Crosby, LeBron worth the hype
lighting it up for a different St. Mary’s — Shattuck-St. Mary’s Prep School in Minnesota, where he put up 162 points in 57 games.
No pressure, but LeBron was supposed to be part Magic Johnson, part Michael Jordan and revolutionize the NBA; Sid was supposed to be part Gretzky, part Mario Lemieux and save the NHL. In other words, both were set up — like so many overpromoted phenoms before and since — to fall short. How could they not? And yet here we sit, 16 years later, all of us witnesses to an undeniable truth: These guys didn’t just meet the hype, they exceeded it. Strike that. They are exceeding it. Present tense. Still exceeding. Still excelling.
It’s not hard to make an argument that after 28 combined seasons, 2,402 combined games and six combined championships, Sid and LeBron remain the best players in their respective sports.
That doesn’t mean the NHL got saved (Tom Wilson’s still playing, right?) or that Gretzky’s records are threatened.
Doesn’t mean LeBron will win as many titles as Magic or Michael (though he might).
It just means that if you had these guys pegged as top-five players of all time, you were right. As a bonus, they’ve gone about their business with grace and dignity despite living in a fish bowl the size of a hockey puck.
Sid, who turns 31 Aug. 7, is coming off consecutive Conn Smythe trophies and 21 points in 12 playoff games — a tear that put him back atop the “Best Player In The World” leader board.
LeBron, 33, just dragged a YMCA team to his eighth consecutive NBA Finals appearance.
He’ll play Golden State in Game 1 Thursday (and the Cavaliers should draw up a play where LeBron runs a pick-and-roll with himself, then throws an alley-oop to LeBron James).
You can go all the way back to 2007 and find only one year (2010) when neither Sid nor LeBron appeared in the championship round of his sport.
It’s cool, too, that each has remained aware of the other’s position in that rare intergalactic space where only the brightest stars roam.
Back in the early 2000s, LeBron would come to Mellon Arena for Cavaliers exhibition games, and people would ask what advice he’d give this Sidney Crosby kid before his first game.
Later, LeBron appeared on a feature-length DVD called “Sidney Crosby: On the Ice and Beyond,” saying of the then-21-year-old Kid, “He’s tremendously good at such a young age, just like myself.”
Five years ago, when LeBron was in the middle of a ridiculous streak where he made 70 of 96 field-goal attempts, I asked Sid if he was following LeBron’s exploits. I didn’t specifically mention the shooting streak, but he knew what I meant.
“Are you talking about his shooting percentage?” he said. “Yeah, they showed what his percentage was the last five games. It was pretty outrageous.”
He also revealed that he owns a nice little piece of LeBron memorabilia.
“I’ve never had the chance to meet him, but I’ve gotten a jersey from him indirectly,” he said. “Hopefully, one day if it works out, I’d love to have the opportunity to meet him.”
I’m not sure if that meeting has occurred. If not, it really should.
They have some things in common, you know.