I have been replaying in my cluttered mind how to write this week’s blog. I have gone through many scenarios that were worthy to draft. By no means have I settled on a format which is going to be perfect. So here goes.
Let’s start with Lebron James, who was sitting in a box with his wife, inside State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona to watch the Super Bowl. The day before, he was in San Francisco, on the sidelines, where he caused a young girl to gush on national TV because she was sitting next to Lebron James!
That girl had thought out a scenario where James would break the all-time points total held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that night at the Chase Center against Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and the defending World Champion Golden State Warriors. What a place to be—courtside when the record was broken. Curry was out with his leg injury and James was in civilian clothes, having hurt his toe.
Alas, the girl and her brother posed for selfies with King James. Notwithstanding that James had ended his pursuit of the record with a fade away jump shot in a Lakers loss at home to Oklahoma City. The game stopped momentarily for him to hug with Abdul-Jabbar, a cordial greeting considering that James and Kareem didn’t have the best relationship prior to this.
This reignited the debate about who is the G.O.A.T. in professional basketball. Is it Lebron or Michael Jordan? Compelling arguments can be made for each using the numbers.
I am not going to do that. When people clamor about how Jordan has won more championships than James—they are correct. Then again, the legendary Bill Russell nearly doubled the number that Jordan won. For that matter, Robert a.k.a. “Big Shot Bob” Horry won 7 rings with Houston, the Lakers and San Antonio.
What stood out to me are two things. First, in collecting his points, Abdul-Jabbar swished exactly one three point shot. Lebron has made 2,237 from beyond the arc. This is what allowed him to pass Kareem in many fewer years.
Secondly, in the Jordan era, he was the marquee player. Not Reggie Miller. Not Isaiah Thomas. Nor Patrick Ewing. Bird and Magic were on the back side of their careers.
In this so-called James era, he is not the top draw. I don’t know that fans flock to see the Lakers play just to see James. I do know that fans flock to see the Warriors play because of the three-point magic and ball-handling wizardry of Curry. In fact, I believe that James is as much of a draw as Kevin Durant who, as of last week, left the Brooklyn Nets for Phoenix in the wake of co-complainer Kyrie Irving, who was dealt to Dallas, where he is sure to sow the seeds of misery once more.
Lebron James is a great player. He will set the record for points scored that may be untouchable. His teams might garner championships once more. Then again, Michael Jordan decided to go play baseball for a couple of years in his prime, so we can all speculate how many more trophies he might have hoisted and how many more points he might have scored.
Let me touch on college basketball. What is becoming abundantly clear is that there is no dominant team. Those enthralled with Purdue saw the Boilermakers fall to their third defeat at the hands of a very good Northwestern Wildcats team which is destined to play in the Big Dance.
And I will repeat myself. The Big Ten is overrated. Rutgers, once the darling of the media and thought to be a challenger to Purdue, has sunk to an 8-6 record in the conference, placing the team seventh. With an upcoming schedule and a rash of injuries and bad play, the Scarlet Knights could easily find themselves in ninth place, hoping that they can play their way into the NCAA Tournament.
Alabama won a tough road game at Auburn. They are pretty solid, but I think this is a down year for the SEC. Surging Arizona lost—are they the best in the Pac 12? North Carolina played one of its best games of the season in routing a highly touted Clemson squad. Could the Tar Heels manage to start playing up to their pre-season potential? Seemingly everyone wins and loses at the top of the Big 12.
We are less than four weeks away from Selection Sunday. There is a lot of sorting out which will occur before the teams are announced. Even then, we might not have a clearer picture of who really is a favorite to win it all.
I want to quickly remark on Texas and Oklahoma paying $100 million to leave the Big 12 early and join the SEC in 2024. This is really money for the Big 12 to spend on getting new members and to assuage FOX Sports on losing a year of the Longhorns and Sooners on their channels. It will be a nice farewell tour for these behemoths. It will also begin anew the sport of poaching schools from one conference to another. Just a year earlier.
We have concluded Super Bowl Sunday, the unofficial national holiday which combines commerce, sports and entertainment in one giant television extravaganza which stretched over nine hours. Much was said about Rihanna, from how great her singing sounded and her fearlessness while suspended off of the floor of the stadium, to one critic likening her enthusiasm to that of a sales clerk at a local store.
Of course, the media rated the commercials. For big bucks stars attempted to hock the wares of many companies. Please, somebody tell me what Maya Rudolph really was trying to do with her M&M commercial?
In the end, there was a football game. As there always is. This was one of the rare occasions where the two best teams during the course of the regular season managed to square off for supremacy.
Forget all the subplots of the Kelce brothers, Nick Siriani (who cried during the National Anthem) versus KC’s Andy Reid, the all-time wins leader for the Eagles. Those ultimately didn’t matter.
This was a great football game. Filled with tension, and not determined until the final seconds. Too bad it was played on a field that was better suited for golf, which was its main purpose when the grass was developed at Oklahoma State. The NFL spent $800,000 for the turf that would resist both the game and the halftime spectacle. They failed miserably.
What we saw were two magnificent teams, led by two incredible quarterbacks.
The play-calling was outstanding. Against two legitimately good defenses.
Both Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes were surreal. Hurts scored three TD’s and threw for one. Mahomes rebounded from another apparent injury to his right ankle at the end of the first half to take the Chiefs to an improbable comeback victory over an excellent Philadelphia Eagles defense.
This was a game where each punch was countered with another punch in the second half. It was obvious as time started to ebb that the team which had the ball last was likely to win if the game did not head to overtime. That team was Kansas City, behind the arm and legs of Mahomes.
I know that Eagles fans are up in arms about the pass interference call on James Bradberry when he held the jersey of KC’s JuJu Smith-Schuster. Despite the tons of critics, including FOX’s Greg Olsen, who did a credible job along with co-NewJerseyan Kevin Burkhardt—they go way back to when Burkhardt covered Olsen’s Wayne Hills High School games for local radio—clamoring that the ref should have eaten the whistle, it was a gutsy and correct call by the official. Which was backed up by Bradberry’s admission that he held the jersey and got caught.
That’s the way games sometimes end. Even the titanic ones. By the whistle of an official, or a reversal on replay.
Somebody had to win. This time it was the Chiefs. Maybe the next time it will be the Eagles. Mahomes is an elite QB, one who is starting to elicit way-too-soon comparisons with G.O,A.T. Tom Brady. Hurts has poise and confidence which is unreal. Combined with the talents of Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, Buffalo’s Josh Allen and the Chargers’ Justin Herbert, the NFL has plenty of young future star power at the quarterback position. (Note to the Jets—stay away from Aaron Rodgers—please!!)
What a way to end a week of sports. With a tour de force.
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