No More Heroes, Please

I think you’re mixing up your metaphors here. There’s a big difference between a war hero and sports hero. The world can always use more war heroes. But the Celtics don’t need anyone on the team to think they are a sports hero. Leave that type of thinking to Kobe and the Lakers, and hopefully it will continue to sink them.

Thanks, Sam. Clearly, we are talking about significantly different definitions of the word “heroism.” This is probably all a semantic issue.

I think in the context of sports, “heroism” can easily become a negative force. I think on our team, it’s been specifically defined as such, by Doc, on many occasions. And I like that.

He was (and I am) just using the word differently from the way you’ve use it in your comments.

He’s saying many of the same things you’re saying, but he managed to do it without hurling insults, or accusations about non-existent issues; he’s just generally furthering the conversation.

With this post I hoped to have a discussion about the nature of heroism (in sports, but also perhaps in general), how it varies so much from person to person — from a child’s admiration (your example) all the way to hero worship and out-of-control murderous rampages (e.g., in Europe). Between the extremes there’s a continuum of all kinds of attitudes. Worth exploring, I thought.

And I do believe our team wants no “heroes.” Doc’s used the word many times, and I believe he’s right.

Now…… I guess you and I are going to have it out one day, on some divisive issue. We live in different worlds, and the antipathy is obvious. And that’s fine… it’s just that this is not that time and place. There is nothing here to attack, so I refuse to do battle on this one.

The only thing I can say to you that you won’t like is that I think you should consider a course in anger management.

Russell of course, and then there’s Hondo, and well, most of the old Celtics.

I was referring to OUR attitudes, more than the realities of the players involved. And I did conflate the two. It was sort of my intention to do that… to say: if the team doesn’t want heroes, why don’t we just do the same, and admire the TEAM, as opposed to glorifying the individuals that comprise it.

I get that those are different things. But conflating them seemed rewarding… because they are conflatable, on some level. And, I thought, maybe it would help stop some of the treacle that’s been flowing around here lately (something I personally dislike).

Mostly, I hoped to get a conversation going on the nature of heroism, how it varies so much, whether it’s a good thing or bad thing in sports, etc., etc. And btw, I loved that the first commenter expanded the subject into real-life heroism, too.

Doesn’t mean an athlete can’t be courageous, or a hero in the ‘real’ sense.

But one needs to be clear about what one means when using these terms. Roberto Clemente was both a ‘sports hero’ as well as a ‘real hero’.

LOL – can’t think of too many overlapping cases of ‘sports dynasty’ and ‘real dynasty’ though …

…But I think more than that, on some level. With some teams, anyway. When guys give up their egos and band together to do something they could never do alone, and win championships without even having the best players, at times….. there’s something there we can take away and use in the real world, I think.