A Voice in the Wilderness In Defense of "Mere Conservatism"

Patton, Pride, and The King

By: R.J. Moeller

“For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. And a slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.”   -General George S. Patton

Humility is the rarest of all human characteristics, and pride is the most abundant.  How do I know this?  Because I am one – a pride-ridden human, that is.  As the great Christian thinker C.S. Lewis put it, we are most certain of the specific faults and flaws in others that we ourselves possess.  There is a self-identification with the pride that resides in my own heart when I see my neighbor, or, for example, a 25 year-old NBA basketball player who recently switched NBA teams to play in Miami, indulge in a public exhibition of prideful, immature showboating.

I identify with it and resent it in large part because I know deep down that I am capable of making the same type of mistake (and likely have already at some point in my life).

For those of you living abroad or under a rock with poor cable and cell reception, (arguably) the best basketball player in the world, Lebron James, held the basketball world “hostage” the past month as he deliberated over which NBA team he would play for starting in the 2010-2011 season.  James had been a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers his entire career since being drafted straight out of high school in 2003.  Last Thursday night, in what can only be described as a classless move, Lebron agreed to announce his career intentions on live television.  His decision was to leave Cleveland for the sandier pastures of Miami, FL where two other mega-stars, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade, had already signed.

There are three basic reasons why so many people and sports media pundits have reacted negatively to Lebron’s antics over the past 4-6 weeks.  The first is that James did not show the respect to his former employer, the owner of the Cavs, to call and let him know that he was bolting for Miami.  Instead he, his ego, and the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) colluded to produce an hour-long special where King James would announce his intentions on live television.  The hype surrounding the announcement suddenly became more important than the integrity of anyone involved.  You could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice that night that Lebron was uncomfortable with the format and execution of the televised interview – probably because it was ridiculously lame and dishonorable.

The second reason this story has generated the backlash it has is that with Bosh and Wade, Lebron James has instantly created an All Star-caliber squad that most objective observers would agree instantly has the best chance to win the NBA championship title next year.  But while Americans love a winner, we rarely enjoy a lop-sided winner.  People don’t like to see Andre the Giant wrestle Jackie Chan.  We want competition, and we love stories of home-grown talent that overcome great odds and foil old foes on their path to victory.  Say what you will, but sports do matter in this country and Americans instinctively sense the moral and ethical dilemmas and lessons inherent to athletic competition (especially on a such a prominent, national stage, as the NBA).  Teams like the Miami Heat and New York Yankees may be within their legal rights to purchase a title, but that doesn’t mean sports consumers have to applaud it.

The third and final disappointing aspect of the Lebron-to-Miami saga came the following day after his infamous press conference.  Last Friday, in a spectacle I imagine was akin to the Roman parades for returning conquerors General Patton spoke of in the quote I opened with, the Miami Heat held a sold-out welcome rally and extravaganza in their arena.

There were roofs raised, high-steps taken, fist-pumps pumped, and shimmy-shakes aplenty as James, Wade, and Bosh strutted their stuff on stage in front of thousands of rabid fans.  Fireworks exploded and confetti fell.  It was out of control, over the top, and unsettling to behold.  The “Big Three” embarrassed themselves and came off as immature and petty.

A celebration such as the one witnessed in Miami last week ought to be reserved for teams that have actually won something, like my Chicago Blackhawks did in winning the 2010 Stanley Cup in hockey.

These young men enjoyed their day in the sun after defeating four different teams in four different grueling best-of-seven series.  The Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith, the NHL’s eventual winner of the Defensive Player of the Year award, lost seven teeth early in the 3rd round of the playoffs after taking a puck to the mouth and not only played later in that same game, but played every one of the remaining eight.  That’s sacrifice and effort worthy of the 3 million Chicagoans who came out for the victory parade and rally in Grant Park.

Contrast the earned achievements and displayed class of the Chicago Blackhawks with the self-indulgent, premature, and overstated hootenanny held in Southern Florida last week.  The Miami Heat would have done well to provide Lebron, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh each with their own personal assistant who was required to walk alongside them during the festivities surrounding their arrival and whisper in their ear, “All glory is fleeting.”  But they didn’t.  And as a result, all three players, but Lebron in particular, are experiencing a less-than-positive backlash from fans, journalists, and former NBA players.

Almost overnight, “King James” has become the least popular thing associated with South Beach since Will Smith’s “Welcome to Miami (Bienvenido A Miami)” music video dropped some ten years prior.

So what is it that drove Lebron James, an otherwise controversy-free athlete, to make such a spectacle of himself?  What led to his fall from grace with millions of adoring fans and respectful peers?  And what do his recent, unfortunate actions say about modern American culture?  What does our reaction to those actions say about us?

Pride, not money, is the root of all evil.  Pride is also the root of most selfish, silly actions; especially among men.  We are competitive creatures.  In his chapter on pride in Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis writes:

“Pride is essentially competitive - is competitive by its very nature - while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest…

Power is what Pride really enjoys: there is nothing makes a man feel so superior to others as being able to move them about like toy soldiers.”

Throughout this entire free agency process, we have heard many times from Lebron James that he is simply “all about winning.”  He is a competitor and a tremendously gifted athlete, but I believe his pride has been hurt over the past seven years as many have criticized him for failing to win an NBA championship.  The combination of prideful ambition, in conjunction with a ceaseless chorus of naysayers regarding his value as a player if he never wins a title, compromised James’ better judgment and led him down a path that resulted in the bizarre, unpopular decisions we witnessed as of late.

It wasn’t the glamour, the women, or the tropical climate that brought him to Miami.  It wasn’t the cash-money, “dolla’, dolla’ bills ya’ll” that guided his decision to flaunt his free agent status and to force NBA teams to grovel at his feet for his considerable services.  It was pride.  It was the superior feeling he got from making others move about like toy soldiers.

But Lebron is not alone in terms of who can learn a valuable life lesson or two from the events of the past month.  The owners of the Miami Heat are largely responsible for the disgusting display of hasty, gratuitous celebration that took place at last Friday’s rally.  My problem is not with the fact that an NBA franchise is so excited about their new team that they want to gin-up some enthusiasm among the local fan-base, but that they poured out such extravagant honor for three players who have yet to complete a single practice together.  This is the same problem I had with the entire coverage of the Barack Obama presidential campaign and election (and presidency, thus far).

The man had impressive academic credentials, had an adoring base of supporters in the media, and generated large crowds around the country when he spoke.  But he hadn’t accomplished anything of note when Oprah wept, Chris Matthews swooned, and the Nobel Peace Prize committee went ga-ga for Barack after only a couple of weeks in office.  Perhaps he will accomplish something grand by the end of his one-term in office, but save the misty eyes and tingling legs for after a president displays greatness.  To do so before says much more about the desperation of one’s supporters than it does about the man himself.

Which brings me to my final thought on the matter: the Lebron James saga is really all about us.  It is about the consumers that lap up the drivel 24-hour-a-day entertainment networks like ESPN present us to sell advertising time on the air.  We buy the tabloids in the grocery store, we (myself included) tune in when Tiger Woods has a press conference to confess his infidelities, and we create the cultural environment within which young people like Lebron James grow up.  That environment is one that promotes fame and stardom over good character and sound judgment.  It is one that promotes academic knowledge and “a good job” over moral wisdom and personal contentment.  It is one that promotes financial wealth over economic stability and personal responsibility.

I can identify and recognize these societal flaws so readily because I harbor them in my own heart.  Lebron James’ mistakes are so abundantly clear to so many of us because we can spot unbridled pride from all the years we ourselves have indulged in it.  While we must never cease to call reckless or silly public behavior what it is, we do not have to write-off those who engage in it.

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.” Matthew 7:1-5