I need to preface this idea by first pointing out that it is all hypothetical assumption from the perspective of a fan. In no way is this an attempt to disparage any player or personality within the National Basketball Association. These are men that play the game draw my interest because they have been blessed with talents that I, myself, could never imagine having.
With that said, Dwight Howard needs to leave Los Angeles. To paraphrase Kobe Bryant in an article published on Yahoo Sports by Adrien Wojnaworski, this isn’t working. Obviously.
Be faithful encouraged reader, I will tell you why, but first let me give you the scene through my fanatic perspective. As I grew into my adulthood I grew out of love with the NBA. Things like this happen, I know, but what I remember loving most about the game when I was a child was the personalities that played the game.
When I first fell in love with the NBA it feels as if the environment was completely different from what it is now. Things like this are cyclical, I know. What made it so different for me, as a young fan, was that I knew I was watching a legend in Michael Jordan. There was no other player like him in the league when I watched. Sure, there were talented players. I consider the time when I first started watching to the golden age of my viewing era. I will never be that same fan I was as a kid. The league and I have changed. As an adult with life and responsibilities it’s hard to follow it as I once did.
Nostalgia is like that sometimes, I know. This could be true, but the level of talent as different as it may be from the game we see today, was one that kept me interested. And the personalities. At the time the NBA felt like an expanding pond. (I’m from Kentucky, a pond is a small body of water where different aquatic based life forms gather and live their merry wet lives.)
It’s like a small ocean.
Jordan was the shark.
Moving on.
Jordan was not alone in the league by any means, but no other single player was at his level. It always felt to me that no one of that era had the mindset of Jordan either. I would say Barkley was close, but where he had the ambitious drive that Jordan did, he was able to accept that Jordan had more physical capabilities than he had. Jordan was the best of my day because he was physically the most gifted and wanted it more than any other player in the league.
Today’s NBA is different. This is not a bad thing. It’s just different.
The NBA has expanded to be a global presence. That pond I spoke so randomly of has indeed become an ocean. Given there has grown so much room for depth of talent, and the pure player as I viewed Jordan was, is not found in a single creature. It’s hard to believe at times.
Kobe Bryant is the closest thing to the best in the business because he has Jordan’s mindset. On the other hand Lebron James could be considered the closest thing to the best in the business because he is the most physically gifted. Just as Jordan was.
Like now, when I loved the NBA as a child, the stars are aging. When Scotty Pippen stopped playing I slowly stopped watching. When Lebron James was drafted I slowly came back. I think when Lebron retires I will do the same. Cyclical, remember? The rookies that I remember when I began to lose interest in the late 90s and mid 2000s are now the aging veterans in the league. These are Bryant, Garnett, Allen, Nash and to lesser extents Dirk and Wade also. Veterans dictate the future of the game by what they pass on to the youth.
At my old age of 26 I am not drawn to the game of basketball as I was when I was younger. With the ever expansion of the NBA and the increases in production values I am more drawn to the personalities of the stars of the league first, then the gameplay. Dwight Howard, to me, would be the equivalent of Shaquille ‘O Neal as a personality that I would relate to me watching basketball as a child. Just watching him play the big man position so much better and unmatched by anyone in the league is impressive. It takes me back to when there were many great centers in the league.
Howard is the best big man in the game today and is playing with one of the leagues greatest competitive personalities that I have ever seen, aside from Jordan. Howard needs to leave LA because it just isn’t working. Their personalities do not match. Their desires are different.
Howard is a fun loving likeable guy with talent and charisma. He has a great deal of potential to do many things in the league and with his future careers. Howard is a guy that wants to have fun. You don’t go to LA to have fun. When you play with Bryant you are playing to be the best and you are playing to win.
Enter Lebron James. I look at Lebron as the kid in the middle of all of these strong personalities and think he is the sheltered child of the league. He is the golden boy. His career in Ohio was something that fairy tales were made. In fact, I would wager the white dust he would toss into the air that filled the arena in Cleveland was filled with some sort of magic awesomeness. It felt like it at times. He did great things at and for that team. What he found quickly was that being the most physically gifted was nowhere near enough if you want to be the best. He needed to be a student just a little longer than we all had anticipated. We dawned him with a crown and for some reason we quickly forgot that crowns are heavy. He had to leave Cleveland in order to take the next step in his growth as a player.
Enter Dwayne Wade. If there was ever a player more suave than Wade in the league that player did not have the lasting effect that Wade has had on my memory. The man is savvy. He was a perfect first mentor for Lebron because he had achieved the success that alluded Lebron. He was widely considered to be one of the best in the game at point in time. He had undergone adversity and he had won a title. He was the practiced face of an organization that had had success and he proved he could handle the role.
I think Lebron didn’t know how to fail. He went to Miami to learn how. And then he won a title.
Wade played his role perfectly again and he elevated Lebron to the next stage of his career. His character as the big brother to Lebron helped guide him to become what we see now as the next stage in the evolution of King James. Wade was suited well for this because he once had the ambition that Lebron was so desperately searching for, but he was able to not allow that ambition to consume him.
As it has consumed those who I believe will be remembered as the legends of the game. At least, from this solitary and selfish fans perspective. Wade has taught Lebron how to lose and remain confident and he has taught him how to win and still know there is more. What Lebron wants is up to him. Wade showed him options.
I submit to you, for the approval of the midnight society that exists in my solitary kitchen, that a trade be made for the betterment of the NBA. And for my selfish viewing interest in the NBA, of course.
Howard is not working in LA. Howard is a talented player that wants to have fun. Wade is at a stage in his career where he has his rings. He is a player that knows how to take the game seriously, and yet still find a way to enjoy life. Bryant’s life is about championships. His life is torture and he is consumed by the ambition to be one of the greatest of all time. He is consumed with wanting to be a legend. James has the physical gifts that magical awesomeness is made of. He is a player unlike any that I have ever seen. If Lebron is to take the next stage in his career and become the player that we all want him to be, I think a trade of Howard for James outright would only further our chances of seeing this take place.
I’m not talking about contracts or any of the financial impossibilities that prevent this from taking place as simply as I have made it sound. I’m a fan. This is what fans do. We dabble in dreamy hypotheticals. This is one of them.
Wade has taught Lebron all he can teach him. Howard has proven in LA that is not the player to dominate the league, because he doesn’t want it the way our legends did and do. With Lebron studying under and learning how to approach the game with Bryant’s mentality, can you imagine the force that he could be? If Lebron found a way to become the prehistoric Megaladon in the ever expanding ocean that is the NBA? A beast would be unleashed on the league of the likes that we have never seen.
Howard would be well fitted in Miami. That I assume is what he wants. Not Miami in particular, but that life of the social superstar. If Lebron wants to be the best, then LA should have his eye. Do you remember the All-Star break when Lebron was guarded by Bryant and passed up TWO last second shots in the closing seconds? Bryant was pounding the floor and screaming for Lebron to have the confidence to take it. Lebron didn’t. Even then, as opposition, Bryant was reaching out to Lebron to take the next step in his career. He wasn’t ready. I think he is now.
Bryant understands that he is aging. His ego won’t allow him to pass the torch to any player that is undeserving of his position. With Lebron learning under Bryant, Lebron could take that elevated stage in his career that would make him the goliath of the league. Even more so than he is already and that’s a scary thought. One as a fan, I would relish.
Superstars are and can be born. There are hundreds of them that exist in the sports world as we know it today. There are very few legends and that is because being a legend is not only about being the most talented. It’s about having that aspect in your arsenal that drives you to want to be the best.
Of all time.
(Yes, our legends are egomaniacs. They have to be.)
Superstars will never be legends because a superstar already has what they desire. Being a legend is living a life of torturous commitment and ambition. All of those that are remembered as legendary had it. In my humble opinion, if Lebron wants to take the next step in achieving a life of torture and self-inflicted pressure, it’s time for him to leave the nest of the big brother that is Dwayne Wade. He’s ready to move on.. At least, I want him to be ready to move on and take what we look back on as a legend to larger, more significant heights, and different measurements.
As a fan, I’m just saying.
Reference:
- voices.yahoo.com/love-as-verb-11383952.html?cat=25
- voices.yahoo.com/the-stepparent-cunundrum-11159502.html?cat=25
- voices.yahoo.com/how-we-live-within-our-budget-11398802.html?cat=25
