Tonight marks the last professional basketball game for the Los Angeles Lakers future Hall of Fame honoree Kobe Bryant. You didn't know that? Not surprising.
Bryant has had an amazing pro career, going from high school straight to the best basketball league on the planet and he flourished from the time he stepped onto the NBA court. After tonight, he will have played in 1,345 games averaging 25 points per game, quite a feat.
The Laker has abundant athletic talent and athletic awards and honors have been heaped on him all through his career. However, outside of Laker fans, most fans of basketball or sports in general are rather indifferent to his impending retirement. The reason for this collective yawn from American sports fans is the fact that for all his achievements and awards, he isn't a hero.
When former Lake star and Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul Jabbar retired, he was feted with special ceremonies at every venue he played in during his last season. Even his arch rival Boston Celtics honored him in his last game there, even giving him a piece of the Celtics floor signed by his rival players. Jabbar was known to be a generous, giving his time and money to worthy causes and held himself to a high standard of personal behavior, being aware of young people who watched and in some cases, idolized him. He was the consummate team player.
On the other hand, Bryant has been known to place his own desires ahead of his teammates and has made headlines with his off the court behavior. He has often been describe as arrogant, selfish and detached from friends and family alike. He ended the season by setting the career NBA record for missed field goals, missing, nearly 14,000 in his long career. By comparison, for all his shooting, he only ranks fourth in total points made.
In Bryant's last game tonight, the broadcast has been shifted to ESPN2, away from the main ESPN channel. In its place will be broadcast the Warriors/Grizzlies matchup. The Stephen Curry led Warriors will be going for an all-time NBA record 73 wins at home tonight with the tipoff the exact same time as the Bryant finale.
Curry scored 37 points Sunday night to defeat the San Antonio Spurs on the road. San Antonio had been 39-0 at home this year and were poised to become the first team to end a season undefeated. Curry rose to the occasion to score even though he was heavily defended. The victory tied the Chicago Bulls existing record of 72 wins. If the Warriors win tonight, they will finish 73-9 besting the Michael Jordan led 72-10 mark.
The new best player of the NBA has been Curry the past two years who has set records for accuracy and has been an exceptional team leader. Curry is committed to his beliefs, spurning a lucrative contract from sports behemoth Nike in favor of a lesser one with UnderArmour. Curry likes to inscribe Bible verses on his playing shoes, something that Nike was adamantly opposed to. UnderArmour had no problem with it, so Curry signed with them.
Before the Curry era was underway, the best player in the last few years has been acknowledged to be Cleveland's LeBron James.
James' ego, selfishness and self aggrandizement led to his being the most unpopular MVP maybe in forever. There has been talk for years who would replace Michael Jordan as the face of professional basketball and no one has come close to filling that role -- that is, until Curry came along.
I have a theory about the professional trajectories of the Bryant/James careers and those of Curry and Jordan. Curry and Jordan turned pro after having a collegiate career, where as James and Bryant went straight from high school to the pro ranks and millions of dollars.
Eighteen-year-olds who are instant millionaires perhaps never get the chance to mature, especially compared to those who spend a fair amount of time playing for free before getting the windfall that professional sports can bring. Perhaps pampered high school stars just become pampered professionals without that interim time for maturing.
When you stop and think about it, sports stars are just entertainment stars. To say any of them are heroes may be stretching the meaning of that word. Heroes are selfless people, sacrificing for the good of others.
Pat Tillman of the Arizona Cardinals was a hero, abandoning his pro football career to join the Army after 9-11 occurred. Tillman lost his life in doing so, sacrificing everything in defense of his country.
Most heroes are ordinary people, doing their jobs and stepping up to do the extraordinary when opportunities are presented. The largest pool of heroes would have to be parents. While there bad parents around, most aren't and would do anything for their children.
People have always longed for heroes, especially in these late times. That may explain the spectacular success of the Marvel movies.
However, heroes don't have to have super powers or to have athletic talent. Need more heroes -- become one.
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Editor's note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports on 04/13/2016