Tri Lakes Tribune > Sports
To Boldrey go...
Let's stop jumping the gun please
By Ryan Boldrey
As summer guides us all away from the collegiate and high school playing fields and turns more attention to the professional sports I can’t help but be somewhat bothered by the over-eagerness to crown the next great ones in two of our beloved sports.
The Kobe Bryant-LeBron James debate, albeit fun, and yes I am a big fan of the Nike puppets, is an absolute no-brainer and a waste of time.
One, Kobe now has four NBA titles. Two, LeBron has zero. Yes Kobe has had a better supporting cast for all four titles than LeBron has ever had. But can we stop now?
I know, I know. LeBron has only been in the league for six years, and he is only 24 years old, and yes, it took Michael Jordan six complete seasons in the league before he won his first title and went on to help lead the Bulls to a pair of three-peats in the ‘90s.
But one thing I recall about those great Jordan years is, even though a lot of people considered him to be arguably the greatest individual basketball player on the planet and the most entertaining to watch, the comparisons with Magic and Bird, and even Isiah Thomas — who had led the Pistons to back-to-back championships and three straight finals before Jordan’s Bulls finally went through them and got their first ring — was that Jordan was not compared to any of them as an all-around great until he got his second and third rings.
That is called paying your dues, something a lot of people in the sports world seem to have forgotten about.
Speculation and anticipation of accomplishments seem to have become both bigger than the game and the journey to the Promised Land itself.
Perhaps that has something to do with having networks completely devoted to all four major sports, and the ESPN network providing so much non-stop talk that it has led to debates about things so far off in the future we have forgotten where we stand currently.
Take hockey. The Pittsburgh Penguins just won their first title in 17 years, and despite Sidney Crosby, the poster child for the league and youngest captain ever to reach the mountain top being held to one goal and two assists in a seven-game victory over Detroit, he and his Penguins are being talked about in the same breath as the Canadiens of the late ‘60s and ‘70s that won 10 out of 15 years and the ‘80s Oilers that won five in seven, two of the best dynasties in recent NHL history.
Detroit, on the other hand, in the last 14 seasons has been to six finals and won four times, more than anyone else in that stretch, but they are being viewed as old even though they have an amazing amount of youth in the stable and have proven to be the only team to continuously remain in contention in every year of the salary cap era.
From the second Crosby came into the league, however, he was anointed as the next Wayne Gretzky, sort of like Eric Lindross was before. Remember him?
Looking at Gretzky’s stats in his first cup win, Crosby’s aren’t even close. Gretzky scored two goals in the final game alone, giving him one more than Crosby’s total for an entire seven-game series, not to mention 100 goals between the season and the playoffs combined to go with his 140 assists. Crosby’s combined stats? 48 goals and 86 assists.
Crosby’s best regular season in his first four years has been 120 points. Gretzky’s worst was 137. His best was 212.
I admit the Kid is a great player, but he is arguably not even the best player on his own team. Evengi Malkin, who won the Conn Smythe Award and became just the fifth player to lead the NHL in points during the regular season and the playoffs in the same season (Gretzky did that five times), in my opinion, is a better all-around player at this time.
But even though Malkin won the Conn Smythe and was not shut down completely by last year’s playoff MVP Henrik Zetterberg for the second straight year, as was Crosby, it was the Kid who was flanked by every reporter on the ice after winning.
All hail the next great one, the one with one goal in seven games that hasn’t even touched Gretzky’s worst season in his first four years.
Now can we please stop crowning our future kings and great ones, until they have at least done something?
Kobe, with one ring less than former Lakers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, can now rightfully be talked about with recent Laker greats.
Give him one more and he’ll be right there with them. Then we can talk about him and Mike as he goes for number six.
But for Crosby and James, please, let’s slow down the music. We’ve got a lot of dancing left before it’s time to talk.
The Kobe Bryant-LeBron James debate, albeit fun, and yes I am a big fan of the Nike puppets, is an absolute no-brainer and a waste of time.
One, Kobe now has four NBA titles. Two, LeBron has zero. Yes Kobe has had a better supporting cast for all four titles than LeBron has ever had. But can we stop now?
I know, I know. LeBron has only been in the league for six years, and he is only 24 years old, and yes, it took Michael Jordan six complete seasons in the league before he won his first title and went on to help lead the Bulls to a pair of three-peats in the ‘90s.
But one thing I recall about those great Jordan years is, even though a lot of people considered him to be arguably the greatest individual basketball player on the planet and the most entertaining to watch, the comparisons with Magic and Bird, and even Isiah Thomas — who had led the Pistons to back-to-back championships and three straight finals before Jordan’s Bulls finally went through them and got their first ring — was that Jordan was not compared to any of them as an all-around great until he got his second and third rings.
That is called paying your dues, something a lot of people in the sports world seem to have forgotten about.
Speculation and anticipation of accomplishments seem to have become both bigger than the game and the journey to the Promised Land itself.
Perhaps that has something to do with having networks completely devoted to all four major sports, and the ESPN network providing so much non-stop talk that it has led to debates about things so far off in the future we have forgotten where we stand currently.
Take hockey. The Pittsburgh Penguins just won their first title in 17 years, and despite Sidney Crosby, the poster child for the league and youngest captain ever to reach the mountain top being held to one goal and two assists in a seven-game victory over Detroit, he and his Penguins are being talked about in the same breath as the Canadiens of the late ‘60s and ‘70s that won 10 out of 15 years and the ‘80s Oilers that won five in seven, two of the best dynasties in recent NHL history.
Detroit, on the other hand, in the last 14 seasons has been to six finals and won four times, more than anyone else in that stretch, but they are being viewed as old even though they have an amazing amount of youth in the stable and have proven to be the only team to continuously remain in contention in every year of the salary cap era.
From the second Crosby came into the league, however, he was anointed as the next Wayne Gretzky, sort of like Eric Lindross was before. Remember him?
Looking at Gretzky’s stats in his first cup win, Crosby’s aren’t even close. Gretzky scored two goals in the final game alone, giving him one more than Crosby’s total for an entire seven-game series, not to mention 100 goals between the season and the playoffs combined to go with his 140 assists. Crosby’s combined stats? 48 goals and 86 assists.
Crosby’s best regular season in his first four years has been 120 points. Gretzky’s worst was 137. His best was 212.
I admit the Kid is a great player, but he is arguably not even the best player on his own team. Evengi Malkin, who won the Conn Smythe Award and became just the fifth player to lead the NHL in points during the regular season and the playoffs in the same season (Gretzky did that five times), in my opinion, is a better all-around player at this time.
But even though Malkin won the Conn Smythe and was not shut down completely by last year’s playoff MVP Henrik Zetterberg for the second straight year, as was Crosby, it was the Kid who was flanked by every reporter on the ice after winning.
All hail the next great one, the one with one goal in seven games that hasn’t even touched Gretzky’s worst season in his first four years.
Now can we please stop crowning our future kings and great ones, until they have at least done something?
Kobe, with one ring less than former Lakers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, can now rightfully be talked about with recent Laker greats.
Give him one more and he’ll be right there with them. Then we can talk about him and Mike as he goes for number six.
But for Crosby and James, please, let’s slow down the music. We’ve got a lot of dancing left before it’s time to talk.
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