Jim Gray: The Man, The Myth, The Debacle(s)- The Bizarro King Midas Reigns

Blogging for Apples

I have always wanted to write a sports blog and always found a reason to avoid it.  Maybe it’s because I’m lazy.  Maybe it’s because I’m not a great writer. 

Or maybe it’s because the most interesting thing I can come up with is a piece about a guy who most of America knows only for asking poignant questions like “So what do you want to talk about?”

I guess the real reason I wanted to do this is because it makes me sick that Internet journalism has quit trying (for the most part).  ESPN morphed into TMZ during the Tiger saga and followed that up with The Decision and the Heat Index. 

I understand following the Heat because they are an enigma.  I also understand harping on The Decision because of the shocking absurdity of it all (even though ESPN was nothing more than the match that lit the fuse).

With all that being said, the mainstream sports media covers every major story from the most obvious angles.  What makes the 30 for 30 series (some of ESPN’s best work ever) and E:60 so great is the fresh ideas that each brings to the table. 

My problem is the big boys have all the money and people you would need to cover the angles, yet they rarely give us a new wrinkle to a relevant issue.

So I guess that’s my goal.  Blog about an important (not real life important, just sports important) or popular story by adding an angle or a little nugget of information.

I’m going to do it with no backing, no sources, and no inside information about anything (even though any of those three would make this infinitely easier).  Without further ado, I give you the first venture into this foray (or the last if it fails miserably).

Shades of Gray- Boxing Kryptonite

I know what you are thinking.  Hypocrite, shenanigans, or a little of both.  We already know that an over-the-hill nobody was hand-picked by LeBron’s team to ask him easy questions and single-handedly destroy the already lacking credibility of every sideline reporter in the process (unless you count the whole Rachel Nichols on Brett Favre’s lawn thing). 

However, what was never mentioned in all of the Jim Gray bashing is The Decision isn’t even close to the biggest debacle Gray was ever involved in. 

Before he knocked back a dry martini and lobbed softballs to narcissists in front of millions of Americans and the 8 Heat fans that stumbled into the same bar, Gray was presiding over seminal moments like the Artest Melee and Tyson/Holyfield II. 

Jim Gray was literally involved in two of the worst moments in the history of each respective sport. 

Boxing has not been relevant in almost 10 years, and one has to wonder if Tyson biting off an ear was the moment it all began to shatter. Fans still tuned in to see a circus show when Tyson was reinstated. 

Boxing fans passionately watched overhyped and irrelevant fights on the hope that the sport would return to prominence.

Some would argue that there are other reasons that boxing has faded and those reasons certainly factor into it circling the drain. 

Ex-fighters die young or can’t function because they can’t put together thoughts, yet we all still watch the NFL every Sunday. 

MMA started as a cult phenomenon and morphed into a powerhouse that can draw casual fans with the right card.

While both are true, most Americans believe boxing to be a dirty sport.  Tommy Morrison tested positive for HIV and still has a boxing license (although it is truly an American tragedy if something went horribly wrong with the 1996 test).

Antonio Margarito was caught placing illegal pads in his hand wrapping and still went on to fight the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

With all that being said, the moment casual fans in America believed boxing to be a dirty sport (to the point that it stopped watching) was the moment that piece of ear hit the mat in Vegas. 

It wasn’t the absurdity of the Nevada Commission reinstating Iron Mike’s license little more than a year later.

When Mike Tyson nibbled the first time, it was weird.  I’ll always remember him going in for the whole enchilada, followed by Evander Holyfield with the same stunned look on his face Pauly D has every time The Situation ruins one of his hook ups.  That is how I will always remember it. 

No matter how it is ultimately remembered, the damage was done to boxing in an instant, and who do you think was in the thick of it all?  You betcha.  Jim Gray.

“Did Reggie Miller Just Punch Somebody?”

I was at a bar the night Steven Jackson started punching out random fans like he was Eddy Curry fighting for the last cheeseburger at a buffet. 

It was a meaningless November game between two legitimate title contenders and nobody was paying attention to any of the TV screens.

I have always been a huge NBA fan and did not know or care who was playing that night.  The only thing I remember is my drunk buddy behind me yelling over my shoulder “Did Reggie Miller just punch somebody?” 

I know.  Reggie didn’t hit anyone.  The guy was in street clothes with a broken hand at the time.

He also looks nothing like Ron Artest, Stephen Jackson, or Jermaine O’Neal (the only Pacers actually punching people). 

In defense of my buddy, he had a pitcher in his hand and was drinking it by himself and it was not the first one.

The point is that even without that ridiculous statement I will never forget that moment.  I have never been in a room before that went from “need to yell to talk” loud to “can hear a faucet drip” quiet that fast over a sporting event on television in my life. 

Hundreds of underage college kids in one tiny bar were not saying anything until the moment the last beer at the Palace was poured on the last Pacer. 

All we saw that night were players laying out fans, fans fighting on the court, and players having beer poured on them as they exit like they were the bad guy in a Wrestlemania match. 

I had not watched a single moment of that game and did not know what was happening. 

I had no clue that Ben Wallace was being an idiot, Detroit Pistons fans were being idiots, Ron Artest was being a bigger idiot, and Steven Jackson was acting like CT after he got sucker-punched by Adam on the Challenge a few years ago.

Even though I had no idea what the context was, I knew that this was a sport-altering moment.

There is no need to dwell on it.  We all know what happened, why it happened (two crazy people on the same team, and not fun crazy like TOchocinco), and how it destroyed a Pacers franchise for the next however many years that they are awful.

When the Knicks/Bulls fight spilled into the crowd in 1994, the league could easily move beyond it because random fans were not getting sucker-punched by perennial All-Stars.

That horrible night ruined the NBA for casual fans everywhere for several years and forever for some.  It’s simple.  If a sporting event is not safe to attend, why would I tune in to watch it?

Casual fans were already disillusioned by the hand check rule, no Magic, Bird, or Michael, and Shaq-Kobe feud that people were sick of hearing about.  While the NBA recovered, it was a long road back. 

This will forever be remembered by my generation as the worst night in the history of the NBA (for older generations it is probably Len Bias). 

And Jim Gray was right there, albeit in a shaky voice, with his black glove of doom stamped all over it.

The Lebrocalypse

So why would LeBron involve the bizarro King Midas in the most important moment (Finals sweep doesn’t count) in his sporting legacy?  Was it because Gray claimed to have a “special relationship” with Kobe years ago?  I doubt it. 

The answer is probably as simple as Jim Gray was a guy guaranteed to lob soft balls.  Nixon agreed to Frost and LeBron agreed to Jim Gray.

By the way, it was not surprising at all that LeBron left Cleveland.  LeBron knows how tortured of a sports city that Cleveland is and simply doesn’t care. 

He grew up a fan of wildly popular sports teams in great cities.  The guy is both a Yankees and a Cowboys fan. 

He’s the annoying friend every group has that constantly raves about Duke and Coach K’s greatness. 

He lives nowhere near North Carolina, does not know a single person that went to Duke, and probably has never even driven through the state. 

LeBron is that guy two times over.  He was never staying in a blue collar city for a tortured fan base for the rest of his career (even if his “talents” had actually delivered a title to Cleveland). 

LeBron was always headed to a bigger and brighter skyline.  The glitz and glamour of New York and Miami were just too compelling. 

Some people love their hometown and some people always dream of leaving.  LeBron wanted to be a rock star and not a local legend.

It was really the absurd narcissism of the whole Lebacle that transformed spurning your hometown in free agency into a seminal pop-culture moment. 

The fact that Jim Gray was the presiding ringmaster of the whole ordeal just strengthened the legacy of bizarro King Midas.

So Jim Gray touches boxing and hordes of boxing fans will never watch it again.  He touches the NBA and some casual fans and maybe a few diehards will never come back.

He flirts with LeBron and Lebron’s legacy/popularity/likeability will never be the same.  I’m not sure how far Jim Gray’s tentacles stretch into the real world, but let’s just keep him out of the White House war room, just in case.