duncan228
01-19-2010, 04:30 PM
Why LeBron Doesn’t Need the Dunk Contest (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=tsn-whylebrondoesntneedt&prov=tsn&type=lgns)
SportingNews
When the dunk contest participants were announced Monday, we couldn’t help but feel a void. Last All-Star weekend, LeBron James promised us he’d be there (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5FU1ieHIT4), jumping and dunking and giving us the most memorable contest moments since Vince Carter’s performance in 2000. Since that moment, his participation had seemed more unlikely with each passing day, but we still had hope. And then it was gone as fast as that speed artist could draw vaguely disturbing portraits of Shannon Brown, Nate Robinson, and Gerald Wallace.
I feel your pain. LeBron is an athlete unlike any we’ve ever seen, and if his in-game dunks are any indication, he would have shown us something magical. There was his McDonald’s All-America dunk contest win (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6GQ47iiYQA&feature=related%20%3Chttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6GQ47iiYQA&feature=related%3E), plus dude once went through his legs in a high-school game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bqiOaYCfpY&feature=related%20%3Chttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bqiOaYCfpY&feature=related%3E). Maybe he’d dunk two balls through his legs at the same time, or do a flip. And we haven’t even considered the props yet. As with most things LeBron-related, we want him in the dunk contest because his performance threatened to expand the limits of our imagination. Whenever he takes the court, even in a goofy exhibition, we’re liable to see something we’ve never seen before.
There has been another type of outcry for his absence in the dunk contest. There’s an odd sense that, as the primetime superstar in the world, LeBron must compete in the contest as a rite of passage, to prove to us that he is worthy of our adoration—even though LeBron has never been about matching the accomplishments of icons that have come before him.
Let’s take a step back in time and remember Michael Jordan. His Airness famously competed in three dunk contests, the most famous of which was his 1988 showdown with Dominique Wilkins. Since then, all varieties of New Jordans have entered, including Kobe Bryant (the 1997 champion) and Vince Carter (the 2000 champion). For both players, winning the dunk contest thrust them into the national spotlight. Kobe became more than just a preps-to-pros headline-grabber, and VC turned into a legitimate superstar, someone who briefly seemed like he could take up the mantle of MJ.
In retrospect, these were silly conclusions to draw; Kobe proved that he was a true student of the game and not just a leaper, and Carter revealed himself to be a false idol more in line with any number of athletic, high-scoring shooting guards. But the fact remains that the dunk contest conferred legitimacy on their careers, even if not for the best reasons, and made them household names. That doesn’t happen for every player, of course—name me one kid with a Desmond Mason lunchbox—but for a certain kind of uber-talented youngster, the dunk contest can start you on the path to greatness.
That’s really only the case because Michael Jordan was once involved in it. In the post-Jordan era, with the league and fans desperately searching for a new savior, any shred of Jordan mimicry became a sign of forthcoming greatness. The dunk contest was just one of many possible ways to prove one’s self, but for a group of fans that grew up with posters of the free-throw line dunk on their walls, it was one of the most potent.
LeBron, though, has bypassed the typical paths to becoming an icon, even if we’ve occasionally tried to force him into the established model. His victory over Detroit in 2007 became like Jordan’s in 1991, his playoff explosion in that same Detroit series gets compared to Jordan’s scoring outburst against Boston in 1986. At every turn, there’s an attempt to make LBJ like the greats of yesteryear, to compare him to that which has come before. But a strong relationship to history has always been Kobe’s M.O., whereas LeBron charts a new course.
We all know that LeBron is a unique basketball player: his combination of size, strength, speed, and skill is something we’ve never seen before. But the public perception of LeBron is unprecedented, as well. In contrast to most stars, LeBron rarely receives criticism for his team’s failings, instead getting blamed for matters inconsequential to winning like not shaking hands after a loss. Attempts to criticize him have often felt unfair, such as when he was given hell for passing to open teammates in the closing seconds of games, exactly the kind of thing fans have been asking of supposedly greedy superstars for years. Through it all, LeBron appears above the fray, well on his way to unheard-of stardom even as he hasn’t won a championship. He is so great that his reputation has become untouchable.
The last player to recast our conception of what a superstar can be was, well, Michael Jordan. And as we’ve hopefully learned after years of failure and disappointment with any number of would-be kings, the Next Jordan will be like Michael less in their basketball similarities than in his ability to reshape what it means to be the best player on Earth.
So complain about LeBron’s dunk contest absence if you like, but only because we’re being deprived of a spectacle. For all we know, after LeBron retires, maybe we’ll want all pretenders to the throne to sit out the dunk contest. After all, LeBron didn’t need it, so why should they?
SportingNews
When the dunk contest participants were announced Monday, we couldn’t help but feel a void. Last All-Star weekend, LeBron James promised us he’d be there (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5FU1ieHIT4), jumping and dunking and giving us the most memorable contest moments since Vince Carter’s performance in 2000. Since that moment, his participation had seemed more unlikely with each passing day, but we still had hope. And then it was gone as fast as that speed artist could draw vaguely disturbing portraits of Shannon Brown, Nate Robinson, and Gerald Wallace.
I feel your pain. LeBron is an athlete unlike any we’ve ever seen, and if his in-game dunks are any indication, he would have shown us something magical. There was his McDonald’s All-America dunk contest win (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6GQ47iiYQA&feature=related%20%3Chttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6GQ47iiYQA&feature=related%3E), plus dude once went through his legs in a high-school game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bqiOaYCfpY&feature=related%20%3Chttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bqiOaYCfpY&feature=related%3E). Maybe he’d dunk two balls through his legs at the same time, or do a flip. And we haven’t even considered the props yet. As with most things LeBron-related, we want him in the dunk contest because his performance threatened to expand the limits of our imagination. Whenever he takes the court, even in a goofy exhibition, we’re liable to see something we’ve never seen before.
There has been another type of outcry for his absence in the dunk contest. There’s an odd sense that, as the primetime superstar in the world, LeBron must compete in the contest as a rite of passage, to prove to us that he is worthy of our adoration—even though LeBron has never been about matching the accomplishments of icons that have come before him.
Let’s take a step back in time and remember Michael Jordan. His Airness famously competed in three dunk contests, the most famous of which was his 1988 showdown with Dominique Wilkins. Since then, all varieties of New Jordans have entered, including Kobe Bryant (the 1997 champion) and Vince Carter (the 2000 champion). For both players, winning the dunk contest thrust them into the national spotlight. Kobe became more than just a preps-to-pros headline-grabber, and VC turned into a legitimate superstar, someone who briefly seemed like he could take up the mantle of MJ.
In retrospect, these were silly conclusions to draw; Kobe proved that he was a true student of the game and not just a leaper, and Carter revealed himself to be a false idol more in line with any number of athletic, high-scoring shooting guards. But the fact remains that the dunk contest conferred legitimacy on their careers, even if not for the best reasons, and made them household names. That doesn’t happen for every player, of course—name me one kid with a Desmond Mason lunchbox—but for a certain kind of uber-talented youngster, the dunk contest can start you on the path to greatness.
That’s really only the case because Michael Jordan was once involved in it. In the post-Jordan era, with the league and fans desperately searching for a new savior, any shred of Jordan mimicry became a sign of forthcoming greatness. The dunk contest was just one of many possible ways to prove one’s self, but for a group of fans that grew up with posters of the free-throw line dunk on their walls, it was one of the most potent.
LeBron, though, has bypassed the typical paths to becoming an icon, even if we’ve occasionally tried to force him into the established model. His victory over Detroit in 2007 became like Jordan’s in 1991, his playoff explosion in that same Detroit series gets compared to Jordan’s scoring outburst against Boston in 1986. At every turn, there’s an attempt to make LBJ like the greats of yesteryear, to compare him to that which has come before. But a strong relationship to history has always been Kobe’s M.O., whereas LeBron charts a new course.
We all know that LeBron is a unique basketball player: his combination of size, strength, speed, and skill is something we’ve never seen before. But the public perception of LeBron is unprecedented, as well. In contrast to most stars, LeBron rarely receives criticism for his team’s failings, instead getting blamed for matters inconsequential to winning like not shaking hands after a loss. Attempts to criticize him have often felt unfair, such as when he was given hell for passing to open teammates in the closing seconds of games, exactly the kind of thing fans have been asking of supposedly greedy superstars for years. Through it all, LeBron appears above the fray, well on his way to unheard-of stardom even as he hasn’t won a championship. He is so great that his reputation has become untouchable.
The last player to recast our conception of what a superstar can be was, well, Michael Jordan. And as we’ve hopefully learned after years of failure and disappointment with any number of would-be kings, the Next Jordan will be like Michael less in their basketball similarities than in his ability to reshape what it means to be the best player on Earth.
So complain about LeBron’s dunk contest absence if you like, but only because we’re being deprived of a spectacle. For all we know, after LeBron retires, maybe we’ll want all pretenders to the throne to sit out the dunk contest. After all, LeBron didn’t need it, so why should they?