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Wednesday, July 21, 2010
WSJ: LeBron the new normal - Mike 'The Man' passé
Jason Gay for the Wall Street Journal:
July 21, 2010
Why LeBron Chose To Be Unlike Mike
Michael Jordan had The Look. Then there was The Shot. Now there's The Dis.
Haven't you heard? His Airness is dismayed by LeBron James's contentious decision to take his talons—wait, did he say talons, or talents?—to South Beach. The man who bequeathed the planet "Space Jam" considers cohabitating with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to be tacky, unbecoming, nouveau, un-Mike-like.
"There's no way, with hindsight, I would have ever called up Larry, called up Magic, and said, 'Hey, look, let's get together and play on one team,' " Mr. Jordan said the other day. "In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys."
Now Mr. Jordan's packaging talents aren't exactly impeccable. He would shun Larry and Magic—but he was more than happy to meander around in slate blue with Christian Laettner and Jahidi White on the Washington Wizards? Who could forget that Melancholy Mystery Tour?
And, sure, it's easy to cast Mr. Jordan as a Cranky Old Man. We all know the six-time NBA champion can be petty. Did you catch his Hall of Fame induction speech last year? Entertaining, but about as classy as Sarah Silverman at a Comedy Central Roast. We'd never seen anyone shoot venom from 30 feet. Surely there is part of Mr. Jordan that looked upon Mr. James in his #23 Cavaliers jersey and thought, "I'd like to warp those ankles like Craig Ehlo's."
But Mr. Jordan's slap did help magnify a curious point in the whole, overbaked LeBron dramedy: the diminishing desire of King James to be an actual King.
