Grover, Little Cook, some other people, and I were in the West End Cooker one night. The Cooker was not such a great place, but a lot of Vanderbilt students hung out there, so we felt older by association. Plus, it was funny because “Cook” was Little Cook’s last name and we were a bit short on imagination. And things to do. So we were in the Cooker and someone said “Oh, hey look, it’s Will Purdue.”
If you don’t remember, Will Purdue played basketball for the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association. Purdue is seven feet tall, and I had never seen anyone so lofty. At first, I thought he was a kind of tall guy standing like up a step from me or something. Nope, he was standing level with me and was just really freaking tall. Tallness was his thing and that’s what kept him on a team that had guys like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. They were there to win championships and he was there to give them backup. Until they traded him for Rodman.
It must have been fun to be on that team, even if you were a relative bit player. There are other teams that had similar dynamics of course. The Sixers with Moses Malone and Dr. J. The Celtics with Byrd, Parish, and McHale. The Heat with Lebron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Why not? Why doesn’t the best active player deserve to team up with a group of ballers who can bring about a legendary series of championships?
And don’t give me that crap about Cleveland and loyalty. A) Lebron James has played basketball in Cleveland for seven years, during which time the organization failed to bring together the supporting cast to make championships possible. Plus he could have left earlier and didn’t. B) Would we really expect that a normal person to keep a fair job in Cleveland when an ideal work situation presented itself in Miami? Really?
So then we have the issue of how he announced his decision. Or who he told. Namely, everyone at once. Nobody got the scoop. I can’t help but think that a lot of sportswriters specifically, and journalists in general, feel this is one more cake of salt in the wound that is their growing marginalization in our culture. I’m not advocating the marginalization, but don’t take it out on Lebron. He is mastering the game he will increasingly play as he moves to further dominate the NBA in coming seasons.
Or maybe you don’t like Miami and would rather he had gone to the Knicks. As a Yankees fan, and lover of much about New York and its native people, I would have loved for Lebron to have gone there. All they had to do was figure out how to get Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. Problem solved. Only not by the Knicks. Just because the Heat figured it out does not mean it’s time to hate on Miami. There are always plenty of reasons to do that.
Listen, here’s the thing, I probably have not watched a game of professional basketball since Will Purdue left Chicago the second time. I really don’t care in a lot of ways. But I am really turned off by the trumped up moral indignation over Lebron James’ decision. We knew all along what he wanted: teammates. He got them, and I am willing to bet that when they start playing some very exciting basketball no one will care anymore about what transpired to bring them together.
will purdue pursued the same major as i and sat directly behind me in one class and he sat in the same type chair-desk the rest of us sat in but when he sat in it, it looked like a kindygarden chair-desk.
yes, i was there when he was there and you were right there beside there then, too.