I like a good rivalry just like the next guy. Rick Flair vs. Dusty Roads. Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood vs. the Brisco Brothers (tagteam bouts). Johnny Weaver's Sleeper vs. Baron Von Raschke's Claw. I mean, I like a good rivalry.
But I also like when Woody and Buzz Lightyear go from being jealous adversaries to best buds. I even like when the Dave-and-Maddie's of the faux-spy world go from being sniping partners to Hart to Hart-esque committed partners by series end. Not saying Lebron, D-wade and Chris Bosh are going that way, but what if they do? Hunh? What if they do?
Toy Story is one of the highest grossing animated films of them all. Ricky Steamboat replaced Jay Youngblood with the younger Steamboat and wrestled in the Puerto Rican Wrestling League. If the Dragon can find success back in PR among the latino brethren, why can't Bosh and 'Bron? What is Michael Jordan objecting to?
Jordan recently bashed to Bosh-'Bron-Wade union by saying such silliness as, "I would never have called up Magic and Larry and suggested teaming up. I wanted to beat those guys!"
So what? What is it that he and some other NBA executives and players are really disparaging?
I don't like it when centers help the little guards up from the floor. I don't like when guys apologize after hard fouls. I don't like it when, once they're on teams, guys in the NBA speak too complimentarily about opposing players. I liked it very much when Iverson refused to verbally bow down to Jordan and tried, albeit unsuccessfully, tried to break his ankles just like he was trying to break everybody else's ankles during his early years in the NBA.
But the idea and fact of NBA players acknowledging the prowess of their peers not just in interviews, not just in private, but in face to face talks together as well as in interviews and in private, makes me want to both skip and leap off a top-rope!
How hypocritical is it to say one should make the greatest fortune possible (Jordan, about himself) and then say you shouldn't talk to other guys who also want to do that, and win championships, if the conversation is about doing that together?
Does anybody remember that there did come a day when Dusty Roads and Rick Flair wrestled in a match together? Didn't Dusty and Tully Blanchard even join forces at one point? Didn't the Baron, one week, become a good guy? Does nobody remember the various incarnations of The Four Horseman - remember that Barry Windham was a GOOD GUY??? That's sports entertainment before, and certainly after, the Jordan era.
C'mon, Jordan: you're from North Carolina. You watched Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling on TV and at the Charlotte Coliseum just like I watched it at the Hampton Coliseum! C'mon. Just, come on.
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