LeBron James — young phenom with the Cleveland Cavaliers that was the MVP of the league this year — has been punished and chastised by the New York Times and other publications. After the loss to the Orlando Magic last week in the 6th game of the playoffs, LeBron, in defeat and disappointment, didn’t stay around to hug the Orlando Magic players and to kibitz and socialize with them. People have taken great offense at that and said how rude it was for LeBron to do that.
I want to speak up in defense of LeBron James. First of all, this young man has done everything right from the time he goes out of high school straight to the NBA. He’s been a phenom. He’s been a bigger-than-life figure. He’s taken the Cleveland Cavaliers, put them on his back for the last 4 or 5 years, made them playoff teams and this year the best record in the NBA.
He does whatever is necessary to help his team win. He’s a warrior. He plays relentlessly on defense. He hits 3-point shots. He hits buzzer-beating shots. He goes to the basket. Nobody can stop him. He gives everything he has on the floor. And yet we’re seeing him being criticized for being disappointed in defeat. And we think, because he was disappointed in defeat and didn’t’ stay around to kibitz with the opponents, that he was disrespectful. I’ll submit to you he was not disrespectful. He was respectful.
Back in the day when I played football and my generation of players back in the 60’s and 70’s, nobody hung around after the game whether it be a championship game, a Super Bowl game, a playoff or a regular season game. When the game was over, you ran off the field. If you wanted to visit with your opponents, you could do that after you got dressed and showered. Nobody stayed around. And in the case of LeBron, these playoffs, if you watched them the last week, were the most competitive hard played playoffs that I’ve ever seen. The Lakers against the Nuggets. The Cavaliers against the Magic. They were physical up and down the court, and these players are doing this in the month of June — their season started way back in October. These people are warriors. Basketball is a tougher sport to play in professionally than baseball or football because they play so many games, their season lasts so long and they have to be in unbelievable shape. And the modern era of basketball is the best that we’ve ever seen, and these playoffs are the best, the hardest played, the roughest and the toughest that I’ve ever seen.
And when that game was over, LeBron James was spent. He gave everything he could for the entire year for the entire playoffs in this series to help his team win. He didn’t disrespect Orlando. He walked off the court in exhaustion and disappointment. He left and didn’t give an interview to the reporters after the game. Can you imagine the disappointment that this man had in his life after you worked so hard for 9 or 10 months and all of a sudden it’s over — it’s done? You’ve reached the semi-finals of the playoffs and all of a sudden it’s over. You don’t play tomorrow. You don’t play for the NBA championship. The disappointment is beyond our collective beliefs.
He was reacting as a warrior. not in disrespect to Dwight Howard and his Orland Magic teammates. It was all about the disappointment of losing something that he wanted very bad — a probable feeling of what could I have done better? Could I have made the extra pass? Could I have made another drive? Could I have made the defensive stops to help my team win because that’s the type of warrior he is.
This young man is to be a role model to be respected. He is the present, and he’s the future of the NBA. And thank God we have young men with his character and his leadership that can be great role models for others that come along. Bravo, LeBron James.
This blog is about Brett Favre and the comments I made a couple of days ago with my buddies Steak Shapiro and Andrew Salzman who own 790 The Zone, which is a sports talk show here in Atlanta. And we were talking candidly about Brett Favre and him going to Minnesota. And I had an opinion. Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t this America? Can’t we have opinions? And my opinion was that Brett Favre is wrong. I said he’s been a great player. He played for 17 or 18 years for the Packers, who rescued him from Atlanta. He played one year in Atlanta and Atlanta dumped him for his behavior here. And Atlanta maybe made the right decision for them then, but it was a bad decision going forward, and Green Bay gave Brett Favre a stable organization – players, coaches and support for 17 years. They gave him the opportunity and the chance to win every year.
He tells them a year ago that he’s going to retire, and they go down to Mississippi to talk to him, and again he says “I’m going to retire.” So they start preparing their team for the next year, and preparing their quarterback, Aaron Rogers, and they get all their plans in place, and just before training camp he tells them, “I think I want to play.” But what he really wants to do is manipulate the situation and go play for Green Bay’s arch rival, my team, the Minnesota Vikings. How can you do that? And of course, Green Bay stayed the course, and gave him the chance to come and compete. He said he didn’t want to do that, so he went to the New York Jets. That didn’t work out too well! Nobody in New York is sorry Brett Favre isn’t coming back! The players, the coaches, the fans – they don’t care! And now Minnesota goes and commits to two young quarterbacks, and all of a sudden Brett Favre comes and says, “I might want to play again.” We are now almost in the beginning of June! Training camp starts very quickly. The off season team work out sessions and bonding sessions are all done, and he hasn’t been there.
See, it’s about TEAM in football. It’s not about Brett Favre or Fran Tarkenton or John Elway. It’s about TEAM. Teams win – individuals lose. And so I express the opinion that Brett Favre is wrong, and I believe that right now. I think it is wrong for the Vikings and I think it is wrong for Green Bay. I think it is just wrong. But I kind of want him to go because if he goes there to Minnesota I believe he will burn every bridge he has in Green Bay. The disloyalty! Can you imagine Ray Nitschke would have retired then gone to play for the Minnesota Vikings? Don’t we feel strongly about our teams?
But why is this such a firestorm? Because the world loves Brett Favre. I love Brett Favre! We love his play. But do we have to agree with everything that he does or that I do or say? Why hasn’t any other sportscaster or sports writer been candid? Don’t you think that they have this opinion also?
While I am doing this blog right now, Fox Sports.com is running a poll – is Favre right or is Tarkenton right? At last count there were 28,000 votes and 74% agreed with me! Only 26% thought I was wrong. Now that doesn’t change the world. That’s not going to solve the financial crisis. That’s not going to stop nuclear proliferation in North Korea and Iran and Pakistan! It’s SPORTS! Aren’t we supposed to have opinions? Where have the sportscasters and sports writers been? Why can’t they have an opinion? Does everybody just agree with everything Brett Favre does? It’s ridiculous!
Some of the comments that have come into our office are interesting. One person said I am a grumpy old man. Let me tell you about this grumpy old man – I am 69 years old. I employ people. We took no TARP funds, we are paying our taxes, we’ve got six businesses here, and we have started up two new businesses in the last six months. We are adding to the economy. I am working everyday of my life. I’m not out there making money off of being Fran Tarkenton and I’m not making money off of doing radio interviews. I did that for free for my buddies Steak and Andrew. I run businesses, I employ people, I pay taxes, I ADD to the economy in a downtime, and some guy is calling me a grumpy old man. I’m not down at The Villages in Orlando playing croquet. I’m not out on the golf courses all day long playing golf. I am here in my office working everyday or working from wherever I am. I’m a grumpy old man? Is it bad to be 69? I like being 69, and I’m not a grumpy 69. I’m a happy, positive 69, but guess what? I have a brain and I have an opinion, and this is America. God bless America that they give me the freedom to have an opinion.
Does that make me a grumpy old man? Maybe so, but I am me, and I will continue to give my opinions. Come back to our blog and we’ll have more for you.
You know, a few weeks ago I did a blog on recognizing the signs – really looking at reality. My point was that so often we don’t want to look at reality and see how things really are. In our lifetimes, as we grow up and become adults, it’s about problem solving, isn’t it? In business and our personal lives, managing our households, managing our business…it’s about solving problems that come up everyday. And we cannot solve any problems unless we look at the reality and understand that there is a problem.
Let’s talk about this financial meltdown that we are experiencing. And let me tell you that in my 68 years, I have never seen anything that approaches this! I read everything that I can read about what Ben Bernanke is saying and what Henry Paulson is saying, and what all of the European financial leaders are saying, and as we get more information, we are seeing that this meltdown did not jut happen overnight. This has been coming for years and years and years. The sub-prime mortgage meltdown did not just happen. All of these credit swaps did not just happen. Our great financial minds on Wall Street or Main Street or in Congress, Democrats or Republicans, financial experts in America and in Europe….they had to see that this was coming. I’ve talked with people whom I have known for years, people who are brilliant in business and history and the ways of the world, and they all say that this time has been coming for years. They had recognized this and sensed it, and yet our markets went up and even hit record highs just a year ago. People were spending money like crazy buying airplanes and cars and traveling and so forth because at the very top level of our financial geniuses around the globe, they saw the signs but ignored them. The politicians saw the signs but ignored them. Allen Greenspan, Bernanke, Paulson…they had to see the signs, but they ignored them. At every level. And you and I at our levels, even though we probably do not have the same level of understanding, we saw the signs and we ignored them. It’s another lesson for us – bad news doesn’t get better with age. In all of our lives, in everything that we do, we have to look at the reality. If our kids are doing drugs, we cannot ignore the fact. We have to deal with it. If we are spending more money than we have and our budget is out of balance, we have to deal with it. We have to look at the reality of whatever our situation is because that is the only way that we can make a difference. I hope and pray that our financial leaders across the world, who are much smarter than me about these matters, and our political leaders will understand it is not about politics now. It is about survival. It is about looking at the signs, looking at the reality. It is about telling me the truth and telling yourself the truth. It is about recognizing the problem, and I think we are right now. Once we recognize the problem, we can start to deal with the problem, and deal with it in every way that we can. We have to understand that it is not going to change tomorrow. These problems have been brought on by years of financial abuse that didn’t have to happen. And if you hear any Republican or Democrat trying to blame it on the other party, shame on them! Because this cannot be about politics. This has got to be about survival, not only of America but the rest of the world financially.
Fear is a good thing. When I played sports (18 years in the National Football League and I played baseball and basketball in high school and college), before every game the athletes would say, “I have butterflies in my stomach.” And what that really meant was that we had a little fear. We didn’t know what to expect and that little fear kind of got our senses more awake. When I had those butterflies I thought I was really ready to go and play because my senses were in place. So fear can be a good thing.
We live in a world of great turmoil. We are all scared. Where is our money safe? Is it safe in the banks? Is it safe in money markets? Is it safe with our brokerage? Where should I put it? People are really fearful and scared of the unknown. Is there another shoe going to drop? Do we know everything? Is all of this bad news going to beget more bad news? What happens is it makes us get back to our senses, doesn’t it? When gas prices started getting so high, we responded by driving less and consuming less oil and gas, and guess what? In the past few months, the gas prices have gone down 81 cents. There was a tremendous drop in price because we are now using less. We are going out to eat less, we are spending less. We are looking at our budgets and saying to ourselves, I cannot spend more money than I’ve got because I am fearful that I won’t have enough money. So it brings a disciple into us, does it not? A little fear is good.
I came back from another one of my great trips a few weeks ago and I like to share with you my trips and where we stay and where we eat and what we do. I’ve talked to you about St. Barths, I’ve talked to you about Pebble Beach. Well, I recently came back from Martha’s Vineyard, and I have to tell you – I had about the best four days there that I have ever had in my life. We were there in August, during the heat of the summer in the south. We go up there and the sky was blue, the high temperature was 75 degrees, and there was no humidity. In the morning I would go read the paper at 6:30 or 7:00 AM and it was 55 degrees. What a beautiful spot! Up in the Northeastern part of the country in the state of Massachusetts, where our early settlers came. I understand why they came to the Northeast – it’s beautiful up there! The water, the beaches, the sailing, the boating, and this wonderful little village of Martha’s Vineyard, this wonderful little island they have protected environmentally.
You have houses that were built in the 1800s, these clapboard houses, and they are all beautifully painted – they must repaint them every two hours! Everything is in place. Everything is kept up. There is great pride in keeping these things neat and clean, and in keeping the environment as it is in its natural state. It’s really a credit to the people who live there — the pioneers of the Northeastern part of the country — who have worked so hard to keep the island so beautiful. The Vineyard is also a great sailing venue. I think that is where Ted Turner sailed out of to win the America’s Cup in 1977. But it is not a pretentious place. The yacht club there where he sailed out of is just a normal little place.
I read the New York Times everyday, and I spend a good three hours reading it on Sunday mornings. Do I agree with everything they say? I do not. But I think it is one of the best information sources in the world. I always read the Editorial Pages, and seldom do I agree with them. But I want that information.
Last week I read an editorial that resonated with me. It talked a little bit about the financial crisis that we are having right now and the meltdown in the financial system and the banks, and so forth. But the point of the editorial was this: We live in a world where we have the mega-churches, we have Oprah Winfrey and we have Dr. Phil, and everyone keeps saying you have to be positive and you have to have a good attitude, and if you continue to think good things and you have a positive visualization, then you are going to make money and you are going to be rich and you are going to have a happy life.
What role does emotion play in sport? I’m going to tell you — a lot. The spirit, the camaraderie, (and) the emotion. We used to say when I was playing football, “You’ve got to get fired up!”
I hope all of you watched and listened to the conventions, to what the candidates were saying. What occurred to me while I was watching them, is it really McCain talking? Obama talking? Biden talking? Palin talking? Or is it just a bunch of handlers? A bunch of people writing speeches, positioning the candidates, telling them who they can talk to, who they can’t talk to, what they should say, how they should stand, who should they put in the crowd around them?
I really was a little embarrassed while I was watching the Democratic National Convention, where they took this attractive, intelligent young man, who is very appealing, very charming, and they put in this huge stadium, and they have these big Roman pillars that put him into this world that has nothing to do with working class America. He made a tremendous speech, but I think some of it was lost on people like me who were appalled at the theatrics – what are we trying to do here? Are we trying to develop a rock star? A celebrity? Or a quality human being, and show that quality human being’s skills and sensitivity and ability to make decisions and lead a country?
I cannot tell you with how impressed I am with the entire Palin family, led by the mother, Sarah Palin. I love hearing the liberal press knock her in every way possible. “She’s not prepared. She’s not ready. She doesn’t have the necessary experience.” The funniest part is that we have probably learned more from the liberal press about Sarah Palin in about 48 hours than we’ve learned about Barack Obama in the past two years. Give me a break!
Let me talk about this woman’s preparedness. First of all, I think women are a lot more talented than men. I think that they have a lot better skills, better judgment and more passion than men. In my business, we have more women in it than men and there is a reason for that – I think they are more talented. So take that!
All of us are interested in peak performance. How do we, in the most stressful situations perform at the highest levels? Isn’t that a great challenge?
The model for all of us is to look at sports figures, is it not? We have watched Tiger Woods over the years and marveled at how he can make putts of any length when he has to make the putts to win a tournament. We have marveled during this year’s Olympics at Michael Phelps, who has won more gold medals than any athlete in the history of the Olympics. You watch him in the relays, you watch him in his individual events, and you see that he is able to swim against the greatest swimmers in the world, under a tremendous amount of pressure. Of course, he is nervous, as all of them are. It’s a real pressure situation. And he is emotional, but he is able to focus all of those energies that come from anticipation, that come from pressure, that come from wanting to win so bad. And rather than have these emotions detract from him and pull him down and have doubt, he makes it into a positive energy that enables him to post better times than HE’S ever posted. In many of the cases, he is breaking world record times in getting these gold medals in each one of the events that he is doing.
