I love my sport and try to stay tuned-in to the so-called superstars of the new age of money and quick fame. There is a side to all this that belies excessive media attention before achievement in a great many cases.

The Cleveland Cav’s have just been knocked out of the NBA playoffs yet again, so, the James that would be King has yet again been relegated to that place Gordon Brown held for a while, that of the supporting cast to the real top dog, Blair in his case, Bryant amongst others, in Lebron’s case.

It seems ridiculous to name a man a king when he has yet to reach the heights of claiming the ultimate prize within his profession.

I do not, for one second, doubt his talents, having seen him do a great many wondrous things on court with a basketball, but not unlike, “Superman”, Dwight Howard, the media circus and incredible advertising deals and exposure these young pretenders get in advance of reaching the pinnacle of their sport seems to be a trend that fuels a somewhat lacklustre level of performance when the pressure is on.

I’m no huge fan of the, “Fakers”, ha ha, yeah, I mean the Lakers or, of Kobe, but one thing the Cryant rarely does is roll over when things get tough. The evidence is there in his multiple championships and even in the face of a pretty poor defeat in the finals to the Celts a couple of years back, guess whose team was back in the finals winning a year later.

Football this summer will find out whether the likes of the, again, hugely talented, Lionel Messi, is to live up to his hype on the greatest stage, the World Cup in South Africa.

I remember thinking back in the day, that, “ZZ”, was that man before he took France to World Cup glory, due to the fact that, not only were his talents there for us all to see, but, also like many greats before him, there’s something the special ones possess in their demeanour that separates them from the also rans and wannabee superstars !

The blinkered following and acceptance of what the media says about certain media friendly names, by fans, also fuels the idea of these sportsmen and women being seen as being greater than they perhaps are ???

Due to Liverpool’s nonsensical approach since the inception of the Premiership, I can hear these very same fans running that win something before you run talk rhetoric, well, living with a Spurs fan, for my sins …. !!! … it was evident that their gaining fourth spot seemed to mean that they’d won a trophy ???, well, I hate to burst that bubble, but winning a champions league spot due to finishing fourth in what is an overrrated league does not make you the greatest team on the planet, as said, “the ‘Pool”, are lacking leadership and direction, Man City are just the next wave of, “Chelsea styled”, money made winning machines and Villa not unlike Arsenal flatter to deceive as to their, “true level”, of quality, especially when faced with a challenge from any opposition of, “REAL” substance.

Arsenal’s third place flatters them somewhat, I go back to the Barca annihilation by a team that were then tactically outplayed by Mourinho’s Inter, surely that says something …. doesn’t it … ??? … about the quality of the premiership, money filling young men’s pockets, more than winners medals in a great many cases, especially when it comes to winning outside of England.

Fulham had a great run but even when Atletico opened the door for them to be steamrolled, the lack of invention, creativity and more importantly, self-belief, was so apparent that the game became less of a spectacle and more of a torturous viewing experience.

The funny part about this is that the truly great ones seem to be the ones who are criticised at every opportunity and dismissed as being overly full of themselves, well, give me a Kobe Bryant, Floyd Mayweather or Tiger Woods, (at his best) any day of the week, ahead of these so-called stars, the Andy Murrays’, Lebrons, Dwight Howards’ and their ilk until there is some consistent conclusive proof of their prowess at the highest level.

Like the Hip Hop mans say, record deals and TV spotlight does not mean they’re the best to do it, it just means that someone likes their ass who can influence their status in the eyes of those quick to join bandwagons.

Think about it y’all

I’m out

Big V

Permalink | May 14th, 2010

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