Why Do We Despise Athletes Who Make Wise Career Decisions?

With the NBA Finals wrapping up, and the inevitable and impending post-postseason (Free Agency) on the horizon, talks of Carmelo Anthony to Miami are in full tilt. Presently, I have yet to encounter a person who is in favor of the move, but more importantly, I consistently hear people say they downright "HATE" the potential move. When I delve further into their reasoning for such disdain, I often hear "that would be the easy way out" or "that would lessen the accomplishment of winning a title, knowing that you had to go play with three other hall-of-famers to do so."

This got me thinking about when Lebron uttered his infamous ten words during The Decision, and how much hate and vitriol it incited immediately. I did not understand it then, and I still do not understand it now.

If someone offered you the chance to work anywhere you like in the United States of America, and get paid millions of dollars to do so, and also have a great chance to claim whatever the top award or most prestigious honor of your industry is year after year--why would you ever turn that opportunity down?

I am not sure any of us in our right minds would, but when professional athletes who have worked as hard as they could to put themselves in a position to have such freedom of choice do it, we as a society want to crucify and question their integrity? What is wrong with us?

When famous actors come together to participate in a movie, many of us clamor in anticipation of its actual release so that we can marvel at its greatness. One of my favorite films is Oceans 11, because of the sheer brilliance of so many actors at the top of their game having a willingness to share the silver screen with other great actors.

This is what a Lebron James, a Chris Bosh, a Dwayne Wade, and quite possibly a Carmelo Anthony are demonstrating by having a willingness to sacrifice individual accolades, accomplishments and financial wealth in exchange for the ultimate TEAM goal of a championship.

I constantly hear people discuss how selfish today's superstars are, but at a time when Lebron could have accepted a max deal to go and play in the largest market in the country, he put his own selfish incentives on the back-burner, and went to a place where he knew he was going to have sacrifice shots, stardom and annual pay--all because he wanted to win the ultimate TEAM honor of a championship.

For most of Carmelo's career he has been labeled as a ball hog, or a non-team guy because of his propensity for shooting as often and frequently as he does. This has prompted some to label him a cancer or a non-winner, because of his unwillingness to sacrifice some of his individual success as a means of contributing to the overall team success. However, now that he is considering not only doing that, but doing it in a major way by going and teaming up with three of the top draft picks from his own draft class, which will all but guarantee that he's going to see a dramatic reduction in his field goal attempts per game, he is now labeled as lazy or still a non-true winner because of his decision to join them--AM I MISSING SOMETHING?

I think much of it stems from the fact that many people are simply oblivious to the fact that throughout the history of the NBA, it has taken on average three hall-of-famers on any given team to win an NBA championship. In order to have a dynasty, a team needed to have four hall-of-famers and several all-star caliber role players who were willing to put egos on the back-burner.

And while it is easy to point to a Michael Jordan, or a Magic Johnson, or a Larry Bird and say "they didn't have to jump ship and go to the already established dominance of another team or star player"--such an argument fails to acknowledge that their front office's were committed to doing whatever it took to bring the stars to them--something that Cleveland's, Toronto's and New York's ownership could never do for any of this generation's superstars.

Much of that has to do with the fact that the first two destinations are not large markets, and in the case of Carmelo, his front office is simply incompetent. Magic did not win any of his titles without a minimum of two other hall-of-famers playing by his side. Michael was the same way, as during his years of pure dominance, he was surrounded by multiple hall of famers. Hakeem needed Clyde, while Tim needed David, Parker, Ginobili and now Leonard.

Simply put, 98% of the teams who win championships do so because there are anywhere from three to five hall-of-famers on their roster. Because of such sacrifice and team first mentality, that is why they win the ultimate team accomplishment. Accordingly, this is why Carmelo should not only be applauded, but encouraged to go to Miami and demonstrate to the world and everyone else that he is in fact the consummate team player--plus it would be an extremely wise career decision!