One of my least favorite athletes lost the NBA Finals. Again. I don't like when people say Lebron is the greatest basketball player of all time. I'll have that discussion when he wins six rings, let alone one. Granted Lebron James is at a large disadvantage in gaining my favor because I think Michael Jordan is arguably the greatest athlete of all time. But what does it matter if I don't like the guy. If he ever read this he would probably laugh and go do laps in a solid gold pool filled with Benjamin's and fine champagne.
Regardless of my dislike for James, I don't think he will have the same fate as Dan Marino and never win a championship in Miami. I'm not rooting against the guy to never win. I can't imagine the pressure he has to face every day and he deserves to find success in the final stages of the season.
In the meantime I wish he would even pretend to act humble. Shake all the hands of the opposing team when you lose. Don't tell me about all your haters and that God doesn't think it is your time on Twitter at two in the morning. Tell me your going to regroup and work much harder to win next years Finals. Mr. James I want to like you but you're making it damn near impossible.
The following is some of the coverage reacting to the Miami Heat falling to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals.
LeBron James gracious in defeat? Get real by Tracee Hamilton
Strengths - A strength of the article is explaining why Lebron's image has been tarnished even more by quoting his comments about his haters. Also the article does a good job informing the reader of the unsupportive Heat fans. I had no idea that the franchise struggled to get fans and had to put an ad in the paper to get them to come out. Having a better big three than Boston should be incentive enough to come to the games.
Weakness- The weakness of the article is the lead. I wasn't hooked when i started reading and I will be honest I didn't know what chutzpah meant. The word means the audacity of something good or bad. Other than that I actually enjoyed the opinion of the story.
Mike and Mike
Monday June 13
On my glorious hour drive to my internship in Greeley, I had the opportunity to to listen to Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN radio. Mike Golic with guest NBA analyst Chris Broussard.
The advantage of the show is to get analyst expertise on on how Lebron is trying to destroy his image even further. The show was able to bring in many different perspectives that a print publication could not.
The weakness I found with the broadcast was that there seemed to be too much opinion and not enough fact. I wanted to know more about what the Dallas Mavericks did right to win the championship and what the Heat did wrong. Not what the analysts opinions were of how Lebron's words further destroyed his image.
Heat should pull plug on Big Three by Jason Whitlock
I am considering this article more of a blog because it is almost exclusively opinion.
I enjoy Jason Whitlock's writing but I do not particularly agree with him with this article.
The success of this article is the name. It is shocking and it takes a strong stance which made me want to read.
I don't think that breaking the Heat up is the solution to the team's failures. If this was say the Heat's third Finals' series lost then maybe something needs to change. I think Whitlock is saying this just to sound shocking to gain readers. Breaking up one of the best line-ups in recent memory so quickly seems foolish.
I think Lebron needs to work on his mid-range shot and his handling of the media. If he does both the Heat will run away with the championship and maybe start earning the title of King James.
Hi Ben!
ReplyDeleteI honestly know nothing about basketball, but I know Lebron is kind of a tool. I really enjoyed reading your commentary and analysis on various forms of media — I'm starting to appreciate sports journalism mostly because of the stories and narratives that propel the emotional moments forward. I can see you being a great sports columnist in the future and I'm going to keep reading what you have to say about athletics :)
Hey Sara
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting that with little knowledge of basketball you still have a negative perception of Lebron. Do you get that from the news or your friend's reactions?
Thanks for reading! I would love to write about sports every day.
Ben, like Sara, I know close to nothing about basketball--baseball's my favorite sport to follow--but I have heard some of my friends who are more knowledgeable about the sport complain about Lebron's attitude. I liked the opening to this post a lot; the "if he ever read this" part made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteI think sports is one of the hardest subjects for journalists to stay fair and balanced on--aside from politics, which is also difficult for them. I really didn't think about this until your post; I'm going to start paying closer attention to sports reporting and how much of it is opinion and how much is fact.