenges in the way of both.
“LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, guys like that understand what Boston’s defense was about,” Wade said. “Their defense was built on not letting one player beat them. You either settle for the outside shot or you pass to your teammates. LeBron had one bad game in the playoffs. Other than that, he did what he could do with the defense all watching him.”
“I don’t see where you can get where he quit,” Wade said. “He just had one bad game. It happens. Kobe had a bad game in the Finals. They won. It didn’t matter. LeBron’s teammates didn’t help him out that game and it made the way he played even worse. But he’s not a quitter. He didn’t quit.”
LeBron was dreadful in Game 5 (3-of-14 shooting) as the Cavs were blown out at home, but he did post a triple-double in Game 6, which is not usually the kind of line that a quitter delivers in an elimination game.
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