Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
Here's an instructive exercise: watch the sports world to see what its reaction to these Derrick Rose comments to HoopsHype about winning multiple championships are.
Time has passed since you won the MVP trophy award. What are your feelings about it now?
Rose: It was great but I’m not satisfied. I won’t be satisfied until I win a championship. I’m not satisfied at all. There’s not a doubt in my mind that I’m not going to win a championship. I’m going (to) win multiple championships. It’s not a doubt in my mind.
Specifically, see if anyone reacts as violently to that bit of presumption as much of the sporting public did to LeBron James telling the world his Heat would win "not five, not six, not seven" championships.
There are many differences between Rose and James at this point: James has been to the NBA Finals twice to Rose's zero trips, has won two MVPs to Rose's one, and has had to make a decision when faced with free agency that Rose hasn't faced yet. James was where Rose is, once, except instead of Joakim Noah, Carlos Boozer, and Luol Deng, he had Zydrunas Ilgauskas and ... er ... Drew Gooden, I guess.
(Oh, and Rose said "I'm going to win multiple championships"; LeBron said "We believe we can win multiple championships." That's definitely not a sign that Rose is a selfish player or person, right?)
But one thing both share, now and then? Confidence that winning rings is on the horizon. Matt Moore at Pro Basketball Talk points out that isn't unique to the two of them, either:
"Every great player in the NBA thinks they’re going to win multiple titles. It takes years for players to learn how valuable just getting one is."
I'd take it further: why wouldn't any professional athlete want multiple titles? Why not believe that you and your team are capable of winning it all? Wouldn't striving for the peak always give players the greatest motivation?
Criticizing athletes for wanting championships, wanting to be the greatest, wanting it all: that runs counter to the idea that athletes should be pushing the bounds of what we think is possible. But it will keep happening, as long as fans want both eye-popping play and aw-shucks demurring out of the players they root for.
To be an athlete in America in 2011 is to be cast into an arena before a crowd that wants two almost diametrically opposite things from you: greatness and humility. The trick is convincing fans that your pursuit of the former isn't in violation of your adherence to the latter.
LeBron couldn't pull that off — at least, he's yet to demonstrate that he's got enough of either quality to make up for a deficiency in the other. Rose, so great and so young, has more time before judgment is rendered and sufficient greatness, at this point, to excuse brimming confidence.
Just don't be surprised if he ends up where LeBron is someday.
3 comments
Comments
I don't think anyone reacted reacted violently to that specific Lebron comment
Mostly because people kinda believed and feared it. They reacted to the way he made his decision, they reacted to that Big 3 concert(a better term doesn’t come to mind). But they half believed that comment, and thouroughly expected him to follow through with it. I’m a Wiz fan though. I knew better. Didn’t believe it would work for a second.
And with Rose, that is part of his winning nature. Nobody sees it as arrogance because he’s not doing it for show. He’s saying that because he means it.
I'm a Wizards fan. We've been trying to tell you about Lebron for years. Hated the man before it was cool.
by returnofswagger on Aug 21, 2011 7:36 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Yeah, LeBron definitely didn't mean his comment.
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by Andy Hutchins on Aug 21, 2011 8:51 PM EDT up reply actions
I think you're right, at least about the LeBron reaction.
LeBron going off to create a “superteam” instead of trying to beat his biggest rivals (and turning it into a circus) was what pissed everyone off, and that comment was salt in the wound. I think Rose will find it harder than he thinks to win even one title, but the perception (unless/until he makes a similar Decision) will, rightly or wrongly, be that Rose expects to earn a few titles while LeBron expected to be given them.
I've got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left-hand side.
Bradley-Terry rankings for college football and basketball: because there aren't enough computer rankings already.
by SpartanDan on Aug 22, 2011 1:10 AM EDT up reply actions
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