Call it the King James Burden.
You are LeBron James and you have three NBA titles, two Olympic gold medals and four MVP awards. You have earned over $272 million in salary and god knows what in sponsorships.
You screwed over your hometown on national television, then returned to bring it a title in 2016, left again this time with the blessings of the owner and joined the Los Angeles Lakers, a franchise that is among the most storied in any sport and whose brand is far more weighty than its recent success.
Your voice is the most significant of any athlete in any league anywhere in the world. My god, man: we’ve watched you since Grade 10 and that televised blunder ("The Decision") is one of, maybe… what? Two missteps? Three, if you count the way the whole China controversy fell in your lap this year.
We’ve seen you dominate press conferences at the All-Star Game and playoffs and been part of smallish scrums after some otherwise meaningless regular season game in the cold of January. Never has it been an uncomfortable experience. We’ve seen you give respect more times than you’ve demanded it and that is something. It really is.
But this… well, I don’t know if we’ve ever seen this before.
Of course, it’s a minor aspect of the tragic loss of life and potential resulting from that helicopter crash in Calabasas, Calif. Less than minor. Three hundred times less.
But when you tossed away those prepared notes Friday night and spoke before the first Lakers game following the death of Kobe Bryant, it began the process of healing for sports fans, not just members of Lakers Nation.
The families ripped apart by the crash? We can’t fathom what that will take. But for the rest of the NBA… for as long as you are a member of the Lakers it is to you that everybody will look to for context. You were the person from whom we all wanted to hear last week.
“So in the words of Kobe Bryant, ‘Mamba Out,’ but in the words of us, ‘Not forgotten.’ Live on, brother.”@KingJames delivers a heartfelt speech about his friend Kobe Bryant during the Lakers' pre-game ceremony.
(: @Lakers)pic.twitter.com/VIXjq0PBoZ
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 1, 2020
You joined the L.A. Lakers because, you said at the time "this is kind of like a dream come true."
You said that "growing up, I was a Cowboys fan, a Bulls fan, a Yankees fan, and I’ve always felt like that was one of the historic franchises… and you look at the Lakers, being able to play for a historic franchise with so much history and being able to partner with Magic Johnson, someone I looked up to when I was younger." You told us you wanted to "make no-look passes like Magic… wanted to get on the break and be Showtime like Magic. And for it all to come to fruition at this point, I think timing is everything."
Magic stepped down as Lakers president last April though, and while he’s still one of the faces of the Lakers, he has no official capacity.
Strange organization, the Lakers are.
As Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times told us on Writers Bloc last week, the Lakers are by some measures a mom and pop operation compared to other NBA teams. They are majority owned by the Buss Family Trust, with the late Jerry Buss’s daughter Jeannie running the show and at least four other family members on the masthead. The Busses do basketball. They do Lakers. So ties to Bryant run deep.
People love to refer to their business as being a family but this one really is. "And," Woike said, "it’s an organization paralyzed by grief."
Families are like that, aren’t they? And here you are: Two years a Laker and you’re the father/big brother of the whole thing.
We all spoke about Bryant’s Second or Third Act. My guess is we’re about to witness a new act for you, whether it’s your third or fourth. You won two titles with the Miami Heat. But I’ve always thought of you as a Cleveland Cavalier and that you were a Laker in the same way you were a member of the Heat: just chasing another ring, to live up to the impossibly high standards set for you.
Now… I don’t know. You’re, I guess, the universal basketball player and that’s a chapter in your legacy that nobody could possibly foreshadow. This is your burden. The King James Burden. When all this is done, it might be your likeness that the NBA uses on its logo.
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QUIBBLES AND BITS
• The Astros made the right call in bringing Dusty Baker in as manager. Anybody who not only kept his soul intact but actually saw his reputation go up despite putting up with the day to day drama of Barry Bonds and the steroid circus can probably handle the year-long crisis that lies ahead. Baker drives the analytics folks nuts and gives those who worry about pitchers health sleepless nights but he’s got a spiritual quality, a whole Tao of Dusty thing, that commands respect. Managing the Astros will be an uncommon job in 2020, and in hiring Baker for at least a year they’ve brought in a one of a kind manager.
• Kudos to Tom Brady and Hulu for teasing their Super Bowl ad earlier this week with a cryptic tweet of Brady either walking away from or walking into a stadium. I know a sports world trying to come to grips with the death of Kobe Bryant was pining for something else and was in desperate need for one of its highest-profile figures to put out what was an advertisement for an advertisement.
I get the whole planet won’t stop for the tragic helicopter accident involving nine people — there’s still money to be made and products to be sold. People die and we still need our widgets but, I don’t know. That’s some kind of tin ear Brady has working for him.
Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise, though. This is the same guy who tried to copyright the Tom Terrific nickname at the same time as it was announced that Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver – who has always been associated with the nickname – was diagnosed with dementia.
The U.S. copyright office turned down Brady’s request and he later apologized but it’s a reminder of the sadly insular nature of Brady’s world and that of the NFL.
• Liverpool’s 22-point lead atop the Premier League is the biggest of all-time at any point in any season or, as Duncan Alexander of OptaJoe puts it: for comparison’s sake, it’s four points more than the points gap from first to last (18th) place in 1996-97. Remarkable.
• I’m with the Oilers on the stick flip of Flames goaltender David Rittich: not only was it a lame toss, with zero artistic points… it was disrespectful. In fact, I would argue that it was more disrespectful than Jose Bautista’s bat flip, to which it somehow drew comparison.
I mean, really: you won a shootout in January and were saved by the goalpost a couple of times. Yeah, yeah… it’s the Oilers and the Battle of Alberta and all that stuff and the media’s trying to gin it up again. But that wasn’t a playoff game — as the Bautista bat flip game was. And let’s just say the emotional tenor of the Blue Jays game against the Rangers was a little more energized.
The idea is to act like you’ve been there before and Bautista had never hit a dramatic or more meaningful homer than one. He literally hadn’t been there before.
• Friend Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com penned an article this weekend looking ahead to the four teams that should be the most improved this season and, yes, the Blue Jays are one of them along with the White Sox, Angels and Padres. This is, of course, all about projected WAR and the Blue Jays are given a difference of plus-12, which would take them to 79 wins.
Interesting note: the projected WAR out of the catching tandem of Danny Jansen and Reese McGuire is third among all Major League teams.
• Finally, three Super Bowl thoughts:
According to Pro Football Focus, Patrick Mahomes was 5-for-5 for 72 yards targeting Richard Sherman in coverage, hitting Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins and Travis Kelce.
Andy Reid seems like a nice man and I’m happy for him.
And, finally, America … your president! Hey, I get that he couldn’t find Afghanistan on a map but, jeezus.
“Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs on a great game, and a fantastic comeback, under immense pressure. You represented the Great State of Kansas and, in fact, the entire USA, so very well. Our Country is PROUD OF YOU!”
THE ENDGAME
The television specials are all going to be about the NHL Trade Deadline but, man I’m way more interested in Thursday’s NBA Trade Deadline, especially given where the Toronto Raptors find themselves after their 11th consecutive win on Sunday.
I’m honestly at the point with the Maple Leafs where I’m OK with general manager Kyle Dubas going in any direction: standing pat, doing something to get cap relief, adding a long-term piece or going all in on 2019-2020. Let’s see what happens Monday night against the Florida Panthers, the first of six remaining games against Florida-based teams that will determine the season for the Leafs.
Five of those games come after the trade deadline – in fact, the first two after Feb. 24 are on the road against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Panthers. One game is less than a small sample size, but the Leafs need to do what the Raptors have done: force their GM’s hand.
At this stage of the NBA season, it has to be said that there is every reason to believe the Raptors are good enough to win the East. While there may be matchup issues against teams like the Miami Heat or, maybe, the Indiana Pacers and the loss of Kawhi Leonard means the Raptors can no longer go up against the Milwaukee Bucks thinking they have the best player on the court, there is no reason to fear any matchup.
There is no ‘white whale.’ Not anymore.
I’m expecting Bobby Webster and Masai Ujiri to in the very least make an acquisition that gives them an edge in a particular playoff matchup. Remember, one of the reasons they traded for Marc Gasol last season was his demonstrated ability throughout his career to take Joel Embiid out of games.
Jeff Blair hosts Writers Bloc with Stephen Brunt and Richard Deitsch from 2-5 p.m. ET on Sportsnet 590 The Fan. He has never been punished for "internal accountability."
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