ONE DAY WE’LL MISS THEM ALL: YOU CAN’T ALWAYS COMPARE GREATNESS
(Scott Halleran)
It has been said that comparison is the thief of joy. In that comparison we often forget to appreciate what is right in front of us. In the sports world, from media to fans, it seems that 98 percent of sports content is about comparisons. LeBron or MJ? Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown? Ray Allen or Steph Curry? 73-9 Warriors or 72-10 Bulls? The list goes on.
While I certainly am capable of finding myself in one of these debates, it was on January 26, 2020 that my opinion changed forever. I was at basketball practice in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was just another day. We were preparing for a game against Southern University. Practice was coming to an end and players were getting up a few shots on their own. Out of nowhere, the athletic trainer tells us that Kobe Bryant passed away. The gym instantly fell silent. I felt a pit in my stomach and as I sat down and stared at the floor, I was shook even further when I realized that I had my Nike Kobe 9’s on. Kobe’s death hurt on a deeper level. As someone who has basically dedicated my entire life so far to the game of basketball and watched the NBA since Kobe first started taking over the league, to me it felt like a superhero had just died.
We all knew Kobe deserved better. After giving fans 20 years of pure electricity on the court, he deserved to enjoy his life after basketball. Not only did he not get that, his daughter tragically passed away as well. In my sadness and reflection, I started thinking: What if all we ever did was compare Kobe to other players? If every time he had a great game we asked if it measured up to a great game of LeBron’s, or every time he won a championship we asked how many more he would need to be better than Jordan. What if we let his whole career go by and only after he passed did we give him his flowers? That would be tragic.
In so many ways, this is what our media and sports discourse has become. No matter how great LeBron is, no matter what he accomplishes, people always seem to find a way to compare it to someone else as a means to downplay his greatness. Even when Steph Curry broke the career three point record, the main headline on ESPN the next day was, “Does this make Steph pass LeBron as the greatest talent of this generation”. That is an extreme disservice to both players. It discredits Steph because you're taking his accomplishment and making it about LeBron, and it discredits LeBron because you’re trying to overshadow his 19 straight season’s of dominance despite being constantly scrutinized.
The beauty is that we don’t have to choose like this. LeBron and Steph can both be generational Talents. LeBron and Jordan can simultaneously be two of the greatest players we have ever seen. Now this is just one example, but players are constantly being compared to other players, long before we have time to see a season play out, let alone an entire career. To me when I hear the former generation talk about how this generation of basketball isn’t the same, or when I hear fans of the current era try to discredit the players of the 80’s and 90’s, I can’t help but think about the above saying. Comparison really does steal joy. Sure there are differences between era’s and the game changes over time, but it has to. Anything that doesn't evolve is only dying. I think that instead of comparing the players, if we just appreciate what they do for us fans night in and night out, we would find joy in every era and in every season.
Just last night I witnessed Ja Morant pin a shot off the middle of the backboard and nearly hit his head on the rim. Can he do that without us comparing him to Luka and Trae? The night before that, I witnessed a 6 foot 11 guy named Giannis put up 43 points along with three made three’s and 13 rebounds. Can he do that without us trying to compare him to KD or Shaq? This is all I’m saying: When the career is over, if you want to pull out the tail of the tape and see who stacks up with who, by all means go ahead. But, as we learned from Kobe, time is no guarantee. Just as we miss seeing his legendary fade away, one day we will miss a league without LeBron’s chase downs, Steph’s ability to hit shots from the parking lot, and KD’s ability to score on anyone at any time. Let’s not allow comparison to make us wish we had stopped to just enjoy the game a little bit more.