King James

I’ve never been a big fan of attempting to compare different players from different eras. But the way LeBron James of the Miami Heat dominates his opponents has made me consider – is he the best basketballer in history?

It’s true that he did not have instant success in the NBA as he spent several largely unspectacular seasons as part of a largely unspectacular Cleveland Cavaliers team. But since he headed south to Miami and joined with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, he’s upped the ante and is arguably the best player in the world right now.

Which got me thinking – where would he be placed in the all-time rankings?

Picture Magic Johnson on the drive. Larry Bird sinking another unlikely three pointer. Wilt Chamberlain towering above all his contemporaries. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s incomparable and undefendable (is there such a word??) skyhook. Charles Barkley and Karl Malone bullying and intimidating their way to the basket. Jerry West plying his trade for the Lakers for 15 years in the 60’s and 70’s. Shaquille O’Neal at his peak being head and shoulders (literally) above all others. His Lakers team-mate Kobe Bryant, who runs games like a General commanding an army. Michael Jordan’s freakish ability to single-handedly take games away from opponents, often in the dying seconds of a playoff game. And as the saying goes, many, many more. The Clyde Drexlers. The Robert Parishes. The Patrick Ewings. The Tim Duncans. The list is almost inexhaustible. Not to mention the countless international players of note over the years too.

So I’ve made a few cuts from my dream team. I’ve automatically excluded players from the 60’s and 70’s (I’m allowed to – it’s my team) as I don’t believe the level of competition in that era was anywhere near the standard we’ve seen since the early to mid-80’s onwards. I’ve also excluded internationals such as the legendary Hakeem Olajuwon and the behemoth (7 ft 6 in) Yao Ming.

After all that I’ve tried to end up with a top six; Johnson, Bird, Abdul-Jabbar, Malone, O’Neal, Bryant, Jordan and James. Ok, it’s a top eight – but how do you exclude anyone from that list?

From there I’ve tried to analyse weaknesses, and had to get very, very picky. O’Neal couldn’t score from the free-throw line to save his life, so he’s out. Larry Bird was a fantastic all-round player. He could shoot from inside and out, he could defend and he stayed at the top with the Celtics for a long time, which is no mean feat. But he was boring, so he’s gone.

But I could go no further in terms of culling these superstars, so I’m left with my starting five and one bench-warmer (not sure who that would be); Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Karl Malone, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Le Bron James. Therefore by default, I am saying that Le Bron is in my top half-dozen players of all-time.

But is he the greatest of all-time? The answer is; I don’t know. If he ends his career in the NBA having scored 38,000, 36,000 or 32,000 points like Abdul-Jabbar, Malone and Jordan respectively, then perhaps the answer will be yes. If he wins six NBA championships like Abdul-Jabbar and Jordan, then he could well be. If he ends up with over 10,000 assists to his name just like Magic Johnson, then he’ll be right up there.

I think my conclusion is that perhaps one day he will be remembered as the greatest. But certainly not yet. Still, he’s being mentioned in the same breath as those other greats of the game of basketball, and that’s a pretty good start.

What the…

…hell has happened to rugby? I know this is a vast generalisation but rugby is in danger of becoming boring. One series of incidents in the Super 15 game between the Chiefs and the Crusaders on Friday night summed it up for me.

In the first half a(nother) scrum was reset multiple times before eventually collapsing. Wyatt Crockett, who is surely the worst scrummager to have played at international level since, well, every single Wallaby prop ever, simply couldn't cope with the bulk and strength of the Chiefs’ Ben Tameifuna and ended up facing back towards his own locks. Referee Steve Walsh in his infinite wisdom somehow decided that the prop now facing backwards hadn't actually caused the collapse and penalised a disbelieving Tameifuna.

The problems highlighted by this situation are 1) complicated rules that result in long periods of inactivity (usually resets or penalties), and 2) the nature of the rules that so often result in horrendously poor refereeing interpretations (it was the Chiefs put-in to the scrum so why would they collapse?), especially in scrummaging situations.

An old friend of mine who used to play international and Super Rugby once told me that on some occasions he would know who had collapsed the scrum. But he said in most instances the front-rowers themselves don’t know why the scrummagers’ faces hit the turf. I’m no scientist; in fact I hated the subject at school. But even I know that when two opposing forces, each weighing 800-900kg, collide the resultant movement due to the collision will occasionally be downward.

Refs – just get the opposing players close to one another before the hit and let them get on with it. If you absolutely believe one player has deliberately collapsed the scrum (it’s usually the Australian prop by the way), then by all means give the pea in the whistle some exercise. But if there’s a hint of doubt in your mind, just reset the scrum and get the game going again. I’ve loved rugby since I was a wee fella. But the rulebook has become so lengthy and so complicated, and yet it leaves so much open to the referee’s interpretation. The result is a game that struggles for continuity and, once in a while, now struggles to hold my attention.

Progress?

We’re a fairly small nation in most ways, and that also stretches to our cricketing exploits. But the New Zealand cricket team has a proud history of punching above its weight and, but for a certain Inzamam Ul-Haq of Pakistan and an untimely injury to Martin Crowe, we would’ve probably won the one-day world cup in 1992.

NZC should have built upon that near-success. But instead we’ve endured years and years and years of underachievement and generally disappointing performances. There’ve been some fabulous times mixed in with that, and just a very few short years ago, our world rankings in all forms of the sport were very impressive and seemingly on the rise.

But a quick glimpse of the ICC rankings now makes one quietly fold up one’s replica Beige Brigade shirt and place it at the bottom of the pile in the short-sleeved, sports only shirts drawer. In the test rankings we’re second to last, comfortably out-performing that giant of the world game, Bangladesh. In the one-dayers and T-20 ranks, we’re way behind all the proper teams and only have Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland, Netherlands and Kenya below us. Thank god Afghanistan, Scotland and Canada haven’t played enough matches to be ranked…

Our rankings, and performances, had been slipping for a while, so last year in came new coach Mike Hesson. Have things improved? No. Why? Because we still can’t bat. Most, although certainly not all, of the batsmen have the technical expertise to perform. But nothing seems to have changed mentally. Last week’s second innings capitulation in the first test against England at Lords, when chasing a very achievable winning target, was embarrassing.

But what was more embarrassing were the shot selections at crucial moments. A flashy cover drive on the up at 21-3 (how about all that cricketing terminology in one sentence!). Getting caught on the boundary when the team were 40-odd for 4. Attempting a T20-style lofted straight drive (and missing the ball by several centimetres as the stumps are demolished) at 61-7.

What was even more embarrassing were Mike Hesson and Brendon McCullum’s seemingly rehearsed responses to media after the test. They raved about the fantastic and positive way the batsmen had just played. It wasn’t fantastic; it was silly and irresponsible. Why not just see off the new ball, knuckle down and actually attempt to grind out a win? That’s what all the teams ranked above us would have done.

WooHoo-rriors

What a difference a week makes. Last week, I lamented a Warriors team that simply seemed to give up as they slumped to their worst-ever defeat. Also last week the Newcastle Knights destroyed the Canterbury Bulldogs. Warriors Coach Matt Elliott fronted the media on numerous occasions this week (and lost his cool with journalists a couple of times) and he promised issues were being dealt with.

This week the writing was seemingly on the wall as the Knights travelled to Mount Smart. Except somebody forgot to tell the Warriors they were supposed to lose. It wasn’t a flawless performance by any means, but man what an improvement from last week. A 28-12 win was absolutely deserved.

The best aspect of the win for me was their determination and will to win that was so obviously absent last week. Matt Elliott did a fantastic job turning the ship around in just a week. The Warriors need to ensure he sticks around for a while yet. Let’s hope there are more performances like that to come.

Cheers,

SG