First, congrats to the Miami Heat, the 2012 NBA Champions. Though they will proclaim themselves as such, and all the caps, shirts, and other paraphernalia that will shortly fly off the shelves will say the same -- you'll notice I didn't say World Champions. That's because outside of the NBA, no other teams the world over were allowed to participate. Could the Heat have dispatched any other team from any other country? Probably, but we really don't know, do we? So in reality, they're NBA champs, not world champs.
It was good to see Lebron finally get his ring for a couple reasons. First, at least some of the enormous expectations he has had to endure since jumping from high school to the NBA have been lifted from his shoulders. Far more importantly, we average fans will be spared the on-going tera-quinta-bazillion sound bytes and written words about James never reaching his potential. It's been a long haul, but we made it. Whew.
We even got to see what Micky Arison, the owner of the Heat, looks like. Arison made his fortune through Carnival Corporation, the world's largest cruise ship operator. Though he officially goes by the title "managing general partner", don't be fooled. He owns that team, lock, stock, and ports of call. Arison lives on a 200 foot yacht. To put that in perspective, the strongest armed NFL quarterbacks could wind up and heave a football as far as they could and they might, just might, be able to throw it from stem to stern. That's a serious boat.
Nevertheless, just seeing Arison's face was a revelation. For many years, yours truly wondered if he actually existed as a real human being. Could the name just be fictitious? Could he have been from another world like ET, Mr. Spock, and maybe the Kardashians? Nobody could be sure. I understand billionaires have a habit of being reclusive, but when one is in charge of the Carnival, ahem, the Heat, you'd think he'd have shown up once in a while, if only to reassure the masses. Another dilemma solved. Whew II.
Of course, after the Heat won the NBA championship, the talking heads went on and on dissecting every stat and trivial detail to the point it would make a microbiologist proud. Hey guys. The Heat won. The Thunder lost. Does any of the rest really matter?
Then I saw Stuart Scott, another talking head under the Disney owned ESPN and ABC umbrella, doing a post-game interview with Mike Miller, a Miami player who had come off the bench and pumped in seven 3-point shots during the game. Simply put, the Heat might not have won that game without Miller's contributions -- 23 points in all.
At the conclusion of the interview, Miller, a white guy, stuck out his hand for Scott, a black guy, to shake it. Men have shaken hands for countless centuries upon greeting each other, departing, or merely a gesture of respect.
Sure, many other forms have arisen. There's high fives, low fives, chest, side, and butt bumps, dancing, and a lot of other things.
But when a man extends his hand to another to be shaken -- it's supposed to be grasped and shaken. This goes to the very roots of respecting your fellow man.
Scott looked down at Miller's outstretched hand and smirked, instead merely offering a token fist bump. Arguments could likely be made by some that had the colors been reversed, the dreaded "racism" accusation might have reared it's ugly head. The hard cores are out there just waiting to pounce on such a thing.
I won't say that, but not shaking Miller's hand when offered made Scott look like something else in my book.
A chump.
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