the Dirk/LeBron-DWade cough controversy

HERE.

The two Miami stars made fun of Nowitzki’s “supposed” illness in Game 5, which sounded like a real illness to me and most others (sinus infection with a 101-degree temperature).

When I first saw the headline that Nowitzki had responded, I thought he had lost the battle: he shouldn’t have let such a stupid joke get under his skin at a time like this.

But having actually read the article, my assessment has flipped. Dirk handled it with the appropriate degree of contempt. LeBron and D-Wade really were being childish and immature, their response to his response was equally dumb, and I now expect Dallas to put this one away in Game 6. They seem to be more focused right now, while the Miami joking sounds to me like alibi creation. (“We’re just enjoying life. Why take everything so seriously?”) If Michael Jordan had just lost Game 5 to go down 3-2 in the NBA Finals, do you think he’d be making stupid cough jokes about Karl Malone? No, he’d come out in Game 6 with an evil glare and score 50 points and tie the series. LeBron isn’t going to do it, and that’s why LeBron is no Jordan, über-talented though he is. Jordan never created alibis for himself.

It’s a pretty good law of human affairs: when you see someone starting to prepare alibis, you can expect them to fail in the next stage.

One example… People who are coming up for tenure soon and suddenly pick fights with everyone in their university. “Why now?,” you wonder. Precisely now, is the answer. They feel like they’re going to fail, but rather than fail on the merits and have to face the fact, they want to be able to say that they didn’t clear the hurdle because everyone at the university hated them. In order to make this plausible to themselves, they act in such a way that everyone does hate them. I’ve seen this happen at least once at every university I’ve been in. Selected graduate students do the same thing. They have a feeling they won’t be able to finish the dissertation, so suddenly they have “a fight with their advisor,” usually a completely unnecessary one. Alibi creation.

Have you ever been on a date with someone who started telling you the gory details of the symptoms of some disease they have, or have you ever done this yourself for no known reason? It’s a good way to create an alibi so that you’re not being accepted or rejected at your best.

But back to the topic… It feels to me like Dallas is intensely focused on the win, while Miami is descending into childish practical jokes, and Dallas isn’t being rattled by them.

They’ve come a long way. Many people, including me, were ready to write Dirk off just a few years ago as a prolific scorer but a softie with a heart made of wax. He’s about to prove us all wrong.

Dirk, you’re not soft at all, are you?

The ultimate mentally tough athlete: