Comments

Tom, I agree with your comments. Today's athletes are consumed with self promotion and are so focused on outside gigs that they compromise the development of skills/excellence in their sport.
My sports eye, which has been around the block a few remote control clicks, see's a lot of athletic ablility in today's athlete, but also a lot of sloppy-ness. As you have said many times, "the devil is in the details." Michael J. handled the details better than anyone.

Posted by Nik at November 30, 2004 10:53 AM

One of the best accolades of Michael Jordan that I ever heard came from Bill Russell (a class act himself). He said, "As great a basketball player as Michael Jordan is, he's even better as a man and a fellow human being." How many of today's sports stars are as good off the court as they are on the court?

Posted by Tom Black at November 30, 2004 3:51 PM

Nik and Tom Black, thank you both for such thoughtful comments. It is so good to come to the comments section after enjoying Tom's posts to see that people are getting the point, and offering input that takes the discussion up a notch.

All this good-guy stuff is especially important to Bostonians right now as we watch breathlessly to see where our World Series team will scatter themselves. I would never deny professional athletes their free-agent status, but hope, hope, hope that something other than money comes into their decisions to move on—or not.

Posted by cathy at December 1, 2004 10:21 AM

The NBA per Washington Post's brother Wilbon: the downside/violentside of hip-hop perversion is romanticized into main stream young guys 'tude & action baby!!!

Posted by Freeman at December 3, 2004 12:08 PM