Read the debate intro and Loyal Homer’s argument that a national sports media outlet such as ESPN has no business in reporting on “local” sports topics.
I am sorry I did not get this article written sooner. I was busy getting on the local news from Channel 3 (WKYC), the NBC affiliate in Cleveland.
After I write this, I’ll be checking out ESPN Radio Cleveland, because I like what their experts have to say on the Cleveland sports issues of the day!
Let’s face it – we get ALL of our local entertainment filtered down to us from major, national outlets. Whether it’s our television (broadcast on local NBC, CBS, FOX, or ABC affiliates), our music (which includes the national Clear Channel radio network), or our sports (such as ESPN Radio affiliates and ), EVERYTHING is centralized!
If that as the case for every other mainstream entertainment platform, why should I (or anyone, for that matter) take issue with ESPN making an attempt to provide more specific, localized sports reporting that would include high school and college sports news, in major cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles?
On the contrary, I think this is actually a very positive opportunity for all the parties involved.
ESPN – who is in no way the first (nor will they be the last) to try this – can actually improve their ability to report sports on a national level, because they will be developing much stronger “local” ties within those major markets. When a potentially interesting “local” story breaks out in Chicago, ESPN can leverage their local ties to improve their accuracy and speed in how they report the story.
ESPN can also help raise the quality of local sports reporting. Let’s not forget that ESPN is owned by the Walt Disney Company, the parent company for the same ABC network that ALREADY reports locally for each of these markets via their television affiliates. As ESPN (under the Disney umbrella) ventures into local market reporting, they will most likely do so by leveraging the networks already established through those local affiliates.
In a worst case scenario, ESPN would change nothing except the name, while the product would remain exactly the same. However, there is a strong likelihood that many organizations and institutions within each locality may be willing to provide greater access to information, because of the credibility implied from the name “ESPN.” In that case, local sports fans would soon find that they were receiving more in-depth reporting than they had previously received. It would potentially be more accurate, and more timely.
To further validate ESPN’s plan, this strategy of repackaging a product which already exists in the marketplace has been used successfully by many businesses worldwide.
Remember the Firestone Wilderness AT tire accidents of several years ago? These tires were found to be the cause of many fatal car accidents, and the Bridgestone-Firestone organization potentially could have gone out of business as a result of the backlash from the public.
How did Bridgestone-Firestone respond? They recalled the tires, repackaged their product, emphasized the “Bridgestone” brand, and continued to be a successful operation, despite the fact that consumers were still essentially buying “Firestone” tires.
As for the local sports organizations, such as minor-league, college, and high school squads, they stand only to benefit from this partnership. Attaching the letters “ESPN” to the name of the media outlet covering a local story brings credibility AND exposure into a market that otherwise would not receive that kind of respect.
When sports fans hear “ESPN” they automatically pay more attention. Did it hurt LeBron James, OR his high school St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron, Ohio, when they partnered with bigger media outlets to showcase James’ prodigious talents? Of course not! Instead, as a result of the increased exposure for James AND the high school, one former alumnus of the school felt compelled to make a $10M donation to the school. In addition, the school leveraged their new-found publicity and made a deal with Time Warner Cable to broadcast their home basketball games (featuring James) on pay-per-view at $7.95 each. That partnership earned the school an additional $400,000 in revenue, all of which was generated because a local story became a national one!
With greater access to those large media outlets, many municipalities stand to benefit in a similar manner because greater exposure and notoriety can help build a larger customer base, as well as help with recruiting and advertising. I’m sure that no one at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School could have anticipated that kids in California would want a #23 jersey from an Akron, Ohio high school!
And the best part of all is that ESPN is only looking to provide fans with another option in sports reporting. If you as a sports fan don’t like what ESPN has to say, then I’m sure you can find some other nationally based media outlet to get your “local” news from!
The code of the journalist is to report the story, not become the story. Someone forgot to tell ESPN. It’s important that ESPN learn, too, because they’re hype-machine and in depth coverage is coming to a local market near you.
Last week was a tough week for the World Wide Leader in sports. First, sideline reporter Erin Andrews is illegally taped in a secret recording through a drill hole in a hotel room wall (a despicable act against Andrews, who is a very talented reporter). While that hoopla was just beginning to spiral out of control, ESPN issued a quiet “do not report” alert on the story that Ben Roethlisberger – two time Super Bowl champion quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers – is being sued in civil court and being accused of rape. These are very, very serious allegations involving the most recent Super Bowl winning QB, how can ESPN simply refuse to report the story? Well, they delayed reporting it under the guise that no criminal complaints were filed (uh, is that supposed to be an excuse?).
I mention these other stories to add some context to today’s debate topic. ESPN, for better or worse, is setting the bar on sports reporting in the United States, and there’s no one else even close. For over 25 years ESPN has been the go to authority on all national sports. Now they are expanding their national sports reporting dominance to specific markets. First it was Chicago, where ESPN launched a website specially dedicated to all Chicago sports. They recently announced an expansion of the project that will now include New York, Dallas, and Los Angeles.
You may be thinking that even though ESPN WANTS to be relevant in a local marketing like Chicago, they simply do not have the ability to draw the eyeballs that advertisers covet. Wrong. Current local Chicago sports coverage is unwise to dismiss ESPN as a casual threat, especially when considering in June of this year ESPN’s Chicago sports site became the number one more visited sports site in Chicago with 590,000 unique site visits versus The Chicago Tribune’s dedicated Chicago sports site which attracted only 455,000 unique site visits.
Interestingly, because ESPN does not have highly developed reporter assets on the pavement in these local markets, they are, like their hard news counterpart CNN, relying in part on locals to furnish the stories. George W. Bodenheimer, co-chairman of Disney Media Networks and President of ESPN and ABC sports told The New York Times that costs are “minimal” and “the initiative is perfect for exploring [locals covering the news].”
It may seem from the writing of this debate intro that my mind is already made up. However, it’s not. ESPN has found a way to absolve themselves from some of the major (rather questionable) reporting decisions it makes on a day to day basis on the national level and inform its reporting with new technologies like social networks and Twitter. It’s low cost and, like a wild blackberry bush, will provide content that is impossible to control. Since ESPN’s new ombudsman has yet to begin work, the trusty writers at The Sports Debates will tackle the topic.
Today’s debate topic is: Will ESPN’s local market reporting be a viable source for local sports reporting?
Bleacher Fan will argue that ESPN will provides excellent local market coverage and fans stand a lot to gain while Loyal Homer will argue that ESPN will not provide good local coverage and the fans will lose.
Dust off your reporting shoes, writers – what happens when the World Wide Leaders invades your town?
In the late 1990s the home run was at its peak in popularity among fans with Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa chasing the long-held Roger Maris single-season home run record of 61. Home run fever swept the entire country, from housewife to diehard sports fan. It was major national news, even finding its way into the Sunday morning talk shows normally reserved for politics. At the time, MLB was an attention-starved league thanks to a strike in 1994, and the home run race brought many fans back to the game.
But, the entire production was a Trojan horse.
As Bleacher Fan pointed out in the intro, the Home Run Derby has lost so much of its appeal that the players do not even want anything to do with it. Why do the players avoid it? Stigma, for one reason (more on that later). But, it also ruins their swing. This decade, the following winners of the Home Run Derby have hit less homer runs after their participating than before: Luis Gonzalez, Jason Giambi, Garrett Anderson, Bobby Abreu, Vlad Guerrero, and Josh Hamilton. Of the players who actually hit MORE homers after the All-Star break – Sammy Sosa, Miguel Tejada, and Ryan Howard – only Ryan Howard has avoided the use of corked bats and proof of performance-enhancing drug use as reasons for the increase in home run total. And, he only hit two more homers in the second have than he did in the first.
It is impossible to address this topic and not discuss the home run itself. The steroids era has tainted the home run, and Major League Baseball’s insistence on glorifying it with the derby is unhealthy for the game. A recent study from the Associated Press released yesterday noted that attendance across the entire league is down over six percent. And 72% of respondents to the survey said MLB “is not doing enough to prevent the use of performance-enhancing drugs.” Another 66% said that Manny Ramirez, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, and Sammy Sosa should not be allowed into Cooperstown if they took steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. The survey results are interesting, but the loudest voice in the crowd is the drop in attendance. Baseball ought to listen. And until the home run is above suspicion, the derby should stay below ground.
The home run is not even the most exciting play in baseball. Ted Keith of Sports Illustrated claims it is stealing home, but there other plays like a close-play triple, an unassisted triple play, or the suicide squeeze that hold equal excitement. The Home Run Derby is not even showcasing baseball’s only interesting element.
Breaking with long-held traditions can be difficult, and finding ways to replace them only makes it harder. However, it only requires some thought. ESPN will cover whatever the new event(s) are because they’re the only major national sporting event happening in the heart of the summer. It’s time to experiment with the formula and think of other ways baseball’s best can be put on display.
The Home Run Derby tradition now does more harm than good to the game of baseball. There are other ways of showcasing player skills that are also exciting such as a stealing home plate contest, a consecutive hits contest, or directional hitting for points (on the derby model). The more baseball continues to build up the merits of the home run, the more they prove their ignorance of how fans really feel about the game and the steroids era, and the murkier the view of the field gets from their ivory tower.
The All-Star festivities for Major League Baseball are fast approaching. The game, the galas, the celebrity softball game, and the Home Run Derby will be taking place next week in St. Louis, Missouri.
Now, what event do you think the Loyal Homer is most looking forward to watching? (I can promise you it’s not the celebrity softball game, which is probably Sports Geek’s favorite event!)
The Home Run Derby is a made-for-TV event that has taken place at the All-Star Game every year since 1985. And last year’s first round created perhaps the most buzz ever, with Josh Hamilton hitting in record 28 home runs in the first round (though he eventually lost to champion Justin Morneau.).
The question posed by Bleacher Fan basically asks if MLB still needs to host the Home Run Derby each. I say most definitely… YES!
I love the home run derby. It’s one of my favorite exhibition events of the year in any sport. Some buddies of mine and I are planning on getting together on Monday to grill out and watch the derby. We’ve been doing this for years. It appears I am not the only one who likes the Home Run Derby, either. Last year’s Home Run Derby drew 6.78 million viewers for ESPN.
Fans come to the park to see home runs, even in this steroids era. They don’t come to the park to see singles and doubles. Do fan stand up and cheer when the eighth place hitter hits a bloop single to center? Heck no! Do fans stand up and cheer when the cleanup hitter hits a 475-foot bomb over the right field fence? You betcha!
This year’s derby features some of the game’s biggest sluggers, including Ryan Howard, Adrian Gonzalez, Prince Fielder (his dad Cecil could hit some moon shots back in the day), and hometown boy Albert Pujols. Now, you can’t honestly tell me that you don’t want to see how far Pujols can really hit a baseball. He can hit it a long way in a game (just ask Brad Lidge). Imagine how far he can hit it in against batting practice pitching! I, and thousands of other fans like me, get to baseball games early just to stand in the outfield seats and try to catch a BP home run. That proves to me that America is still fascinated with the long ball.
And chicks dig the long ball. If you have never seen this commercial, please give it a look. It’s one of my all-time favorites.
Is the derby a little too drawn out now with all the rounds and the contestants and commercial breaks after every hitter? Yes, certainly! It needs to be adjusted. But it does not need to be eliminated. Loyal Homer loves the event and I know the fans do too!
Loyal Homer admittedly is not a huge boxing fan. Back in the mid 1990’s and earlier this decade, I sure was. Heck, part of the reason I made my parents subscribe to HBO (in pre-Sopranos days) was so I could watch heavyweight boxing matches when they were not on Pay Per View. Weren’t those Holyfield-Tyson fights great, especially the second one? Don’t you remember having to see Al Bernstein on ESPN every time a big fight was approaching? Since Tyson hung the gloves up, and, to a lesser extent, since Lennox Lewis retired, boxing hasn’t had the same “bite” (pun intended).
In the past couple of months, hype was beginning to build for the Wladamir Klitschko-David Haye fight. Klitschko, unbeknownst to many casual fans, is the IBF and WBO heavyweight champion of the world. David Haye, a newcomer to the heavyweight division, was an upcoming hot-shot who had electrified the boxing world as a Cruiserweight. The fight was to be held in Germany in front of a capacity crowd. (Remember when big fights were held in Las Vegas and Atlantic City?… a debate for another day.)
Due to Haye’s injury the fight never happened. Haye requested the fight be postponed for three weeks, but Klitschko refused, instead scheduling a seemingly less exciting opponent.
And you know what? I don’t blame Klitschko. He was absolutely correct in doing so and had every right to do it.
This Klitschko-Haye fight had been planned for months. Both fighters had been training heavily for some time. I hate the fact that Haye injured himself. It could have been a heck of a fight and one I hope eventually happens. But why should Klitschko have to adjust his schedule? He has nothing to gain. Yes, he would have had a better opponent, but his training regiment was built around fighting on June 20, not July 11.
Say Klitschko injures himself on June 27 after agreeing to postpone the fight the requested three weeks. Is it really out of the realm of possibility that an injury could have occurred? As I stated, he was training himself to peak on June 20. By postponing the fight, he would have had to adjust his regime and who knows how his body would have reacted.
And I have yet mention the logistical problems. I’m sure plans could have been made to have the fight when Haye wanted it to, but plans were already made for the June 20 fight. Tickets were sold, arrangements made, etc. So, they might as well go ahead and have a fight!
I truly hope the Klitschko-Haye fight happens eventually. It could be the spark the sport needs right now. But, in no way do I fault Wladamir Klitchsko for going ahead and fighting another opponent on the planned fight day!
I really wish that ESPN would quit wasting our time with Mock NFL Drafts.
Sit and analyze the athletes all day long! Project those players who you think have the best chance of competing successfully at the next level. You could even go so far as to speculate whom you think will be drafted #1 overall. After that, though, you are just making stuff up. It’s ALL bogus.
The first mistake made by Mock Draft analysts such as Mel Kiper, Jr., is that they try to make sense out of all the misinformation sent by NFL organizations. Some organizations are very good at keeping their cards close to the chest. These NFL organizations intentionally deceive and misinform in order to leverage any confusion to gain an advantage. Draft strategies are planned and executed in the same way a poker player bluffs, recognizes tells, and engages in guesswork.
Because of this misinformation, each subsequent draft pick becomes exponentially more difficult to predict. It becomes so difficult, in fact, that by the time the top-10 have actually been drafted, each analyst’s Mock Draft sheet is no longer worth the paper on which it’s printed.
Matthew Stafford (Matthew Stafford – good for you!)
Jason Smith (Jason Smith – 2 for 2… you’re on a roll!)
Tyson Jackson (Aaron Curry – Like Meatloaf said, though, two out of three ain’t bad!)
Aaron Curry (Eugene Monroe – We’re still batting .500… in baseball, that’s legendary!)
Mark Sanchez (B.J. Raji – The wheels are starting to come off…)
Andre Smith (Michael Crabtree – I can’t watch any more…)
Darrius Heyward-Bey (Jeremy Maclin – Kiper’s inner monologue… “I’ve never even HEARD of that guy”)
Eugene Monroe (Mark Sanchez – Knowing you’re wrong before it even happens only makes it worse!)
B.J. Raji (Brian Orapko – OHHH, THE HUMANITY!)
Michael Crabtree (Aaron Maybin – The sound of Taps playing in the distance)
To recap, Mel Kiper, Jr., one of the NFL draft “experts” on ESPN, got only the first two picks correct. He then went OH’fer on the rest of the top 10, scoring a LOUSY 20% accuracy. The shame of this result is that his predictions came AFTER hearing about which players were eligible, and AFTER free-agency. This was his BEST guess, with the BEST information available. Even weather predictions are more accurate than that! I’d almost rather hear what Miss Cleo had to say about the Draft, because she would at least bring incense and trippy music!
These results beg the next question: If the “experts” can be so wrong with the best information available, how on earth can they even assume to have anything worth saying before free-agency, or before the deadline for players to declare their eligibility? Fortunately for sports fans everywhere, ESPN can often be oblivious to the need for accuracy, so they just ignore that fact.
ESPN analyst Todd McShay (whose 2009 top-10 accuracy matched Kiper’s by only predicting the first 2 correct) has actually ALREADY published a Mock Draft for 2010, BEFORE the NFL and NCAA seasons have even BEGUN!
When all is said and done, ESPN invests far too much time and energy in this process – which is a complete waste of time – and somehow feels that they are an authority on the topic. They might as well slap a 1-900 phone number in front of it, because that’s all the REAL value it would ever carry.
I don’t know about you, but at the Casa-Del-Bleacher-Fan, when you hear the TV say “And now, here to talk about his Mock Draft for 2010,” the next thing you hear is… -CLICK-!
Sports Geek, Bleacher Fan, and I are huge sports fans. As a result, we watch quite a lot of sports on TV, whether it’s an actual sporting event or a sports news show. So we thought we’d take time on Friday to discuss, in King of the Hill style, which sports story turns our collective stomachs – and turns our televisions – away from ESPN.
I can’t speak for the other two, but I watch a lot of ESPN – the self-proclaimed “Worldwide Leader in Sports.” And there’s one athlete that gets so much attention on ESPN that it often makes me turn the channel. He’s a future Hall of Fame quarterback, but in the past couple of years (especially the past two months) I have grown increasingly tired of seeing his gruff face on my 37-inch flat screen television. Who might this person be? I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that it’s Brett Favre!!!!
For years I always admired Brett Favre. He played for one of the more storied franchises in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers. He set record after record with that gun-slinging arm. He had that “good ol boy” image that I enjoyed. He was never clean shaved. If you saw him at a press conference, he usually had on a t-shirt. He was, let’s face it, a roughneck. He doesn’t have the pretty boy look that other NFL players do. I even stuck by him when, in 1996, he admitted that he became addicted to painkillers. I justified it by saying, “He takes a beating every Sunday. I’d take them too!” But, my attitude changed in the middle of this decade.
It became a yearly ‘Will he or won’t he’ ordeal with Favre. Will he retire? Will he come back? In the spring of 2008, he finally decided to retire! Yes! Great job Brett! We salute you! Enjoy your ride off into the sunset!
But wait! What? You decide later that year that you want to come back? What about that tearful retirement press conference that got so much coverage on ESPN? What about you telling the Packers to move on and build around current Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers? Was all of that for naught? Luckily, the Packers held their ground and traded you to the J-E-T-S, JETS, JETS, JETS. After an up and down 2008 season, you decide that retirement is for real this time. Yeah, you stayed at least a year too long, but good riddance to you!
But wait! What’s this? A possible comeback to play for the Minnesota Vikings, who happen to be one of the Packers’ biggest rivals? Is this just to stick it to Green Bay? Why are you going to see Dr. James Andrews about your arm? I thought you were happy at your ranch in Mississippi!?
All of these are valid questions! And guess who is there to talk about these questions, and still come up with NO answers?
ESPN!
ESPN might as well become The Favre Network these last six weeks. Minute after minute, and hour after hour, you can get your Favre fix on ESPN. Turn on any of the channels in the ESPN Family of networks and you’re sure to hear about #4. Heck, just leave it on ESPN News and you’ll hear anything and everything about Favre. Guess what? Favre threw passes with players at a local high school. (This really happened and was documented!) Favre ate lunch at a local diner. Favre went to the bathroom today. Do we really need all this coverage?
Well, I can only speak for myself, but I don’t need this. It’s not ending anytime soon because he hasn’t made up his mind yet! So what do I do? I turn the channel! I hope you do too!
Hello friends of The Sports Debates. Until the intro written by my colleague Bleacher Fan, did you even realize that the College World Series was going on? Any takers? Last call? Yeah that’s what I thought! Complete silence!!! So instead of calling it the CWS, let’s just call it the WCS!!!
Chances are good that you knew the answers to all four of those questions. But for those who didn’t know the answers… the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series, the New York Giants won the Super Bowl, the LSU Tigers won the BCS Championship, and the Kansas Jayhawks won March Madness.
Now, here’s a tough question for you. Who won the College World Series in 2008? As a bonus, tell me the team that finished second in the College World Series. I’m waiting guys (key Jeopardy final question theme music). What is your answer?
What is?????????
I’ll bet you that Sports Geek doesn’t know the answer! Honestly, Sports Geek, did you know? I actually did know the answer because I live in the middle of SEC country. I’ll be honest though. Any other year and I wouldn’t have known. In last year’s CWS, in the battle of the Bulldogs, Fresno State defeated Georgia.
It’s too early to break down ratings for this year’s CWS, but last year, the CWS averaged a whopping 1.4 million viewers on ESPN and less than 1 million viewers on ESPN2. You know what the sad thing is? It was the highest rated College World Series ever!
Excuse me while I laugh!!! And this weekend, I will bet you that the U.S. Open in golf will draw at least 4 times as many viewers, and even more if Tiger Woods is in contention.
I’ll tell you while it is rated so low. Quite simply, there is no name recognition with the players. Can you name one player off of last year’s Fresno State team? I didn’t think so! It’s the same reason no one tunes in for the MLB Draft. The vast majority of college baseball games are not televised. Thus, it is harder for the regular John Doe sports fan to follow any of the teams. Mr. Doe doesn’t develop that “relationship” with the players and the team the way he would with a major league player and team.
Is the College World Series entertaining? To a degree… yes. But if I am flipping through the channels and I come across it, chances are I will keep on flipping!
What makes college sports (think basketball and football) great? Passion. Loyalty. Youth. Energy. Every college sporting event ties these characteristics together, creating a contagious atmosphere that spreads like wildfire. In fact, nothing in the US compares to the passion seen from fans in college sports.
Baseball shares the same characteristics seen in college sports. Look at how other cultures cheer for baseball, for example. Consider the national obsession that is seen in places like Japan and Puerto Rico.
Enthusiasm for baseball and college sports exists within American culture. So why is college baseball, specifically the College World Series, not part of mainstream sports culture?
It’s not a lack of good competition. A fan of baseball in its most pure form must appreciate college baseball more than any other level. Hitters are asked to be fundamentally sound by moving runners from second to third on ground outs to second, bunting players over, etc. Pitchers are asked to pitch more often and with less role definition, creating the formula for truly amazing performances.
Let’s look at a recent example of a CWS game – the Arkansas-Virginia elimination game in Omaha – to see if the CWS has enough intrigue to appeal to fans. Here’s the 12-inning drama that unfolded: Arkansas’ Brett Eibner hit a two-out, two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning to tie the game at three. Just a half-inning before that, Arkansas ace Dallas Keuchel was asked to enter the game in relief (his first appearance in relief on the year) to preserve the score. He then pitched three additional innings to close out the game – including allowing the leadoff runner to make third base in the bottom of the 12 inning – before striking out the final two batters to end the game. Drama, excitement, and a comeback – everything a good sporting event needs to capture the heart and passion of the fan.
The proper ingredients for making the College World Series a major success – on par with its two more popular counterparts that Bleacher Fan outlined in the debate intro – exist. If the right ingredients exist, then it’s fair to say that the College World Series is a great sporting event – even if it struggles in television ratings.
A couple of factors contribute to the ratings struggle. First, college football and basketball are the de facto AAA affiliate of their professional counterparts, with the top college athletes transitioning to the professional ranks in a very visible way. It’s not as smooth in baseball, where the gap in talent level between the college and professional ranks is much wider. Second, national television – mistakenly – pays very little attention to college baseball until the College World Series. The broadcast model for ESPN is similar to NBCs approach to the Olympics. Once the event starts, the model builds the personal stories from the past year into the broadcast to try and hook viewers. A more effective method of hype-building for the College World Series would be to show a College Baseball Game of the Week for every week of the season on one of the many ESPN channels (ESPN Ocho??). Get the ESPN hype machine involved to broadcast the passion, tailgating, and fervor that already exist within college baseball.
The challenge for the marketing people behind the CWS is to tap into the intense passion seen in college sports and baseball. The College World Series is already a great sporting event, complete with all of the elements that sports fans crave – making it the best sporting event with the least national visibility. College baseball isn’t a niche sport; it just lacks the type of marketing hype and multi-platform promotion afforded to college basketball and football. Once the hype and promotion communicate the pageantry and passion of the College World Series, we’ll have to find another event for this debate.
(Site note: Look to the bottom of this post to find links to the other opinions and intro to this debate).
LeBron James is a leader. He has always been a leader. Some leadership traits are contained within DNA (for example, being 6’ 8” and 265(ish) pounds), while others are learned. LeBron has both the DNA and a demonstrated capacity to learn and improve. Recently we all Witnessed a very public example of the latter.
There is no question that LeBron was wrong in failing to shake the hands of his competition after they fairly, and roundly beat him and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 09 NBA Eastern Conference Finals. That’s bad sportsmanship. Bleacher Fan spent plenty of time making excuses for poor, woe-is-me-LeBron, but I’m not buying it. No, I’m not pulling out the old, “he can just go cry into his gold pillows and wipe the tears away with the millions of $100 bills he doesn’t need” argument. I’m pulling out the old, “you’re a man, act like it” argument. He’s a grown man. No pouting. You got beat. Accept that you got beat, spend minimal time dissecting why for the press who have treated you with kid gloves for the most part, and move on.
Bleacher Fan also insinuates that LeBron isn’t the media savvy professional we’ve all come to know and respect. I completely disregard the notion that LeBron can’t carry on a conversation with the media without disparaging teammates. He is smart enough to not lay blame at the feet of his coach, GM, or teammates (though I think there was plenty of go around). A leader has to face these kinds of questions, and how they answer them is what defines them as a leader.
This is real, adult life. You can’t run away from problems or failure. To be a true leader, you must accept the good with the bad and take it all in stride. What kind of signal is LeBron sending to his teammates when he refuses to face the music after a failure? He’s the proven leader of a very good basketball team. But, that mantle can’t disappear if he encounters some bumps along the road. Leadership isn’t a part time job. In fact, LeBron missed a key opportunity to lead his team. Standing up in front of the press and accepting the fact that the Orlando Magic are a better team this year shows strength. Accepting the facts, and demonstrating the desire to fight and be better than ever when he gets the next opportunity show leadership.
I hate to be another person in the College Football Tim Tebow Love Convention (it usually goes by its acronym… ESPN), but his post-game press conference where he tearfully pledged that his team made mistakes and lost to Ole Miss was impressive. There he faced the media and said his team would be the hardest working team anyone had ever seen, all without trashing his teammates.
In that instance, Tim Tebow demonstrated better leadership skills than LeBron James.
Now, LeBron’s jaw could have been bothering him (though that didn’t show up in his playoff stats), or he was cramping up, or any number of excuses could be offered. But, they would be insufficient. LeBron should have demonstrated sportsmanship and leadership in a crucial moment of vulnerability.
It’s just another area LeBron where will grow and get better.
Posted by Bleacher Fan 
