The other day, I read with interest the tweets from LeBron James and Dallas owner Marc Cuban.  They were whining about having to play other teams to get into the NBA playoffs.   I actually laughed out loud at their attitude.  I’d love to see the NBA have one-and-done play-in games to get into the playoffs with the bottom teams every year.  Maybe players wouldn’t take a night or week off to keep their legs fresh.  Maybe they wouldn’t be out with some phony injury.  It would be better for fans, and better for the game.

Michael Jordan would have never whined.  He would have played so hard his team didn’t need to be in a playoff.  If they were unfortunate and wound up in the playoff, you can bet your last dollar he would have been ready.

LeBron is a great player, but he would not be in the first five to ten picks if I was drafting an all-time team.  He doesn’t have the same moxie someone like Magic Johnson or Larry Bird had.  Those guys knew how to compete.  Jabbar, Chamberlain, Russell, Oscar Robertson, all competed like hell.  They didn’t “organize” so they could win a championship like LeBron did in Miami, or like he is doing in LA.

That’s the thing about greatness; it seeks out competition.  It’s not afraid of competition.  In a broader sense, LeBron’s lament is indicative of a lot of the things that are wrong about America.  We were founded on competition but (Read more...)