So the spaceship lands on Earth, an extraterrestrial waddles out, there’s a big hubbub, turns out he’s a peaceful alien, folks get giddy and teach him our language, mannerisms and culture.
“I don’t get it,” the alien says one day. “In this professional basketball thing of yours, the goal is to contend for a championship, right? There are currently four teams that have achieved success and are on the cusp of a championship. So why is everyone making a bigger deal about a man who has the potential to do this, as opposed to the people who are currently doing it?”
Explaining ourselves is pretty difficult. The LeBron James free-agency sweepstakes is the talk of the sports world. And over in baseball, arguably the biggest story is Stephen Strasburg, a Triple-A pitcher who could possibly be great — perhaps as great as the current pitching stars we take for granted, because we’re so caught up in what-ifs about some dude who hasn’t even been in the bigs.
In America these days, hype and potential is bigger than living up to the hype or reaching potential.
Now, LeBron has proved he’s pretty good at basketball. He once led some YMCA team to the NBA Finals and he has two MVPs (in just seven seasons). And whatever team he signs with should change the landscape of the NBA. And, yeah, Strasburg throws like 173 mph.
But with LeBron, it’s as if people think he’ll automatically be a champion with his new team. Let’s say he goes to Chicago and has a great supporting cast (like he had in Cleveland) and they bring in a great coach (Mike Brown, Cleveland’s coach, is well-respected in the coaching community). Who’s to say LeBron won’t blow it like he did with the Cavs?
Instead of embracing achievements, we instead get caught up in the endless possibilities of someone’s potential achievements. The Celtics, who were .500 after Christmas, ascended in the postseason and defeated Le- Bron’s Cavaliers, the No. 1 team in the Eastern Conference. But from television to Twitter, fan blogs to Facebook, the majority of the talk was James’ free agency, not Boston heading to the conference finals.
To get a fan’s perspective on this, I Google-chatted with my buddy Charlie Anderson, asking him about the Celtics and the Lakers.
Charlie: Nobody wants to see a movie they’ve already seen before.
Me: Whudya mean?
Charlie: That’s we don’t care about the Celts. . . . And we’ve also seen the Lakers.
Me: So, what if LeBron and the Knicks win the title in 2011. In 2012, will we be saying, “Nobody wants to see a movie they’ve already seen before?”
Charlie: Did you know anyone who hated M.J. and the Bulls? LeBron has that M.J. quality. So we’re all curious what team we’ll be rooting for.
Nuggets wait-and-see.
One of the most valuable assets on the Nuggets is assistant coach Tim Grgurich, the longtime NBA assistant coach and George Karl confidant.
Asked if “Grg” was coming back next season, Karl said: “I haven’t talked to Grg about that. At the end of every year, he evaluates. I don’t see him not in Denver.”
Footnotes.
Nuggets shot-swatter Chris Andersen loves interacting with young basketball players, and he’s hosting the Birdman Basketball Camp for boys and girls, ages 5-18, from June 21-24 at the Regency. Space is still available. Sign up at or call 303-882-2819. . . . Besides Rajon Rondo’s mom, I think Nuggets exec Rex Chapman was the only person who picked Boston to win that series against Cleveland. . . . Well, jokes on you, Zydrunas Ilgauskas. If you had signed with Denver, you could have played big minutes for the injury-plagued Nuggets, who desperately could have used you against Utah. Instead, you sneakily went home to Cleveland, tried to get a ring, and you played sparingly (9.9 minutes per playoff game). . . . Look for Carmelo Anthony tonight on NBC. He’s judging the Miss USA pageant, starting at 5 p.m.
