DJ Mbenga of the Los Angeles Lakers: If We Could Be Like Him

March 19th, 2010 by Nate Smith Leave a reply »
Growing up, I remember seeing those Gatorade commercials: "If I could be like Mike." Everywhere you went, the store, the gym, the schools, it seemed as if all the kids wanted to be like Michael "Mike" Jordan.

Now kids want to be like Kobe and Lebron. Our kids turn these athletes into heroes for what they are able to accomplish on the basketball court. We are no better than our kids as we accord legendary status to those who achieve an extraordinary level of excellence.

Kobe, Lebron, and Michael are all to be admired for what they do on the basketball court. They are all the very best at what they do. And with apologies to Magic and Wilt, they will probably be considered the holy trinity of basketball players in the future.

Still, the player I admire most won't go down as a top 3 player ever when it's all said and done. In fact, he has virtually no shot of ending up in the Hall of Fame. They won't build a statute of him outside of any arena. Sons and fathers won't tell tales of his heroics on the court. They won't hang his jersey in the rafters. Nonetheless, his exploits and his story might influence more lives in a pos ...

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