Thursday, March 6, 1997
COMMENTARY:
Sports legends should end pursuit of former glory once they
retire
I ran into Magic Johnson at Pauley on Tuesday and it got me
thinking. OK, maybe "ran into" is the wrong term. It’s not like we
chatted or anything. Perhaps "I saw Magic Johnson" would be a more
accurate way of putting it.
Anyway, seeing Magic got me thinking about his retirement and
comeback, and retirement and comeback, and …
It’s sad, but that’s what most people think of now when Magic
pops into mind. Not the no-look passes, not the championship rings,
not the MVP awards, not even the the thousand-kilowatt smile. The
comebacks. He’s less and less one of the all-time greats and more
and more a guy who just can’t let go.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t fault a guy for missing the
action or for trying to see if his old body can still do what it
used to. Things happen, and athletes can be forced to bow out on
their careers, only to realize, too late, that they are making a
mistake. Hell, there’s even something heroic about seeing a guy
fighting the odds and hushing the nay-sayers. But with Magic and
his ilk, it’s getting downright silly.
Magic actually attempted only two comebacks (not an unbearable
number) Â one exactly a year after his HIV-induced retirement
and the other just last season. The problem was, the guy wouldn’t
stay retired even when he supposedly was. Every time he appeared in
public, the guy seemed to drop hints about a possible return. TV
reporters would stop him during a game to ask about the matchup,
and he would make some comment regarding wanting to play again.
Then, a day or two later, once he’d gotten the talk radio callers
all in a tizzy about the possibility of his return, he would make
an announcement saying that he had been misunderstood and pledged
his desire to stay retired.
To put it bluntly, the guy did more waffling than the
International House of Pancakes, and fans simply got tired of it.
In a sense, this once-bright star, this idol to millions, was
suddenly ridiculous. The man became a running joke.
And Magic is not alone. For those of you who somehow missed it,
Sugar Ray Leonard, 40 and a grandfather, came out of retirement
(yet again) last week to fight Hector "Macho" Camacho in Atlantic
City. It was Sugar Ray’s fifth (five, V, cinco) comeback and it
left little doubt in the minds of observers as to the logic of a
sixth.
While Sugar Ray didn’t quite have his ass handed to him, he did
suffer a TKO early in the fifth round. When you consider that
Camacho is on the downward slope of his own career (he’s hardly a
young pup himself at 34), it becomes clear that Sugar Ray’s latest
comeback was less than a rousing success. Even he had to admit as
much afterwards and promise that he is now definitely retired
(again).
Add to these two recent cases the names of Willie Mays, Joe
Montana and O.J. Simpson (Remember when he was just a sports
figure?): guys who didn’t exactly jump in and out of retirement,
but who nevertheless held on too long. Yes, maybe they were, like
Magic and Sugar Ray, still better at what they did than most of the
guys out there, but they weren’t as good as the myths of Willie
Mays, Joe Montana and O.J Simpson. And this fact served only to
knock those myths down a notch, to hurt the legends surrounding
them.
So fellas: Please, know when to say when. And when you do, stick
to your word. Anything else would be unbecoming of Magic and Sugar
Ray.
Kariakin, a Daily Bruin columnist, will no longer be referred to
as "Rob Kariakin," instead preferring "The Columnist Formerly Known
as Rob Kariakin."
Rob Kariakin