Look, he (and I) was a kid while this was happening. Do you remember the “Be like Mike” theme song? It was sung by kids. Do you remember Space Jam. It was a cartoon applicable to kids. His shoes were the most popular in school. His entire entity was geared to attract kids! He was built up to be a real life superman, and I’m sure you understand if as a nine year old I (and Nicky C.) bought it!

Obviously, as a grown man, you tend to become callous, more pessimistic, and understand athletes are just other men. Flawed just like the rest of us. However, that doesn’t mean that we in the “Be Like Mike” generation are going to celebrate the dy we find out for sure that MJ is phsycotic!

No one wants to find out that Big Bird was played by a child molester or that H.R. Puffinstuff was originally penned by Hitler. Sometimes, even though you know better, you want your childhood innocence left alone. I feel like Nicky was just mourning the loss of a piece of that, (I know I was) and writing that post was cathartic. Is that really so hard to understand?

when he said “there’s no I in WIN”, remember that he DID make his team win first. he competed, scored most of the points, but his intention is to make his TEAM win… which he accomplished.

when he talked about himself being cut from the team… what he did was he made himself better so he can tell the coach that “you were wrong”… he didnt just rant and complain why he was cut (like some would). instead, he made himself better to prove he should be in that team.

as for bryon russel, as MJ said it… “i gave him a lot of chances to guard me”… MJ just gave russel his chance to prove he can walk the talk.

and as for the organization… MJ was right in saying that at the end of the day, it is the players that play and make the team win. as a good soldier, he never made his flu as an excuse and played perhaps one of his finest games of his career, and they won of course.

also, if you remember during his days in chicago, he just played day-in and day-out until his teammates got better, until he got teammates that fit the system, until he got better coaching staffs… but he just competed to win even before they came. unlike some “superstars” today who just complain and ask the organization to get them better teammates/coaches or they’ll bolt out (Kobe, KG, Lebron, Pierce… the list seemed endless). but MJ just held on competing. and besides, chicago had a taste of the team that “krause has built” without MJ for 2 years. no MJ, no championship.

I remembered MJ’s “Maybe Its my Fault Ad” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zSVu76AX3I), and this is practically what he’s saying. All he did was motivate himself through his failures, challenge himself to be better (if not to be the best), take every challenge given to him and add them as fuel to the fire…

and at his HOF speech, he just told everyone “this is what I’ve done, and i thank these guys for telling me i couldnt do it”

very Jordanesque.

What I find really interesting is how some people think that having a huge ego was a major part of what made him great. Really? Hakeem is the best center I’ve ever seen and the guy is pretty humble. Bill Russell won a boatload of championships and he apparently threw up before games and is by all accounts I’ve seen a stand-up guy. Did you ever see Barry Sanders celebrate a touchdown? How about Wayne Gretzky? I think you can be ultra-competitive and humble/gracious.

So I guess I’m alright with the fact that Jordan’s speech was a reflection of him. But I’m not ready to celebrate the fact that he’s an arrogant prick, and I find it odd that people say it’s ok that he’s an arrogant prick because he wouldn’t have been so great otherwise. Yeah, it doesn’t matter because it’s just sports and it’s not like we know these guys. Barkley was right about role models. Still, MJ’s speech showed that he’s an a-hole, and I don’t believe for a second that you have to be an a-hole to be great in sports.