James won; we lost

Do fans have to give up a dream? Every year it becomes
more painfully obvious that athletes will never let us
have our cake and eat it too.

So rarely does society produce an athlete that loves his
sport and allows us into his joy for the game like Brett
Favre. Yet we find out later that Favre can’t survive
without trying to dominate our minds and thoughts so he
throws his name back in the ring at every opportunity.

Give us a star that plays with an unrelenting desire to
win like Tiger Woods. Then we discover he has no class on
the golf course and actually pays people to help him
deceive his wife.

We want someone that our kids can look up to.
Unfortunately the “greats” are so driven to conquer
everything they can’t turn their drive off. The same
drive to conquer Augusta is the same drive to conquer
Perkins waitresses. It’s not completely true that nice
guys finish last, but the vast majority do and that’s sad.

I thought of these desires all of us have for the humble
yet average to rise to great or the great to change to
humble watching LeBron James.

Did we tear down a man and make him better or did we just
tear him down? I’m guilty. I’ve said it before. I think
James is the greatest 46-minute player in the history of
basketball and I think he’s a choke machine. He has all
the talent to be a great closer, but shies away from the
final moment.

The Michaels and Birds were always double — and sometimes
triple — teamed to force the ball out of their hands. If
you’ve noticed the last few years, James doesn’t draw late
double-teams. Sure there’s help defense but no flying-
doubles. No coach is going to force the ball out of
James’ hand because they know he’ll get rid of it anyway.

For the last two games, we’ve seen a new James.
Determined. Feared. Angry. The smiling LeBron is gone.
He is no longer a happy king celebrating with his subjects
as if they were equals sharing in the riches of the
kingdom. This is a king that doesn’t like his small
kingdom and wants more territory.

Did the king do this or did his subjects make demands? Is
King James doing this for himself or to quiet his angry
serfs?

He is everything we wished other athletes were. Never
arrested. Never listed in the Mitchell report. Never
tested positive, suspended but allowed to return only
because the UPS store was closed. He’s the only athlete
ever to be ridiculed for being too self-LESS.

Imagine every day you go to work, you’re the best to ever
do your job except for two minutes every day. You’re the
firefighter who saves babies but didn’t get the sterling
silverware. The soldier who runs through the cross-fire
to save a fallen comrade but failed to fill out the proper
report after the raid. It’s those two minutes that
determine how the world views you and you never get away
from it. The serfs will overthrow you if you don’t become
what they demand.

I don’t apologize for anything I’ve said about LeBron in
the past. It was my opinion at the time. LeBron is the
one who said he was going to win seven championships.
LeBron is the one that thought Cleveland was for losers
but hasn’t won since he left due to his disappearing act
against Dallas.

In our demands for more James, we lost what we liked about
him. Why can’t Randy Johnson be nice? Why can’t Ian
Kennedy be the greatest of all time since he’s the type of
guy we can all want to succeed? Why can’t Shane Doan lift
the Stanley Cup? Why is it that Steve Nash is checked
into the boards and Grant Hill loses years from his career
due to injury but Michael Irvin is a three-time champion?

Watching the end of the Eastern Conference Finals made me
respect Peyton and Eli more than I did before. The most
impossible job in America is being the greatest in your
sport while being “one of us” throughout the whole thing.

Follow @Vincemarotta