Fallout from the 2019 NBA free-agency period

After my post a couple weeks ago ranting about how Kawhi Leonard ran his free agency (and broke one of my own blogging rules as a result), it feels quite nice to see that there is talk along the same lines about the magnitude of the coup that he pulled off. You can see more in the link below:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27240776/why-kawhi-leonard-power-move-was-watershed-moment

If the NBA's self-examination leads to changes that prevent outside influences (like a current free agent) from leading a player under contract who otherwise wouldn't request a trade to do so, I'm all for it. You can read more by clicking the link below:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27244254/nba-looking-free-agency-process-sources-say

Reading the next article gives some good insight to how the team owners feel about it. I didn't personally suspect tampering as a possibility in this summer's free agency, but I have long been aware of what feels like a double standard with teams, executives, general managers and coaches getting slammed by the NBA with fines for even the smallest comment, whereas players had way more rope in terms of communicating with other players -- privately or publicly -- before getting disciplined.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27243621/inside-tense-nba-owners-meeting-change-free-agency

Just in the last 20 years, I have seen what I would consider "dangerous precedents" that have been set. First, the Miami Heat coup in 2010, and then what some would consider as such in the Golden State Warriors benefitting from the cap spike to add a superstar to a team that just set a record for wins in the regular season. And now this. I think what has kind of been lost under the shuffle at this point is the fact that Leonard pushed his way out of the unlikeliest of teams -- the Gold-Standard San Antonio Spurs.

[As a side note, I'm still not clear what the heck happened between them. It's one thing if he had been on a team where it was obvious that the ownership was toxic, or the front office, or the coaching staff. But even now, 2 years after the tension first began, people still have a high opinion of San Antonio.]

Given that Leonard pushed his way out of San Antonio, I shouldn't be too surprised at his move. My impression is that it was 50/50 that he would've stayed in Toronto, where he had just won a championship. And I believe that I was right: it wasn't a given that he would stay. Nonetheless, reading through the above articles gives me hope that the NBA will begin to level the playing field in terms of accountability throughout the league, specifically including players to be held to the same standards at team owners, executives, and coaches regarding communications.

The night the Cubs FINALLY won the world series

I posted the below post on Facebook on Tuesday, November 29, 2016, almost a full month after the fateful night. What I posted then was an adaptation of an email that I had sent to a number of close friends on Friday, November 4, 2016, two days after the Game 7 that led to the ultimate baseball victory. Other than shortening the first sentence (I referenced something I shared on Facebook that would have no relevance here unless you chose to follow the bread crumbs), I have chosen to leave the rest as is.

A few weeks ago, a friend and I drove by Wrigley Field on our way home from a friend’s gig in the neighborhood. It was pretty late on a Saturday night, and the area was still buzzing. Police with whistles directing traffic, citizens walking by and taking selfies, non-selfie pics, and videos. It was quite the scene. The video I have attached only sort of captures the depth of not only the experience from this night, but from the night about a week-and-a-half prior.

What I am about to share is my experience of what transpired from the night of November 2nd going into the super-early morning of November 3rd. For those of you who have known me a while, you can probably imagine how big this was for me. Not just the month of October going into November, but really the entire 2016 season. It was an incredibly long season, and even though I am only 31 years old, my entire journey with the team to date still feels like a very long road. I’ve been a fan really since I was 13 (the year of the Sosa-McGwire home run chase). Like every other Cubs fan, I’ve experienced the highs and lows, and through the years I’ve discovered how personal my fandom has become for me.

One key moment on this journey came 8 years ago. I’d had enough, after the 100-year-anniversary came and went with a sweep out of the playoffs. By that point, I had experienced enough pain and heartbreak that I wanted no more. I even wrote a song about it, a song that took four years to complete.

I found out the result of Game 7 of the world series after midnight on November 3rd, while I was reading in bed. After Cleveland tied the game in the 8th inning, I couldn't watch anymore. So I got ready for bed. I headed to bed at around the time of the rain delay. After midnight my dad came in holding a champagne bottle in one hand, and an empty champagne glass in the other. He exhorted me to come have a drink. He didn't say anything else. He just had this really wide smile on his face. I asked if the game was over. He said yes. I asked who won. He didn't say anything. I asked if we won. He just said, come have a drink.

Moments later I saw the replay video via ESPN.com on my phone. A lot of the grief over years of heartbreak and pain came to the surface. I didn't feel joy for a while. I’m guessing it was at least half an hour before I was ready to accept my champagne and begin to feel this new normal that the Cubs were finally world series champions.

When they clinched the pennant a couple weeks earlier I felt euphoric. In a sense that was like winning the championship for me. But I had a dilemma regarding watching them in the world series for the first time ever: 1.) I could continue my habit of checking online and then only really following, reading, viewing after the game was over; or 2.) I could proactively set aside time to watch the game in real time, with friends. After all, I’d never seen them in a world series before. And I might not again. This was worth celebrating. So I watched Game 3 at a friend’s house, and Game 4 out with friends. Both nights were good times with those with whom I hung out, but both games were also losses.

In the end, I couldn't bear to watch the Cubs lose again in front of my eyes, not after all the pain and heartbreak. So the rest of the series I reverted to my following it on my own, and in waiting for the games to conclude first before reading about what happened. And while I would have much preferred to have shared this with others, there was also this part of me that believed that if what it took for them to win was for me to experience their games on my own, then that’s what I would do. It would be worth the sacrifice to me.

I will say that two days later I started feeling more joyful about it. I saw quite a number of people on the morning of November 4th walking about wearing Cubs-related clothing while on a morning Starbuck’s run. So perhaps it is starting to sink in. And now, I have to ask myself the big question: what has changed? What changes in my life now that, really, a longtime prayer has finally been answered? And even more importantly, what lessons can I learn from these Cubs who fought against their own negative history to win the prize? That’s a next step to take, now that one era has ended and a new one must begin.

Who is my choice for NBA Greatest Of All Time, and why?

In September 2017, with the discussion going at fever-pitch regarding who is or will become the greatest player ever to play in the NBA, I decided to write down my thoughts. As I continued writing (pretty much stream-of-consciousness), I was also inspired to email this to two of my best friends from college (and really at this point, the only two friends from college that I still keep in touch with, all these years later). Interestingly, it began slowly to rekindle a connection, a brotherhood of sorts, that had dwindled down due to the passage of time.

What I especially found interesting is, that, as a Michael Jordan fan who grew up in the 1990s and to all the championships that the Chicago Bulls were winning, (spoiler alert) I decided that MJ really wasn't the Greatest Of All Time. However, I will let you read on and discover for yourself who I did ultimately decide for that honor. And today, with LeBron James finally starting to age, my argument may stick with me for a while yet.

Who is my choice for NBA Greatest Of All Time, and why?

Argument as of Monday 18 September 2017

This is tricky. From George Mikan’s days in the ‘50s to now, the game has changed so much. In Bill Russell’s day, there were fewer teams, players didn’t know how to shoot very well compared to now, and the game was much, much, more physical.

Questions I would have to ponder:

1.) how much does winning matter?

2.) specifically, how much of the “winning” mattering is based on championships?

3.) stats?

4.) specifically, how much does scoring matter?

5.) or, how about things like triple-doubles? how much does that matter?

6.) do I even get into quality of teammates or even coaches?

Here’s what I do know, historically — not looking up facts for this right now, just by what I believe I understand to be true:

1.) George Mikan was the first dominant player in the NBA in the ‘50s and won multiple championships.

2.) Bill Russell’s Celtics owned the ‘60s and into the ‘70s.

3.) Prior to Magic and Bird arriving into the NBA in 1979, there were some years in the ‘70s when the question of greatest current player or greatest current team was in flux. The Sonics, Knicks, Bullets all won championships in this time. Probably the Blazers, too. There was no team that dominated during this time the way the Celtics had done previously.

4.) Bird’s Celtics only won three championships. Magic and Kareem’s Lakers were slightly more successful. During this time Magic and Kareem dominated the stats — scoring for both, assists for Magic, rebounds and the hook shot for Kareem.

5.) After a brief blip where Detroit took home a couple championships, Michael Jordan’s Bulls owned the ‘90s. Olajuwon’s Rockets also took home a couple championships, just like Detroit did.

6.) From 1999 to 2003, all the championships were won by the Spurs of Tim Duncan and David Robinson, or the Lakers of Shaq and Kobe.

7.) From 2005 to 2010, all the championships except one — OK, two — were won by the Spurs of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker, or Kobe’s Lakers. Shaq got one of them with the Miami Heat. The other was won by a group of other deserving Hall of Fame talent (Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen) who I think could have won as many as Kobe or Duncan, but didn’t.

8.) Since 2011, LeBron James has been in every Finals. [2019 update: LeBron went to every NBA Finals from 2011-2018. In 2019 his team missed the playoffs.]  The only two opponents who have really beaten him in his career (more than once) are the aforementioned Duncan’s Spurs, or the Golden State Warriors of Stephen Curry and friends.

That brings us to today. So, from what I know, who could feasibly end up on this list of Greatest Of All Time players?

1.) George Mikan

2.) Bill Russell

3.) Magic Johnson

4.) Larry Bird

5.) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

6.) Michael Jordan

7.) Hakeem Olajuwon

8.) Tim Duncan

9.) Shaquille O’neal

10.) Kobe Bryant

11.) LeBron James

*** too early to add Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant on this list just yet. But in five years’ time I expect they’ll be in the discussion.

So that’s eleven players. We can’t have eleven GOATs. I’m immediately eliminating the following: George Mikan, Larry Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kobe Bryant.

1.) George Mikan because the NBA was still very early in its development as a league — I remember hearing stories from Bill Russell or his teammates about how early in their careers which team they played on seemed to change by the day, or at least that’s how things seemed to be run in the league. A lot more Wild Wild West and pickup basketball with a lot fewer skills held by a lot fewer players. Sure, Babe Ruth dominated baseball when he played, but also there were a lot more horrible players then. Same thing here.

2.) It’s interesting how when I was growing up (I grew up following the Jordan Bulls) how Larry Bird was still considered a great player. Then Kobe, Shaq, Duncan, and LeBron entered the league and dominated during their time there. Now Larry Bird is not quite as good, certainly not compared to these folks. Bird at his peak was as good as anyone ever was — but it seems his peak was quite short. When he wasn’t at his peak he was still very good and probably excellent, but no one today in this conversation of GOAT makes a case for him.

3.) Hakeem Olajuwon only won two championships, right when Jordan was in the middle of his first retirement. He took advantage of that gap, but never went up against Jordan himself. Jordan calls Olajuwon the best center who played at the same time he played, but it is fascinating how Olajuwon never advanced to the Finals any other year. Even during the Bulls’ championship run, the Western Conference was still pretty wild. The only opponent the Bulls ever faced more than once in the Finals was the Utah Jazz of Karl Malone and John Stockton. All the other years in the ‘90s (besides Houston), the Lakers, Blazers, Suns, and Sonics took a crack at the Finals.

4.) It was hard to pick another player beyond the first three. Kobe Bryant was the player that was *almost* Jordan. Three of his championships came with Shaq as a teammate. Bryant also had many seasons of his teams being terrible because he had no supporting cast. Where I would go with furthering my argument to remove Bryant from the list is that he never won MVP. Or maybe he won one. Bottom line, Duncan won at least two, and even made Sportsman of the Year. I have seen all the SI covers dating back to the ‘50s, and it is *hard* to make Sportsman of the Year. The Sportsman has to not only be the best in his or her sport but also be better than the best in all the other sports to make the cover.

5.) The next player I might remove is Shaq. Again, I’m removing another player I saw on TV, and saw his dominance. Outside of Duncan (and even including Duncan), no team wanted to challenge Shaq because of his size and strength. Where I knock Shaq down a peg or two is linked with what I shared about Larry Bird: Shaq’s peak was incredibly high but short. He did win four championships, but again, all of them were with a superstar teammate who could take the load off him (Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade).

Who is left? Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, LeBron James.

What is the one-sentence case for each?

1.) Bill Russell: 11 championships

2.) Magic Johnson: 5 championships, dominated and revolutionized the point guard position

3.) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 6 championships, 6 NBA MVPs, 2-time NBA Finals MVP, NBA’s all-team leading scorer

4.) Michael Jordan: 6 championships in 8 seasons, 6-0 Finals record, 6-time NBA Finals MVP, 5 NBA MVPs

5.) Tim Duncan: 5 championships with 3 almost completely different teams (he is the only player on the 1999 and 2014 teams).

6.) LeBron James: 3 championships, 8 trips to the Finals (7 in a row), 4 NBA MVPs, career is not done yet so he can still add to his case here. [2019 update: 9 trips to the Finals (8 in a row)]

OK, how about the one-sentence case against each?

1.) Bill Russell: Outside of Wilt Chamberlain, who I’m not even putting on this list because he didn’t win much although he scored and rebounded a lot, there weren’t any other good players in the league. Bill Russell is kind of like Babe Ruth in that even though his sport existed for a few decades before he entered the league, he was the league’s first really stand-out dominant player (Mikan was the league’s first dominant player, but for some reason he just doesn’t stand out in the same way). The knock against Russell is that outside of Chamberlain, there really wasn’t sufficient competition. 11 championships don’t quite mean the same when there were no other teams that were able to really challenge Russell for championships.

2.) Magic Johnson: his career was cut short by HIV, so his overall personal numbers suffered as a result.

3.) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: you know, I’m not sure that I can find a shortcoming. Maybe that he won NBA Finals MVP only 2x, compared with Jordan who won 6 of the same award.

4.) Michael Jordan: this is hard because I grew up following the Bulls. I have recently decided that Jordan is a (*sigh*) jerk and I’m not sure that I personally would like him. One of the arguments I have heard is that Jordan didn’t really have that true rival that also played his position that also could have overlapped his career. Kobe came too late, Magic and Bird had already been in the league five years, and Len Bias died of a cocaine overdose right after being drafted two years after Jordan. During Jordan’s career, the Jazz were the most formidable opponent (and the Rockets would have been another), but every other contender that had hopes of a shot at the Bulls never really hung around for more than a couple years — the Pacers, Knicks, Pistons, Magic in the east, the aforementioned Jazz and Rockets, the Suns, Sonics and that’s it. Every other team faded because they didn’t keep reloading like the Bulls did. That’s one advantage that Magic, Bird, and Kareem had, and that LeBron has now.

5.) Tim Duncan strikes me as the quietest name on the list. His teams didn’t always win — the Spurs never went back-to-back — and oftentimes their victories were attributed to “the Spurs culture” rather than Duncan. [2019 update: I will reference Duncan again in 2 paragraphs; see updated note re: my "Spurs culture" comment.] With the ‘90s Bulls, Jordan *was* the culture. Same thing with LeBron now. So, maybe this is a name I cut in the next round of deliberation.

6.) LeBron James: 5 Finals losses. Then again, the league has been stronger this decade than before, with Wade and Anthony arriving in 2003, Chris Paul in 2005, Kevin Durant in 2007, Russell Westbrook in 2008, Stephen Curry and James Harden in 2009. I wonder if part of why James lost in the Finals more is simply because he has had better challengers than say Jordan did? Then again, in Year 2 of LeBron’s career, the league changed a few key defense rules to allow offense to flow more. They did away with a lot of the hard defense that Jordan and others faced.

So, here are my final 3:

1.) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

2.) Michael Jordan

3.) LeBron James

My three I eliminated:

4.) Bill Russell: the league was terrible outside of Wilt Chamberlain and the other Celtics players. 11 rings easily becomes 6 (or fewer) with competition that Magic, Kareem, or LeBron have faced.

5.) Magic Johnson: his career was cut short by HIV

6.) Tim Duncan: I originally wrote that his accomplishments was more the result of the “Spurs culture” rather than Duncan himself. I eventually found an article that basically stated that Duncan was the Spurs culture. So, I'm instead going with the fact that he won only 2 NBA MVPs, and 3 NBA Finals MVPs, which in each case is less than many others of his peers.

So how do I choose from the Final 3? This is where it’s difficult. Kareem, Jordan, and LeBron all played in different eras (Kareem’s era was slightly different from Jordan’s, LeBron’s was way different). I count Kareem’s 6 titles because they came against worthy competition. Did Jordan’s 6 come against worthy competition? Only the Jazz of 1997 and 1998 and maybe the Suns of 1993 were legit opponents of the Bulls in the Finals, and the others were the Knicks in the early ‘90s and the Pacers of 1998. What about LeBron? Even though today it seems he can breeze through the East and then have his hands full in the Finals, it’s easy to forget that he got beaten by teams in the East — Garnett’s Celtics, Dwight Howard’s Magic, and even the Pistons once upon a time.

So I can make two concluding arguments, one that says I can’t name a single GOAT, citing the difficulty of comparing the eras between the three and how that would have affected their careers had any of them come earlier or later. The other argument says that I can, and that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the GOAT. Why? First, 6 rings; second, 6 NBA MVPs; plus he is the NBA’s leading all-time scorer. That is hard to beat. Jordan never got there, and although LeBron is climbing the all-time scoring ladder, it is still a long way to pass Kareem. And he’s only going to get older.

Trying to understand today's NBA

After further reading, I am gaining more understanding of the NBA's latest free-agent shuffle. Going into it, I had expected some major players to change teams, but nothing anywhere close to what ended up happening.

To cut to the chase, the biggest negative reaction I personally had involved a free agent (Kawhi Leonard) communicating with another player who wasn't a free agent (Paul George), leading to that second player going to his employer and requesting a trade, which was immediately granted. It seemed to me that a line was crossed.

I have a rather old-school attitude when it comes to players under contract: don't force your team's hand, just because you're not happy with your working situation. (Carmelo Anthony vs. Phil Jackson is one of the few exceptions in my book.) I fundamentally believe that teams, and specifically general managers, should be the ones to build championships, and not players. Nine years ago, when LeBron James (a free agent) bolted Cleveland to go to Miami, part of what irritated me was the fact that Miami had nothing that screamed "we're a championship team!" prior to LeBron's arrival. What got me, because I'm old school, was that players created a championship team, really with almost no help from the franchise itself, and that that plan worked. It irked me because it created this new idea that a team could be terrible the year before, and two or three free-agent superstars could just decide to plant their flag really anywhere, and that team would automatically be in contention, regardless of how competent it had been as a franchise. (Really, regardless of whether that franchise "deserved" to be in contention for a championship, because, in Miami's case, it didn't appear, transaction-wise, that they "earned it.")

It is for that reason that I wasn't so up-in-arms when Kevin Durant joined Golden State in 2016. The Warriors built their team from the ground up. Before they signed Durant, they drafted Steph Curry, they drafted Klay Thompson, and they drafted Draymond Green. Yes, there was a funny cap spike the summer Durant was a free agent, a result of the negotiating between the NBA owners and the Players' Association. But, as far as I was concerned, it wasn't Durant's fault, and it certainly wasn't Golden State's fault. Was it unfair? Sure. But was Durant creating a championship-caliber team overnight from nothing simply by joining it? No. The Warriors had already built their dynasty. Just like the Celtics of the 1960s, the Lakers and Celtics of the 1980s, the Bulls of the 1990s, and so on. That's the basketball I grew up on and came to love.

To close my old-school rant, sure, behind a bunch of my thoughts, I bear in mind that it may be a very long time before the Bulls become champions again. Yes, the players themselves won the championship, but the general manager put them together. It is one thing, however, if players spurn my team because they're not winning or don't project to win for a while. It's also fine if players spurn my team because of our ownership or front office (I don't exactly have the highest opinions of them). Fine. But, what I am not fine with is the idea that, even with a team on the rise, good ownership, a good front office, a good reputation for treating players well, and we not only pull out all the stops that a player would want (but also have a lot of stops to pull out), and a player (or several) spurns us because they see another team who might not have what we have.

While I have gained respect for LeBron since his Miami years (he did eventually return to Cleveland, after all), what I still don't get is how he and Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh chose a team that had fewer assets than we had. What I don't get is how Leonard chooses to leave a team he just won a championship with, with a very good shot at repeating had he stayed. What I don't get is how he then successfully recruits someone who isn't a free agent to de-commit from his agreement with a different team, and then uses that as what leads him to choose the team he chose (in this case the Los Angeles Clippers). I also don't get how Anthony Davis still goes to the Lakers even after all the trade talk drama between them and New Orleans that came up during last season. And so on.

I stated at the beginning of this post that I've gained some understanding. I best get on to it. It seemed, at least from this article, that choosing between the Clippers and the Toronto Raptors was a genuinely tough decision for Leonard. And from another article, it seemed that George didn't demand a trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder but rather simply requested it. One of the things from old-school basketball is that when a player wished to find a way to break the relationship with his team, it wasn't usually in a nice or friendly manner. After all, Michael Jordan openly feuded with General Manager Jerry Krause for years, and almost signed a one-year contract with the New York Knicks at one point. I suppose it helps. At least from a professional standpoint, it is always better if, even when a player leaves one franchise, he leaves on good terms. (And ditto the general manager.)

The other point that came up in a phone call last night with a couple of sports-minded friends was the idea of player empowerment being a good thing. Compared with the NFL, the MLB, and the NHL, NBA players have the most rights and freedoms in terms of expressing their wants and dislikes in terms of their team, their working situation, their bosses, etc. It's not that players in other sports don't speak up or try to communicate, it's just that the culture of some of the other sports are considerably less conducive for players being able to advocate for themselves. And considering that, in many other professions, completely outside of sports, it seems commonplace actually for people who work for their bosses to be able to make requests to suit their needs and to have those requests honored. At least, that's what I hear.

My hope is that somehow there can be found a way to balance NBA players being treated well, combined with the ability for teams to still be able to experience proper reward for building their teams to become champions. When a player becomes a free agent, I would still hope that, if he's in a positive working environment where he could win a championship or several, that he would stay on the team he began with. While I understand and respect his right to choose (and to leave), I would hope that there would be some reward, as a fan, for sticking with the teams I stick with. I'm not the type to change my rooting interests year by year.

Off-topic....

A year and a month ago on this date, I wrote a compositional sketch reflecting on LeBron James' free agency, which ultimately led to him choosing to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers franchise the following month. Even though his choice of picking that particular franchise surprised me, given what I wrote (and what you will soon read), when I went back to re-read the lines of thinking that I was laying down, I saw that his decision still fit those lines.

Too many more words will spoil the soup. I will now let the compositional sketch speak for itself. Read on:

Saturday, June 9th, 2018

OFF-TOPIC….

GOING OFF MY USUAL, JOURNALING TOPICS OF MY PERSONAL LIFE, MY FAITH, OR MY MUSIC, I HAVE A FEW DEEP THOUGHTS ON LEBRON JAMES AND THE IMPACT OF HIS EMPLOYMENT DECISION ON MY CURRENT RELATIONSHIP WITH SPORTS.

First, a side note: prior to the Chicago Cubs’ world series championship in November 2016, and more specifically my reconciling this miracle with the pain and bitterness I had stored up over the years, sports-at-large had become an outlet for my original heart-pain and one of my constant obsessions. As a result, I had become consumed with every major transactional decision that the Cubs and Bulls (and to a lesser degree, the White Sox) had made, as well as any and every major trade and every major free-agent decision in both the MLB and the NBA. This especially included both of LeBron James’ career moves in 2010 and 2014, particularly the first, as the Bulls were in serious contention to benefit. I was obsessed, all right.

When the Cubs finally won the world series championship, and once I finally allowed myself to accept and take in this reality (a process which took about six months) I experienced a peace in my heart regarding sports-at-large and peace regarding its place in my life. I was ok to begin letting go, not only of the bitterness and pain but also the euphoria I so craved that would depend on an external circumstance completely beyond my control involving a sports franchise of my obsession going right. And as I did so, I realized that in my heart of hearts, I really did want to let go, to move on, to pursue a life of peace and contentment in my heart around anything and everything related to sports.

I began to see folks like LeBron James and Kris Bryant as fellow performers in the entertainment industry, like myself, albeit in a different industry. When a man like LaVar Ball came running along and began shooting off his mouth, I was able to look at it briefly, quietly chuckle away his folly, and also let go of the impact his foolishness had on a sport I no longer obsessed over. I began to appreciate Steph Curry both as a revolutionary 3-point specialist and a fellow Christian. I began to appreciate more James’ impact and legacy and as a man my age (he’s four months older than me), and for his voice on social justice issues. And ironically I began to see both Michael Jordan (he’s a bonafide jerk) and the Chicago Bulls franchise (they’re incompetent and don’t deserve to have a championship team for a long time) in a different light. I have also begun to see potential rivals and potential dynasties and admire them (Golden State Warriors, Houston Astros, New York Yankees).

Do I have perfect peace regarding sports-at-large in my life? Of course not. I still follow my preferred teams and my preferred story lines a lot. But as I begin to take in the news today that the Warriors dispatched the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals last night, my first reaction was: “thank goodness it’s over.” Because I now want to admire the Warriors as the dynasty they now are and for their stamp on not just the NBA but the game of basketball at large, and I want to be able to admire LeBron James in the amount of time he has left in the NBA, especially while he is still the best singular player in the game. (And no human being yet knows how much longer that will last!) As I transition back from my side note, I am rooting for James to get a fourth championship, for him to solve the Warriors one more time, and for him to top as many career statistical charts as possible. I am especially curious to see him possibly pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the all-time regular season career points chart. And so on.

******

Now that the NBA Finals have concluded — and James having once again lost — many eyes, many, many eyes, are on him as he (rightly) seriously contemplates changing employers once again. It’s amazing too, to me, how, thanks to the latest wave of social justice initiatives, my perspectives on who puts together a sports team, how they are put together, and how is really and rightfully in charge of that, have begun to shift. I may delve more into that in the future, but the short answer is that my long-held preference that the franchises themselves assemble the teams is beginning to appear to me as “the way the white man does business.” I now reflect on James’ two previous changes of employer and have moved from “he shouldn’t be allowed to do that!” to “no, it is his right as a player to choose how he wants to advance his career for the betterment of his resume and his family.” …Another level of kinship, professionally speaking.

My first thought process as I anticipate James’ career decision at this point is with tremendous respect. Basketball still matters supremely to him, but so does his career-at-large, which includes his basketball-playing days and his post-basketball career. My second thought, after the first, is “why should he even consider a prospective employer that won’t benefit his career-at-large?” Which leads to my third thought: “I don’t want him even considering the Bulls. They’re a terrible franchise. They won’t benefit him at all. They’re even more backward that the Cavaliers franchise.” And so on. Which then leads to really the first pertinent question: “would it benefit James at all if he stayed with the Cavaliers?” It certainly would benefit his wife and his children, as they are all native to Akron, Ohio, near Cleveland. As one journalist put it, they would definitely have a say. There is also a strong possibility that James would choose, like many other men who care about the stability and overall well-being of their families, to sacrifice this portion of his career for them. After all, he did make one career decision solely for his benefit by working in Miami for four years. And in many ways it clearly benefitted him and his career development. But his wife and children suffered a cost — and so did he — by this decision. (And I’m not even talking about the nationwide fan reaction to it!) So I could see James sacrificing, on one level, championship and legacy pursuit aspirations knowing that we would have a faithful employer — faithful enough, anyway — that would give him a job until it’s time to call it quits on playing basketball. His family certainly would benefit from that. Then there is the question of his relationship with the Cavaliers franchise’s owner, Dan Gilbert. Much has been made ado about the history of their relationship over the years, and more recently about the significance of the difference in their respective politics. That said, both men have made that relationship work, professionally. And for all the noise in that relationship, and even the silence, it is in a far different class than that of the relationship between Phil Jackson and Carmelo Anthony which was completely damaging for both parties on all levels.

I could go on and speculate about the fit between James and any other basketball franchise, as I certainly would have done prior to the Cubs’ championship. But truly this is moot at this point. Any team in the NBA’s Eastern Conference is an instant Finals contender, should James join them. This includes the Cavaliers, and yes it also includes the Bulls. That much is clear. If James joins the Houston Rockets or any other team in the Western Conference besides the Warriors, the championship picture gets murkier for him. I truly don’t see him joining the Warriors: he wants to beat them, and joining them eliminates that quest. And another journalist tossed on the table the idea of him taking a year off. He still has plenty in the tank. And he’s not stupid. At 33, taking a year off and coming back at 35 would all but guarantee that his title as the world’s best player — a key part of his professional legacy — would be gone forever.

Here is my conclusion to all this chatter and speculation: I do not know what route he will choose. And, outside of my rooting for him to do what is best for himself, alongside my remaining fan interest to go all-out in stamping himself as the very best in the game, ever, I do not care where he goes. And for all my thoughts and comments marveling at how he still is the best player in the game, as soon as next season he could very well not be that player anymore. Of course, none of us, least of all James himself, will know when that day comes until it comes. As much as I’d like to think and say that this fast-approaching reality will influence what team he chooses next season, it will not. I believe James will continue to pursue being the greatest of all time, until it is time, to the delight of my current interest as a fan. So it comes down to the following decision: does he sacrifice a portion of his legacy, the part yet to be written, for his family’s sake? Or does his family willingly sacrifice for a few more years, understanding the full gravity of their breadwinner’s basketball legacy? If it’s the former, he rides out the rest of his career in Cleveland. If it’s the latter… well… it very well could still be Cleveland, or Houston, or the Philadelphia 76ers. But at this point, as I wrote earlier, it is moot. If LeBron James’ family is on board with him completing his legacy in basketball, he will in the end choose a team that gives him the best option 1.) to win championships, and 2.) to help him get as high on the career stats leaderboards as possible. That I believe I can certainly count on, and is something I will also certainly root for. I am excited to see how his last chapter unfolds, and I intend to thoroughly appreciate what he has left.

2019 Prayer and Fasting, Continuation 1

It is hard to go cold-turkey on some things. Today, more so than yesterday, it occurred to me that just because I was free from the challenge I put on myself to blog every day, doesn't mean that I now have to do the opposite and just not post. In fact, I think with some disciplines, especially if I take a liking to it, it is better to keep it, even if I don't have to. I will admit: yesterday I rather enjoyed the freedom of not having to post as part of my morning routine, which is something I did most days. But then came today, I opened my Bible (because I wanted to!) and had this desire to post a reflection.

Today, I felt drawn to the book of Exodus, and I stumbled on the part right as the Israelites left the Red Sea that they had just crossed and started walking through the desert en route to the land God had said would be theirs. In fairness, the swath of text I read through covers the last six verses of one chapter, and then another entire chapter (thirty-six verses in all!), so I won't be pasting all of them in this post. If you're curious, though, here is a link to Biblegateway.com with the entire passage: Exodus 15:22-16:36, New International Version.

That said, here is one that jumped out:

Exodus 15:25-26
There the Lord issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test. He said, “If you listen carefully to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you.”

The line "I am the Lord who heals you" jumped out at me. Perhaps it's because I never saw it before in this context. Most of my understanding of the Exodus story, post-Red Sea, is about: 1.) the Israelites complaining about this and that; 2.) God still performing miracles for them (through Moses); and 3.) God getting more and more frustrated and angry over the course of time, to the point that He even wanted to kill the Israelites. After all, it is written quite a bit later:

Exodus 32:9-14, New International Version
9 “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” 14 Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

I do realize this is not part of the original passage of text. I still choose to include it, because it indicates that God's first miracles after the Red Sea, while clearly showing the Israelites that He is with them, didn't move their hearts one bit. It is important, unfortunately, to note that these people, who saw God do amazing things, still suffered from a case of "what have you done for me lately?"

Who among us can really say that we aren't -- or haven't ever been -- like these Israelites? I know I can't say that. The other reason that Exodus 15 and 16 are resonating with me now is that, after a month of spiritual growth, there is definitely a sense of "now what?" in terms of not only my faith walk but my life. I spent the last month -- and in other ways, almost now the last year -- reaping gains of developing a manner of living that includes intentionally setting aside time regularly for getting to know God for who He is, instead of who my compulsive thinking/quarreling self paints Him to be. Even though I haven't really had "answers" (or, immediate answers I was seeking in terms of my personal prayer requests that I inserted as part of the fast), I have had answers in terms of where God was pointing out I've needed to look at and let Him work in me. That work is still ongoing.

The other personal life story has to do with when I got baptized. In the six months leading up to it, I received a large number of prophetic words like I'd never heard before and not heard since. Then: nothing. Over a year later, I finally got a sign from God to go read my Bible, something that I've resisted. But even so, it still took awhile (a few years) for my hearing from God to return, and even then it was still super-basic: Trust God. Stop striving. Give yourself grace. Don't be afraid. God wants to spend time with you. Get back in His word. And a few other things. Only now am I back to where I was right as I was getting baptized, not only that same familiar "now what?" expectation, but receiving more and more words along the lines of "you are about to enter a season of plenty," and things like it. Which is great. But I think back to when I got baptized, the questions come up: What happened? Why didn't all those prophecies and promises happen then?

There are several reasons, but the primary one is that I stopped reading the Bible completely. I had been reading through it all the way through for that whole year leading up to my baptism, but in retrospect a lot of why I was doing it was for its novelty. There were books and passages I had never read before. Once the year ended, I felt: "mission accomplished," and lost my energy for it. The following year, after about the first month, I completely dropped the habit. And then continued to not read the Bible much, if at all, the following year. Only the third year did I slowly begin to pick up the habit.

Other reasons included the effect of a close relationship on me that, while healing at the time, I gradually started putting this person in God's place more and more, and also in retrospect realized over time that it wasn't allowing me to grow and mature.

The bottom line from this part of the story is that, to walk through the things God has promised, I have to know Him for who He is, and not for who I used to tell myself He was. (And there is a huge difference between the two!) And that's one of the cool things about re-immersing myself -- lines like "I am the Lord who heals you" from Exodus 15:26 jump out. My lesson in moving forward is to maintain this discipline of connecting with God more, through His word but also through prayer, much like I've been doing -- and to not let someone else take His place. Simple, but not easy.

Postscript: This post ended up being a little different than I originally set out to write. As such, I will need to return for the rest of the passage at another time.