This certainly is not the time of year to be negative, so I decided to give you a good laugh.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Sportsman of the Year.
Now isn't that the funniest one-liner you've read in a long time? What could be a bigger joke than that? To call Kareem a sportsman is like putting a tuxedo on a pig. The terms simply don't go together.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I started to chuckle when Bob Ryan had the audacity to suggest Kareem as the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.
I was in the office early that day (Bob stays up late reading the NBA guide), but I jumped him as soon as he came in the door.
"Was it the time he copped a sneak right hand on Kent Benson from behind and broke his jaw that made you boost Abdul-Jabbar as the Sportsman?" I asked puckishly.
"That was a long time ago," Ryan replied.
"Or was it the way he elbowed a fan viciously, knocked him to the floor, and then proceeded to stomp on him after the final game of the championship victory in '84 that made Abdul-Jabbar a candidate?" I asked.
"That was a year ago," Ryan said, reminding me that his ballot was cast for 1985.
OK, it must have been the incident in the play-offs earlier this year, in May, when Abdul-Jabbar jumped Danny Schayes of Denver from behind (because the Lakers were getting their butts kicked in the game), which was so bush league that he apologized for it later.
Ryan can tell you the name and address of the guy that caught Roger Maris' 61st home run, but the walking encyclopedia of sports let that one fall through the crack.
"You know," he told me, "I was at that game, and I forgot about it." So, evidently, did Sports Illustrated.
Abdul-Jabbar is a great player. He always has been. But he has never been a good sport. He has played his entire pro career with a pout on his face, and, in my opinion, he is one of the biggest crybabies in the game when it comes to officiating.
But, even if we eliminated the sportsmanship angle because of his past and present, Abdul-Jabbar still shouldn't get the award for 1985.
All the Lakers had to do was play six games in the entire season, and he was on a lunch break throughout the first one.
Los Angeles has no competition in the West. There isn't anyone, anywhere, who would have bet against the Lakers' reaching the NBA finals. Beyond the lack of competition, Abdul-Jabbar was surrounded by a tremendous cast. He is not a player who had to carry his team. He could simply put his body into overdrive and start coasting until he matched up with Boston.
After the first game, he was great. He was the most dominant force - the reason Los Angeles finally beat the Celtics in the final. But I also remember at least two occasions when he went out of his way, and beyond the call of duty, to drill someone when the situation did not call for it.
There is no question that Kareem is playing tougher and more aggressively now, at the end of his career, than he did in the middle, when anyone who spent any time around the league will tell you he didn't like facing up with big guys such as Moses Malone. Especially Moses. No way Abdul-Jabbar is going to pull a Benson or a Schayes on old Mo.
So Sports Illustrated blew it. You don't make a guy who is not a sportsman your man of the year for playing a six-game schedule.
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