- What I heard
Do you think Werth left because he was upset? Was he sad?
The real story
Werth left the Phillies by way of a 7-year $126million free agent contract with the Washington Nationals. - What I heard
Woman: Why were they booing Ibanez?
Man: Because he grounds into a lot of double plays.
The real story
The crowd was chanting “RRRRAAAUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLL”; there were no boos. - What I heard
Did you see the homeruns?
The real story
The person had missed the A’s scoring two runs. There was one homerun; the other run was scored via a walk and a pair of singles. - What I heard
Man: I saw Victorino’s bonehead play.
Woman: Yeah, what happened with that? Was it an error?
Man: They don’t call that an error, but they probably should. He was trying to be a hot dog.
The real story
Coco Crisp was on second base. Connor Jackson flied out to Victorino in centerfield. Crisp faked as if he was going to tag up and run to third, so Victorino prepared to fire the ball there. Crisp stopped running and Victorino relaxed his arm. Crisp broke for third and made it easily as Victorino’s soft throw got there very late. This is not being a hot dog. This was one veteran player deking another. Victorino had a brain fart and got faked out. Nothing hot dog about it. - What I heard (Ibanez grounded out to third)
At least he tried to go the other way.
The real story
First of all, Ibanez’s power is mostly to right, but he is not generally a pull hitter. He hits it to all fields. More importantly, what does trying to go the other way have to do with anything? He wasn’t a right handed batter with a man on second. Trevor Cahill wasn’t feeding him sinkers or breaking balls away. Ibanez was seeing a steady diet of fastballs that he couldn’t catch up to. When you can’t catch up to a pitch, it goes the other way. That’s what happened here. - What I heard
What have these guys done for us lately?
The real story
The Phillies have the best record in the Major Leagues. - What I heard
They need to shake this team up, get rid of some pieces. Trade Victorino.
The real story
The Phillies have the best record in the Major Leagues and, at the time, had won 11 of their last 14 games. They also lead the National League with a +63 run differential. The Braves, who are second in this category, are +39.
Monday, June 27, 2011
I Hate Pseudo-Fans
I miss the days when you could go to Phillies games and the people in stands actually knew the game. I went to Saturday night's game and heard some crazy things coming from the row behind me. If these fans are the trade-off for having a good team, I'll take it.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
McNabb & Favre? Not for My Playoff Team
Over the years, I have watched a lot of football. One thing that I have noticed is that with very rare exception, NFL quarterbacks only have a short stretch of championship football in him. Quarterbacks can play at a high level for a long time, but there seems to be a very short time span during which they actually play at a championship level in the playoffs. During my lifetime, I count only John Elway and Joe Montana among them. As you will see later, Kurt Warner is an outlier on that list.
I initially started compiling this data in the summer of 2010 to show that the Vikings and Redskins were foolish to put their championship hopes in the hands of Brett Favre and Donovan McNabb, respectively. Their peaks were years ago. If you only took the last 12 years of Favre’s career, for instance, he doesn’t even get a glimpse of the Hall of Fame. His first 8 seasons were so great that they carried his reputations for a full two decades.
McNabb’s peak ended in 2005. The Eagles had a great run with him from 2000-2004, but he’s only won two playoff games since then. And what I remember most about that era is that the last meaningful play of every single Eagles season from 2001-2005 was an interception thrown by McNabb. Check it out:
Furthermore, the record for consecutive Super Bowl appearances is only 8 years. The record for longest time between a quarterback’s first and last Super Bowl appearances is 12. Both of those records belong to Elway. Kurt Warner is in second place on both lists with 7 years and 9 years, respectively (Craig Morton is tied with Warner’s 7).
What this shows is that, for the most part, quarterbacks’ Super Bowl appearances come within a short time span. The stories of the old gunslinger leading his team on one last Super Bowl run are just a myth. It doesn’t happen in the NFL.
Now that that’s out of the way…
Last night, a quarterback discussion broke out on Twitter. Specifically, the names of Favre, McNabb, Brady, and Peyton Manning were thrown around. Thankfully, I had all of their data already compiled. The data I speak of is the playoff performance of all NFL quarterbacks who have started 10 or more playoff games since 1999, which is the year Donovan McNabb entered the league, Peyton Manning first made the playoffs, and Brett Favre really fell off. In total, this list includes the 4 quarterbacks already mentioned as well as Kurt Warner and Ben Roethlisberger. My initial premise was that McNabb and post-Holmgren Favre are the two worst playoff quarterbacks of this generation. I knew Peyton Manning wasn’t good, but I didn’t realize how close he was to Favre and McNabb. Manning’s actually been bad.
What you will see is the performance data broken up into different categories of playoff games since 1999: all games, games with a single-digit point differential, Championship Games/Super Bowls, wins, losses, games tied after 3 quarters, games led by 8 points or less after 3 quarters, games trailed by 8 points or less after 3 quarters, and overtime games. One interesting thing of which to take note is that Roethlisberger’s performances are all fairly consistent, no matter the category. His statistics are always OK, yet the Steelers always score a lot. Anyway…make your judgments for yourself. (Click here for the data)
ALL PLAYOFF GAMES SINCE 1999
The biggest surprise for me here was the realization that the Colts have scored as many as 20 points in only 9 of Peyton Manning’s 19 playoff games and that the Colts only averaged 22.37 points in those games. Next was realizing that only Kurt Warner averaged more than 2 touchdown passes per game.
By more than 4 points, Favre and McNabb have the 2 worst quarterback ratings of the group. Warner’s rating is a ridiculous 102.84.
SINGLE DIGIT PLAYOFF GAMES SINCE 1999
Before doing my research, I knew that Favre and McNabb’s teams had poor records in playoff games decided by less than 10 points. I knew that the only such game the Eagles won was the 4th & 26 game in which they defeated Favre’s Packers in overtime. Favre’s 1 win was the “and we’re gonna score” game in which Al Harris returned a Matt Hasselbeck interception for a touchdown in overtime. The Colts only scored 20 points in 3 of their 9 single-digit playoff games.
Oddly, even though each only posted a 1-3 record in such games, Favre and McNabb were the only 2 of the 6 to have a higher quarterback rating in single-digit games than in overall playoff games.
CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES & SUPER BOWLS SINCE 1999
It is here where Brady and Warner shine while Favre and McNabb fall far behind the others. By a lot, Favre and McNabb have the worst quarterback ratings of the bunch and Brady and Warner have the best. Only Warner and Brady managed to have more touchdown passes than interceptions in half of these games. No one else did it more than a third of the time. While Warner and Brady averaged 1 interception per game or less, Favre and McNabb were both at or near 2. That helps to explain why those Warner and Brady have a combined 11-4 record (1 game against each other) while the other two are 1-7 (no games played against each other). Manning and Roethlisberger also sport winning records in Championship Games and Super Bowls.
The most interesting statistic here is that Warner’s team averaged only 22.5 points in these games, yet still won 4 out of 6.
PLAYOFF LOSSES SINCE 1999
The first thing that struck me when looking at this data is that Roethlisberger’s Steelers have a higher scoring average in their losses than they do in their wins. Despite that, Roethlisberger throws 2.67 interceptions in each loss. Warner, amazingly, still has a respectable 88.47 quarterback rating in his losses.
Manning’s numbers are the most fascinating here, though. In his 10 playoff losses, he’s only thrown 9 touchdown passes. In 5 of those losses, however, he managed to throw more touchdown passes than interceptions. At 14.2 points per game, Manning has the worst scoring offense of those examined. Accordingly, they’ve only scored 20 points once in those losses.
PLAYOFF WINS SINCE 1999
When Brett Favre is good, he’s really good. In his 4 playoff wins, he posted a group best 123.25 quarterback rating. This is the only category in which Warner, who was second best with 109.96, did not have the best rating of the group. In those wins, Favre’s teams averaged 33.5 points per game and the quarterback had 10 TDs against only 1 INT and, naturally, had more touchdowns than interceptions in each game.
Peyton? In his 9 wins, he has 20 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. But I considered that he only threw for more touchdowns than interceptions in 5 of those 9 wins and looked deeper. If you eliminate the 2 games against Mike Shanahan’s defenseless Broncos, Manning has only 11 touchdowns and 8 interceptions in 7 wins. Those numbers are very un-Peyton like. In addition, he is the only quarterback of the 6 to average 1 interception per game.
PLAYOFF GAMES TIED AFTER 3 QUARTERS SINCE 1999
I wanted to take a look at how these guys performed in close, tense playoff games. Looking at games with a final margin of single digits can be misleading—sometimes teams score late and make a game appear closer than it really was. So I took a look at games that were within 1 score at the end of the 3rd quarter. In addition to noting who won and lost these games, I captured how many points the team scored, how many times they went ahead, fell behind, and either came back or had the other team come back against them.
As you’d expect, there weren’t too many games tied after 3 quarters. What is interesting is that McNabb’s Eagles lost their 1 tied game while Brady and Roethlisberger’s teams won all of theirs. Favre had 1 tie game; it went to overtime. It is worth nothing that Favre’s team fell behind in that 4th quarter and had to score a touchdown in order to send that game into overtime.
PLAYOFF GAMES WITH 1-POSSESSION LEAD AFTER 3 QUARTERS SINCE 1999
In looking at games that our quarterbacks’ teams led by 8 or less after 3, I saw that most of these guys were frontrunners. Brady, McNabb, Warner, and Roethlisberger all averaged scoring a touchdown or more in these 4th quarters. While averaging only 5.67 points in his 3 games, Warner fell behind twice and managed to come back to win both games. His record is 3-0.
Only Brady and Manning lost games in regulation. In fact, Brady’s team fell behind 3 times. The Pats won 1 of them. Manning’s case is the most interesting. Out of 8 games, the Colts only won 4. Hmm.
PLAYOFF GAMES WITH 1-POSSESSION DEFECIT AFTER 3 QUARTERS SINCE 1999
In the opposite type games, again we find that only Brady and Manning have won in regulation. Each of the others brought one of these games into overtime. Manning and McNabb have both given their teams the lead only to wind up losing in the end. Each of these guys outside of Warner, who was never in the situation, averaged more than a touchdown per game.
OVERTIME PLAYOFF GAMES SINCE 1999
I knew this going in, but I am amazed that every single one of Brett Favre’s playoff games since 1999 that has ended with a single-digit margin has gone into overtime. It says a lot that, while his team is 1-3 in those overtime games, a Favre interception has played a role in every single one of those losses (overtime interceptions against the Eagles and Giants as well as the interception that sent the Saints loss to overtime). It is absolutely hilarious that the only single-digit victory Favre has was via a defensive score. Similarly, McNabb’s only close playoff victory was an overtime victory that was assisted by a Favre interception in overtime.
Peyton Manning cannot at all be blamed for his 0-2 overtime record. One loss was to San Diego; Indianapolis never saw the ball in overtime. In 2000, the Colts lost in overtime in Miami. Manning drove the offense to what should have been the winning score, but Mike Vanderjagt missed a field goal.
I initially started compiling this data in the summer of 2010 to show that the Vikings and Redskins were foolish to put their championship hopes in the hands of Brett Favre and Donovan McNabb, respectively. Their peaks were years ago. If you only took the last 12 years of Favre’s career, for instance, he doesn’t even get a glimpse of the Hall of Fame. His first 8 seasons were so great that they carried his reputations for a full two decades.
McNabb’s peak ended in 2005. The Eagles had a great run with him from 2000-2004, but he’s only won two playoff games since then. And what I remember most about that era is that the last meaningful play of every single Eagles season from 2001-2005 was an interception thrown by McNabb. Check it out:
- 2001-2002: McNabb interception on 4th down in NFC Championship Game in St. Louis.
- 2002-2003: McNabb interception returned for touchdown by Ronde Barber in NFC Championship Game
- 2003-2004: McNabb’s 3rd interception by Ricky Manning, Jr. in the NFC Championship Game
- 2004-2005: McNabb’s interception on by Rodney Harrison clinched the Super Bowl for New England
- 2005-2006: McNabb’s interception that Roy Williams returned for a touchdown on a Monday night (McNabb was injured on the play and missed the rest of the season)
Furthermore, the record for consecutive Super Bowl appearances is only 8 years. The record for longest time between a quarterback’s first and last Super Bowl appearances is 12. Both of those records belong to Elway. Kurt Warner is in second place on both lists with 7 years and 9 years, respectively (Craig Morton is tied with Warner’s 7).
What this shows is that, for the most part, quarterbacks’ Super Bowl appearances come within a short time span. The stories of the old gunslinger leading his team on one last Super Bowl run are just a myth. It doesn’t happen in the NFL.
Now that that’s out of the way…
Last night, a quarterback discussion broke out on Twitter. Specifically, the names of Favre, McNabb, Brady, and Peyton Manning were thrown around. Thankfully, I had all of their data already compiled. The data I speak of is the playoff performance of all NFL quarterbacks who have started 10 or more playoff games since 1999, which is the year Donovan McNabb entered the league, Peyton Manning first made the playoffs, and Brett Favre really fell off. In total, this list includes the 4 quarterbacks already mentioned as well as Kurt Warner and Ben Roethlisberger. My initial premise was that McNabb and post-Holmgren Favre are the two worst playoff quarterbacks of this generation. I knew Peyton Manning wasn’t good, but I didn’t realize how close he was to Favre and McNabb. Manning’s actually been bad.
What you will see is the performance data broken up into different categories of playoff games since 1999: all games, games with a single-digit point differential, Championship Games/Super Bowls, wins, losses, games tied after 3 quarters, games led by 8 points or less after 3 quarters, games trailed by 8 points or less after 3 quarters, and overtime games. One interesting thing of which to take note is that Roethlisberger’s performances are all fairly consistent, no matter the category. His statistics are always OK, yet the Steelers always score a lot. Anyway…make your judgments for yourself. (Click here for the data)
ALL PLAYOFF GAMES SINCE 1999
The biggest surprise for me here was the realization that the Colts have scored as many as 20 points in only 9 of Peyton Manning’s 19 playoff games and that the Colts only averaged 22.37 points in those games. Next was realizing that only Kurt Warner averaged more than 2 touchdown passes per game.
By more than 4 points, Favre and McNabb have the 2 worst quarterback ratings of the group. Warner’s rating is a ridiculous 102.84.
SINGLE DIGIT PLAYOFF GAMES SINCE 1999
Before doing my research, I knew that Favre and McNabb’s teams had poor records in playoff games decided by less than 10 points. I knew that the only such game the Eagles won was the 4th & 26 game in which they defeated Favre’s Packers in overtime. Favre’s 1 win was the “and we’re gonna score” game in which Al Harris returned a Matt Hasselbeck interception for a touchdown in overtime. The Colts only scored 20 points in 3 of their 9 single-digit playoff games.
Oddly, even though each only posted a 1-3 record in such games, Favre and McNabb were the only 2 of the 6 to have a higher quarterback rating in single-digit games than in overall playoff games.
CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES & SUPER BOWLS SINCE 1999
It is here where Brady and Warner shine while Favre and McNabb fall far behind the others. By a lot, Favre and McNabb have the worst quarterback ratings of the bunch and Brady and Warner have the best. Only Warner and Brady managed to have more touchdown passes than interceptions in half of these games. No one else did it more than a third of the time. While Warner and Brady averaged 1 interception per game or less, Favre and McNabb were both at or near 2. That helps to explain why those Warner and Brady have a combined 11-4 record (1 game against each other) while the other two are 1-7 (no games played against each other). Manning and Roethlisberger also sport winning records in Championship Games and Super Bowls.
The most interesting statistic here is that Warner’s team averaged only 22.5 points in these games, yet still won 4 out of 6.
PLAYOFF LOSSES SINCE 1999
The first thing that struck me when looking at this data is that Roethlisberger’s Steelers have a higher scoring average in their losses than they do in their wins. Despite that, Roethlisberger throws 2.67 interceptions in each loss. Warner, amazingly, still has a respectable 88.47 quarterback rating in his losses.
Manning’s numbers are the most fascinating here, though. In his 10 playoff losses, he’s only thrown 9 touchdown passes. In 5 of those losses, however, he managed to throw more touchdown passes than interceptions. At 14.2 points per game, Manning has the worst scoring offense of those examined. Accordingly, they’ve only scored 20 points once in those losses.
PLAYOFF WINS SINCE 1999
When Brett Favre is good, he’s really good. In his 4 playoff wins, he posted a group best 123.25 quarterback rating. This is the only category in which Warner, who was second best with 109.96, did not have the best rating of the group. In those wins, Favre’s teams averaged 33.5 points per game and the quarterback had 10 TDs against only 1 INT and, naturally, had more touchdowns than interceptions in each game.
Peyton? In his 9 wins, he has 20 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. But I considered that he only threw for more touchdowns than interceptions in 5 of those 9 wins and looked deeper. If you eliminate the 2 games against Mike Shanahan’s defenseless Broncos, Manning has only 11 touchdowns and 8 interceptions in 7 wins. Those numbers are very un-Peyton like. In addition, he is the only quarterback of the 6 to average 1 interception per game.
PLAYOFF GAMES TIED AFTER 3 QUARTERS SINCE 1999
I wanted to take a look at how these guys performed in close, tense playoff games. Looking at games with a final margin of single digits can be misleading—sometimes teams score late and make a game appear closer than it really was. So I took a look at games that were within 1 score at the end of the 3rd quarter. In addition to noting who won and lost these games, I captured how many points the team scored, how many times they went ahead, fell behind, and either came back or had the other team come back against them.
As you’d expect, there weren’t too many games tied after 3 quarters. What is interesting is that McNabb’s Eagles lost their 1 tied game while Brady and Roethlisberger’s teams won all of theirs. Favre had 1 tie game; it went to overtime. It is worth nothing that Favre’s team fell behind in that 4th quarter and had to score a touchdown in order to send that game into overtime.
PLAYOFF GAMES WITH 1-POSSESSION LEAD AFTER 3 QUARTERS SINCE 1999
In looking at games that our quarterbacks’ teams led by 8 or less after 3, I saw that most of these guys were frontrunners. Brady, McNabb, Warner, and Roethlisberger all averaged scoring a touchdown or more in these 4th quarters. While averaging only 5.67 points in his 3 games, Warner fell behind twice and managed to come back to win both games. His record is 3-0.
Only Brady and Manning lost games in regulation. In fact, Brady’s team fell behind 3 times. The Pats won 1 of them. Manning’s case is the most interesting. Out of 8 games, the Colts only won 4. Hmm.
PLAYOFF GAMES WITH 1-POSSESSION DEFECIT AFTER 3 QUARTERS SINCE 1999
In the opposite type games, again we find that only Brady and Manning have won in regulation. Each of the others brought one of these games into overtime. Manning and McNabb have both given their teams the lead only to wind up losing in the end. Each of these guys outside of Warner, who was never in the situation, averaged more than a touchdown per game.
OVERTIME PLAYOFF GAMES SINCE 1999
I knew this going in, but I am amazed that every single one of Brett Favre’s playoff games since 1999 that has ended with a single-digit margin has gone into overtime. It says a lot that, while his team is 1-3 in those overtime games, a Favre interception has played a role in every single one of those losses (overtime interceptions against the Eagles and Giants as well as the interception that sent the Saints loss to overtime). It is absolutely hilarious that the only single-digit victory Favre has was via a defensive score. Similarly, McNabb’s only close playoff victory was an overtime victory that was assisted by a Favre interception in overtime.
Peyton Manning cannot at all be blamed for his 0-2 overtime record. One loss was to San Diego; Indianapolis never saw the ball in overtime. In 2000, the Colts lost in overtime in Miami. Manning drove the offense to what should have been the winning score, but Mike Vanderjagt missed a field goal.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Archrivals
Archrivals
I don’t know it he deserves full credit for it, but Bill Simmons is largely responsible for this ridiculous notion that LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were archrivals prior to their becoming teammates. In his most recent column, he wrote of Wade, “we’ll remember him forever as an evil genius who somehow convinced his biggest archrival to move to HIS city, play for HIS team, and become HIS sidekick.” Last November, it was, “Don’t forget that Wade convinced his biggest rival—a two-time MVP, the best player alive—to turn his back on his hometown and play for Dwyane Wade’s Miami Heat.” Even before The Decision, there was this passage: “Any super-competitive person would rather beat Dwyane Wade than play with him. Don’t you want to find the Ali to your Frazier and have that rival pull the greatness out of you?” Simmons is firmly entrenched in the Wade and James are rivals camp. And others in the media and American public have bought in. I’m on the outside wondering where this idea came from.
The concept of Wade and LeBron as rivals baffles me. Before becoming teammates this past offseason, each of them had spent 7 years in the league. Sure, they were from the same draft class, but Wade was a virtual afterthought at the top of the draft. LeBron & Carmelo—that was the rivalry (and I do find it ironic that LeBron and Wade now play with 3rd wheel Chris Bosh since you could say Wade was the Chris Bosh of the 2003 draft, the 3rd best wing player available, the one who wasn’t supposed to be quite as good as the other, more desired two).
There is nothing in Wade & LeBron’s past to suggest that a rivalry between them is anything other than a media creation. Despite playing in the same conference, not once did they ever face each other in the playoffs. Only once prior to this year did both make it out of the first round during the same postseason, and that was 2006, the first year LeBron took the Cavs into the playoffs. Cleveland and Miami were never contenders in the same seasons. Check it out:
Like I said, media creation, and the public continues to buy it.
I don’t know it he deserves full credit for it, but Bill Simmons is largely responsible for this ridiculous notion that LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were archrivals prior to their becoming teammates. In his most recent column, he wrote of Wade, “we’ll remember him forever as an evil genius who somehow convinced his biggest archrival to move to HIS city, play for HIS team, and become HIS sidekick.” Last November, it was, “Don’t forget that Wade convinced his biggest rival—a two-time MVP, the best player alive—to turn his back on his hometown and play for Dwyane Wade’s Miami Heat.” Even before The Decision, there was this passage: “Any super-competitive person would rather beat Dwyane Wade than play with him. Don’t you want to find the Ali to your Frazier and have that rival pull the greatness out of you?” Simmons is firmly entrenched in the Wade and James are rivals camp. And others in the media and American public have bought in. I’m on the outside wondering where this idea came from.
The concept of Wade and LeBron as rivals baffles me. Before becoming teammates this past offseason, each of them had spent 7 years in the league. Sure, they were from the same draft class, but Wade was a virtual afterthought at the top of the draft. LeBron & Carmelo—that was the rivalry (and I do find it ironic that LeBron and Wade now play with 3rd wheel Chris Bosh since you could say Wade was the Chris Bosh of the 2003 draft, the 3rd best wing player available, the one who wasn’t supposed to be quite as good as the other, more desired two).
There is nothing in Wade & LeBron’s past to suggest that a rivalry between them is anything other than a media creation. Despite playing in the same conference, not once did they ever face each other in the playoffs. Only once prior to this year did both make it out of the first round during the same postseason, and that was 2006, the first year LeBron took the Cavs into the playoffs. Cleveland and Miami were never contenders in the same seasons. Check it out:
- 2004—Miami makes second round, Cleveland no playoffs
- 2005—Miami makes conference finals, Cleveland no playoffs
- 2006—Miami wins championship, Cleveland makes second round
- 2007—Miami out in first round, Cleveland makes Finals
- 2008—Miami no playoffs, Cleveland makes second round
- 2009—Miami out in first round, Cleveland makes conference finals
- 2010—Miami out in first round, Cleveland makes second round
Like I said, media creation, and the public continues to buy it.
Friday, June 10, 2011
With a Little Help from His Friends
I wonder what, if any, connection LeBron James has to his peers. When I say “peer,” I’m not referring to Dwyane Wade or Kobe Bryant or any other NBA superstar. By my count, LeBron only had 3 peers among “active” American athletes: Venus Williams, Serena Williams, and Tiger Woods. Among the not active, but living, I see Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Whether it was a media creation, his own doing, or some combination thereof, LeBron James entered the NBA with an unenviable expectation. For him, anything less than becoming the best player in this history of the game would be viewed by many as a disappointment. Although it was a very different time when he entered the league, Kareem can relate to those expectations. Tiger can, too.
To a somewhat lesser degree, the Williams Sisters entered the professional tennis ranks with a need to be the greatest. While neither was expected to be great, greatness was required of both of them. Media hatred and disdain for their father was high. Both Venus and Serena faced “who do they think they are?” scrutiny. In a way, LeBron’s situation is most similar to their plight, especially Venus’. In 1999, Venus sat in the stands as the less heralded Serena won the family’s first Grand Slam championship. I remember watching her that day and wondering if she would ever recover, if she would ever become a great champion.
In the years that followed Serena’s breakthrough at the US Open, Venus proved that she could. I think it would be very difficult to overstate the amount of mental fortitude and self-confidence it took for Venus to become the world’s #1 player just a little more than a year later.
Venus’ September 1999 is where LeBron finds himself right now. I wonder if they’re friends. I wonder if they talk.
There are only a few who know the weight of the burden on his shoulders. I hope one or some of them are there to share the load.
Whether it was a media creation, his own doing, or some combination thereof, LeBron James entered the NBA with an unenviable expectation. For him, anything less than becoming the best player in this history of the game would be viewed by many as a disappointment. Although it was a very different time when he entered the league, Kareem can relate to those expectations. Tiger can, too.
To a somewhat lesser degree, the Williams Sisters entered the professional tennis ranks with a need to be the greatest. While neither was expected to be great, greatness was required of both of them. Media hatred and disdain for their father was high. Both Venus and Serena faced “who do they think they are?” scrutiny. In a way, LeBron’s situation is most similar to their plight, especially Venus’. In 1999, Venus sat in the stands as the less heralded Serena won the family’s first Grand Slam championship. I remember watching her that day and wondering if she would ever recover, if she would ever become a great champion.
In the years that followed Serena’s breakthrough at the US Open, Venus proved that she could. I think it would be very difficult to overstate the amount of mental fortitude and self-confidence it took for Venus to become the world’s #1 player just a little more than a year later.
Venus’ September 1999 is where LeBron finds himself right now. I wonder if they’re friends. I wonder if they talk.
There are only a few who know the weight of the burden on his shoulders. I hope one or some of them are there to share the load.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
History Remembers
On June 20, 2006, the Heat and Mavericks played Game 6 of the NBA Finals. The Heat led 3 games to 2, and with 10 seconds left in the game, led 95-92. Dwyane Wade was fouled and went to the line for two free throws. Making either of the pair would have given Miami a four-point lead and secured the championship. Wade missed them both. Fortunately for him, Jason Terry missed a three-pointer that could have tied the game. Still, history remembers Dwyane Wade being clutch throughout the 2006 Finals. They do not remember his Game 6 free throws. History will not remember his Game 4 free throws. Because of LeBron James, no one will lump Dwyane Wade in with Nick Anderson and Derrick Rose—and, boy, has history forgotten all about Chris Douglas-Roberts; Rose actually made one his foul shots.
History will remember Game 4 as the defining moment of LeBron James' career. Unless he has a legendary Michael Jordan in Game 6 of the 1998 Finals, there is no way of getting around that now. Where LeBron now stands is a place where it will no longer be enough to just have a monster game. He needs to have an all-time great game AND hit the winning basket in Game 5 or Game 7 (doing it in Game 6 will only make the doubters say that he is just a front-runner and that he would never have been in position for his Game 6 heroics without Wade’s brilliant leadership and clutch play). Otherwise, Game 4 will live forever.
History has a way of remembering things in a way in which they did not actually occur. History remembers Raghib Ismail as the 1990 Heisman winner. History remembers Mike Jones' tackle of Kevin Dyson as a play that kept the Titans from winning the Super Bowl. History remembers Hakeem Olajuwon dominating Shaquille O'Neal in the 1995 Finals. History remembers Kobe as a monster throughout the 2001 playoffs. History remembers Ronald Reagan bringing the hostages home. History remembers the stimulus & bailout as Obama's ideas. History remembers the Tea Party forming after Obama's started implementing his policies. None of these events happened exactly that way. Ty Detmer undeservedly won that Heisman Trophy. A Titan touchdown and extra point would only have tied Super Bowl XXXIV. Olajuwon and O’Neal played very evenly in 1995. Kobe dominated the Spurs, who were missing the player they had acquired specifically to guard him, but was up and down during the other series. Jimmy Carter had negotiated the hostages’ release, but George H. W. Bush held it up to help Reagan win the election. The stimulus & bailout plans began under George W. Bush. The Tea Party protests, while not fully formalized, began before Obama took office.
History has already been unkind to LeBron James.
I wonder…if Wilt Chamberlain was still alive, would he reach out to LeBron today? He knows what it’s like. Chamberlain played on 2 NBA champions, one which had the best record in league history until 1996 and another which, through my childhood, was considered the best single season team ever. Still, he’s viewed as a loser and underachiever. Bill Simmons wrote a 700+ book that seems like nothing more than a literary way of taking potshots at Wilt and Kareem.
I hope LeBron has realized that he will never win in the eyes of the general public. If/When he comes to that realization, life should get a lot easier for him.
History will remember Game 4 as the defining moment of LeBron James' career. Unless he has a legendary Michael Jordan in Game 6 of the 1998 Finals, there is no way of getting around that now. Where LeBron now stands is a place where it will no longer be enough to just have a monster game. He needs to have an all-time great game AND hit the winning basket in Game 5 or Game 7 (doing it in Game 6 will only make the doubters say that he is just a front-runner and that he would never have been in position for his Game 6 heroics without Wade’s brilliant leadership and clutch play). Otherwise, Game 4 will live forever.
History has a way of remembering things in a way in which they did not actually occur. History remembers Raghib Ismail as the 1990 Heisman winner. History remembers Mike Jones' tackle of Kevin Dyson as a play that kept the Titans from winning the Super Bowl. History remembers Hakeem Olajuwon dominating Shaquille O'Neal in the 1995 Finals. History remembers Kobe as a monster throughout the 2001 playoffs. History remembers Ronald Reagan bringing the hostages home. History remembers the stimulus & bailout as Obama's ideas. History remembers the Tea Party forming after Obama's started implementing his policies. None of these events happened exactly that way. Ty Detmer undeservedly won that Heisman Trophy. A Titan touchdown and extra point would only have tied Super Bowl XXXIV. Olajuwon and O’Neal played very evenly in 1995. Kobe dominated the Spurs, who were missing the player they had acquired specifically to guard him, but was up and down during the other series. Jimmy Carter had negotiated the hostages’ release, but George H. W. Bush held it up to help Reagan win the election. The stimulus & bailout plans began under George W. Bush. The Tea Party protests, while not fully formalized, began before Obama took office.
History has already been unkind to LeBron James.
- Before The Decision, people said he and Wade wouldn’t play together because their egos wouldn’t allow them to share the spotlight—history says he went to Miami so he could be a “Robin.”
- When he came out of high school, everyone said his skillset was the closest we’ve seen to Magic Johnson—history says he doesn’t have Michael Jordan’s killer instinct.
- In Game 2, pundits proclaimed that Miami lost because LeBron started playing “hero ball”—history says that he is a lesser player for deferring to the hot hand during the Game 3 victory.
I wonder…if Wilt Chamberlain was still alive, would he reach out to LeBron today? He knows what it’s like. Chamberlain played on 2 NBA champions, one which had the best record in league history until 1996 and another which, through my childhood, was considered the best single season team ever. Still, he’s viewed as a loser and underachiever. Bill Simmons wrote a 700+ book that seems like nothing more than a literary way of taking potshots at Wilt and Kareem.
I hope LeBron has realized that he will never win in the eyes of the general public. If/When he comes to that realization, life should get a lot easier for him.
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