Charlie Adam: the Anti-Lebron James

This past year has witnessed a remarkable run by Blackpool, a team from the central western coast of England playing in the Premiership for the first time in 40 years. While all the players reflect the pride of the team no one exemplifies the spirit of the team, the city and its fans than the Scotsman Charlie Adam. The captain of the team has come to symbolize Blackpool and embodies (at least in spirit) the aspirations of the fans. They have no chance of winning the Premiership, which as claimed by Manchester United earlier today, but they are fighting a more important battle: remaining in the Premiership and staving off relegation to the Championship League. Adam and his cohorts know how important remaining in the Premiership is to the Blackpool fans and over the last few weeks have fought hard to win this significant victory. It is a victory the likes of Manchester United will never know. Not all victories are represented by trophies. In the case of Blackpool, simply staying in the Premiership is a significant victory. Across the pond, as they say, the likes of LeBron James, still rankle many people. The people of Cleveland are still smarting from the lack of loyalty show by LeBron to the community and its fans when he jettisoned to the Miami Heat.

It is good know that some athletes out there still feel immense pride in representing communities. Take a look at Charlie Adam's celebration when he scored a goal. He knew where the Blackpool fans were and went over to them to express his pride in the club and its fans. God bless, Charlie Adam!

szólj hozzá: T1-1B

The Real Three Kings

It has only been a couple of days and already the media is heralding the arrival of NBA championships to Miami thanks to the envisioned but not guaranteed greatness of the 'Three Kings'--Lebron James, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade. I don't know why, but we have this annoying propensity to create nicknames and to declare champions before a particular player or team has even played a game. The US media is so transfixed on Lebron-omania that they have disregarded some of the other exciting things that are going on in the world. They need only look to South Africa to see the real "Three Kings" in action. Spain's Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and David Villa have formed, and more importantly performed, as some of the top players in the tournament. Xavi leads the tournament in passes that led to shots on goal (25), Iniesta works the midfield and looks to hook up a pass to hitman David Villa to score a goal. Villa leads the tournament with 5 goals in 7 matches, which is incredible. Yet, there is no discussion about the second coming of a dream team. In fact, what I have enjoyed watching is seeing how the fans embrace their athletes with chants of affection (they sing "Illa, Illa, Illa Villa Maravilla).Check this out at David Villa Maravilla. The big differences is in the US, Lebron generates and dictates his celebrity, even through the media; in Spain, the fans embrace their athletes wholeheartedly. And they didn't even need someone to organize a media frenzy around a decision.

So, Chris, Dwayne, Lebron, take a back seat. You have done nothing yet. Look to South Africa and you will see a fine regal example of excellence and class.

The James Effect

It has been just over 24  hours since LeBron James announced his decision to sign with the NBA's Miami Heat, ending one of the most narcissistic and ego-driven spectacles we have ever been subjected to. I am still scratching my head as to why this was so important. Why was this so momentous?

I was watching television tonight and I came upon an Oprah Winfrey special on the Jonestown Massacre, which took place on November 18, 1978 in Guyana in South America. On that day, cult leader Jim Jones convinced over 900 of his followers to commit suicide by drinking cyanide-laced kool-aid. How did a small time preacher from Indiana reach such heights and wield such power and influence over so many people? Was it his charisma? His personality? Or was it the message he preached to his followers, the People's Temple?

It amazes me how someone can cultivate such a cult of personality that very nearly deifies them. I see this in LeBron James. Now, let's be clear, I am not saying LeBron shares the same attributes that Jim Jones did. Not at all. What I want to focus on is the something that both Jones and James tapped into: the need for the public (or a good portion of it) to have some flamboyant personality become the nexus of their lives. In the past, this would be religion and many people would argue that with the passage of time and the advancement of technology, this "need" for a central figure in people's lives became more common. This not necessarily true. For quite some time, the allure of celebrity and the fascination with the famous has been firmly fixed in our collective psyche.

In his brilliant biography of Mark Twain, Mark Powers writes, "This was a hunger for a kind of faith, or a godhead that represented faith....Caught in this swirl of this maelstrom, individuals seeking a personal connection with the divine turned their attention from the whipping gales of "theology" and toward more graspable icons. This was the true birth of celebrity culture." Should we be so surprised that so many entertainers and athletes yield an almost religious aura that convinces networks to drop everything they are doing and focus on them, force feeding us an unrelenting wave of coverage of which they are the stars.

The fascination we have with celebrity culture allows us to live vicariously through successful and famous people. Sadly, I don't think this pattern of behavior we have will go away anytime soon.

So there you go. I bet you didn't think the names Jim Jones and LeBron James would appear in the same sentence. They have nothing in common...except their ability to get people to stop what they are doing and to focus on them.