The Sports Wannabe

We have seen it time and time again: Star athlete retires from his or her respective sport, and since they are compulsive competitors, they need to get back into the sport in a capacity that doesn’t require their broken bodies. No one can fault them for this, betting $25,000 a hand in Vegas and berating your children with unrealistic expectations isn’t enough for your average gas station attendant, much less a former pro athlete.

While we have seen this scenario play out numerous times (Magic Johnson,Larry Bird, 2010 Reggie Miller, 2012 Micheal Jordan), we haven’t seen anything close to what Kevin McHale and Isiah Thomas have so umm… effectively demonstrated?

In Mchale’s time in Minnesota, he wasted much of the career one of the top 5 power forwards of all time, he fired two well respected coaches in an effort to pass the buck, and ruined the team’s future by having draft picks taken away in a botched contract agreement. In fact, the only thing more hideous than the teams McHale has put on the court over the past 12 years are the sweaters he wore while doing it.

Thomas, has also managed to destroy his team’s roster in his position as a general manager (although, in all fairness, who thought having 13 guards on a roster would be a bad idea?). But, in a clear effort to trump McHale, he also landed his franchise in the middle of a sexual harassment and wrongful termination case that will cost owner James Dolan 11.6 million dollars. He has also made blatantly racist remarks aimed at whites (my sunburned race has taken too much!).

So what makes these two special individuals so bad at their jobs? The same reason they were so good at their former jobs, arrogance. They were confident they were the best and would always be the best choice to take the last shot. Unfortunately, that bravado tends lead to tunnel vision. This may be why Thomas hasn’t listened to those around him when making deals and didn’t listen to his team when making the decision to start Stephon Marbury after his outburst this past week, even after his team voted for Marbury not to start.

This is a common stumbling block for any leader, whether it is the President (cough cough last seven years), or just the manager of an Unnamed Large Electronics Retailer location (cough cough everyone I work with).

So, in a few years when all of you NBA GMs out there start blowing up Reggie Miller’s phone, think about the aforementioned individuals, then call Mark Madsen.

Till next time I watch a Timberwolves game,

Samuel