Comments on: Imagining a Global Icon

By: Basketball

Basketball — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:01:41 +0000

come on, it’s not right to compare MJ with Lebrone, first off like ike said, they are to different type of players, and second MJ made history while LJ still needs to prove him self!

By: ike

ike — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:28:06 +0000

Lebron and MJ are fundamentally very different players. In MJ’s first 7 years he pushed his individual talents to the limit. He was selfish for most of that time and tried to beat teams by himself (and often did).

Lebron doesn’t have that character and hasn’t departed from the selfless team game, even on crappy teams. I don’t think he will ever average 35ppg in a season like MJ and Kobe have, even though he could if he wanted to.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:10:32 +0000

@Cliffton, I must admit, I watched Michael Jordan: Above and Beyond last night and there was some shit in that that left me shaking my head in utter disbelief. He couldn’t be stopped then, there’s no way he could be stopped if he were playing in today’s game.

I know LeBron travel-bashing is pretty common a la le dribble de Crab, but to just generalise that, I get a bit sick of the number of blatant travels that not only don’t get called in the NBA, but also get in the fricken top 10, I’m talking the 3, 4 step-ers. They’re far more strict about carrying and turning the ball over than about travelling in many cases.

This is a favourite!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN_ljDfevB0

By: cliffton

cliffton — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 07:47:39 +0000

Lebron as goat *shudder*. Man I’d like to see what Jordan would’ve done with today’s hand checking laws & the defensive 3 sec rule. I think it was Larry Brown who said MJ would’ve averaged over 50 in today’s game.
And then of course there was the change to the travel law to accommodate Lebron’s crab dribble. Kinda mind boggling that one.

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:59:22 +0000

Great article Ant. What I especially like about this is that you’re writing it as a true bball fan. There’s none of the (what has become) standard bias and guess-work in regards to Bron’s free agency. Every blogger, journo and forum poster across the interwebZ seemingly wants to be the “I told you so” guy when it comes to this off-season. Your article was a refreshing change.

As for my opinion, I think MJ DID want all those things but he was just smart enough to play the humble Wheaties-eating, Hanes underwear wearing nice guy. That worked for him quite nicely until recently.

And LeBron? Well… all you can say is wow. I think it is going to take a lot for him NOT to be considered the GOAT by the time he’s done. I know Championships determine “greatness”, but there’s no one in the L that can stop him right now. And by no one, I mean 5 on court at once. I’m not referring to 1-on-1 matchups… most NBA players can beat anyone else 1-on-1.

By: eddie

eddie — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:24:41 +0000

Lebron is a douche. Cliffton is right, MJ never had those goals. You won’t hear Kobe ever talking like that. I would probably like Lebron more if he wasn’t so self-promoting, and if he didn’t talk about himself in the third person, or if he didn’t storm off court after losing. I mean, what kind of example does that set for kids? Not shaking your teammates hand? That is how you become a global icon. By becoming a role-model and by proving yourself as an ultimate winner in your sport. Lebron hasn’t done this yet.

By: robd

robd — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:19:45 +0000

nice post Ant.

the phenomenal thing about Lebron, is that despite the ridiculous hype around him when he entered the league, and despite the fact he’s a fame-seeking money-hungry entrepreneur, he’s STILL become the best player in the game and manages to keep improving. Ben touched on this.

I do think that his #1 priority is to win a championship. that is the motivation behind all his hard work. when that happens, we may see a complacent Lebron? who knows.

By: cliffton

cliffton — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:50:39 +0000

I just don’t understand why he feels it necessary to make these kind of public proclamations about it. I mean it’s nice to have goals and all, but icon status doesn’t happen without the love, respect and adolation of maybe hundreds of millions of people globally.

I don’t recall MJ, The Fed, Tiger, Schu etc publicly stating they wanted to be icons. It was all about the winning and being the best in whatever arena they’re involved in. It worries me to be honest. There’s already an undercurrent of wariness around the sport regarding some of his actions (handshake, camp dunk vid, riverdancing in blowout etc). I’ve got nothing against Lebron and I hope it all works out for him, but he could do some serious damage to the sport if things get out of hand.

Interesting read btw. The point you make about what kind of effect he could have on the game in Oz is intriguing.

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:46:51 +0000

This is a really interesting read mate, well done. The only thing that i’m not completely sure about is the idea that being a global icon would result in less practice time and possibly him reaching lesser heights in the long-run. Frankly, I reckon the dude is already a very busy guy as it stands. I remember reading that he took quite a long time off over summer to do marketing stuff, perhaps in China from memory. So this is already part of his reality. I get the impression that his real passion is basketball though. When he was commentating the rookie game last year he said he watches pretty much all the games and that he’s just a huge fan, he’s his own scout and he knows the games of most of the players in the league. So i would say that his own game, and his own pro career is still his absolute priority, and that he would know exactly what he needs and wants to work on individually, and the time and effort required to get the results.