This post will be about two basketball players.
The first is a guy who calls himself Metta World Peace. He plays on the Lakers, and since LA is a basketball town, and the Lakers are basketball royalty, his personal whims of fancy, like changing his name to "Metta World Peace" are respected. Since LA is such a huge media town, the other media centers are pretty forced to follow their lead, and now most everybody calls him some variation of MWP.
For those, like Norm maybe, who don't know, the guy who changed his name originally went by Ron Artest. A kid out of a rough neighborhood in Queens, Artest used monstrous defensive ability in basketball to change his lot in life, and was on probably the best team that never made the finals, the 2003-04 Indiana Pacers. They lost a brutal 7 game series to the Pistons after one of their best players went down with injury. The Pistons went on to beat the Lakers in the finals that year. That Pacer team was regarded as the best team in the NBA who had a few bad breaks.
The next season everybody was healthy, and early in the season, the Pacers played at the Pistons home court. What followed was what's called "the darkest moment in NBA history" by some folks, others call it the "Malice at the Palace", called so for the arena outside of Detroit, the Palace of Auburn Hills. This was the game where a fight broke out between the players and the fans, and Ron Artest, one of the game's, eh, crazies, went into the stands to put a hurtin' on somebody. Here's a link to a very good piece about the incident.
Artest was suspended for the rest of the season, and the Pacers have needed the last near-decade to build a winning team again. The fans have yet to return in droves in Indy, a place that loves basketball, even for the contender they have thus year.
Artest went to the Kings, and then was shipped off to the Lakers. He's helped the Lakers win a few championships. Then he changed his name to Metta World Peace, and everybody said "Uhhhhhhhhhh...ooooookaaaaayyy..." Then he started playing timid basketball. He wasn't playing like the defensive monster that he used to be. Then he started to regain the form, and Laker fans said "Yay, who gives a shit about his name, if we're winning!"
Then he threw an elbow at a guys head and was just suspended for seven games, a suspension that just ended, just ended in time for their playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The player he nailed with that elbow? James Harden of the OKC Thunder. This should be interesting.
The second player I wanted to just say a few words about is King James himself, LeBron James. He just won a third MVP award, and his team, the Heat, just won their first game of their second round series against the Pacers, a game in which he scored 32 points and had 15 rebounds.
LeBron is one of the premier players in the game, and will probably go down as one of the all-time greats. I just wanted collect here a few things that I've heard or read about the player in his time in the league.
While he's a different player than Jordan or Kobe, he's different in a specific kind of way, in a way that people who don't give a rats ass about sports can be notified about. LeBron is an immensely skilled baller; I've heard him described as "a Jordan or Kobe who'll pass the ball."
Jordan will be remembered for being the greatest player of all time, and Kobe wants to be in that conversation as well, which is the only thing he's really chasing. He'll finish with more points than Kareem when he's done, and right now he's only got 5 championships to Jordan's 6. See, Kobe's chasing a legacy, while LeBron is chasing that first elusive ring.
LeBron is generous with the ball. He can score, and he can pass, which is way to make all of his teammates better, which is great. But, it seems from the evidence, that in the final periods of tight finals games, both in his first shot with the Cavaliers, and last year with the Heat, that he disappears. You wouldn't want to say that he's not a clutch player, because that idea is strained at best when faced with numbers.
Kobe or Jordan, say, if playing in a game 7, and suppose they've missed the last fifteen shots in a row, will still want the ball in their hands with 1 second left and a chance to win. LeBron seems to shy away from this time after time.
He went to Miami instead of the Knicks. He could have chosen the biggest stage in the world for the game, with the most rabid fans in the game, and been their savior. he could have been king of the world in New York...just look at Jeremy Lin, the scrub Asian kid from the Bay Area who had a few great games and became King of New York for making the Knicks fun to watch. He only made them fun to watch, and LeBron could have made them a champion contender...instead LeBron chose to go with the other superstars in Miami.
Check out the end of the NBA All-Star game this year. LeBron has the ball and the clock is winding down, Kobe's guarding him. LeBron helplessly looks around for someone to pass the ball to, and gives up a bad turnover, which the West turns into points and the victory. You can see Kobe--and this is confirmed by LeBron himself during a post-game interview--shouting at him to "Shoot the ball! Shoot it!"
That's the sort of maddening thing about LeBron. Every year sports writers and fans alike give him the benefit of the doubt...is this the year that LeBron will finally carry his team to the ring? He's got the skills, for sure...
Even I think this is the year, but will I be wrong? Obviously time will tell, but you could see
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