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The 7 - Sports that aren't Baseball, Football, Basketball, or Hockey - LeBron James, SI's Sportsman Of The Year
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Big Bad
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#1 Posted on 3.12.12 1351.09
Reposted on: 3.12.19 1359.02
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/magazine/sportsman/12/02/lebron-james-2012-sportsman/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t11_a1

This cover can also be found on the dartboards of every pub in Cleveland. I would've taken a lot of folks as 'SOTY' before getting around to James.
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lotjx
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#2 Posted on 3.12.12 1400.30
Reposted on: 3.12.19 1400.33
The question is who else would put up there? Eli? Maybe, but he is the third famous QB in NY. There is no hockey even though, good luck with getting one of those guys on the cover. If the Tigers won, Cabrera would be my pick. Triple Crown is almost impossible to achieve even though they had people arguing if he should have gotten the MVP. No one gives a shit about tennis and if it isn't Tiger or Phil, golf is out. I like Rory, but he is not ready yet.

If there was any year to give to LeBron, its this year. He finally won the big one and actually had a big hand in doing it. It also goes with the redemption aspects of sports when he left Cleveland he was Darth Vader, now he is Anakin Skywalker.

My pick would be Te'o from Notre Dame. He has returned the greatest college football program to glory. He is a Heisman nominee for defense and may win the thing which is unheard of when you got assholes like Woody Page who think, because the guy on the statue has a football it should go to offensive players instead the best overall player. Te'o actually had to deal with some real personal problems and turned it into a rallying point for his team and for the fans. Yet, I doubt he would win the Heisman, so winning Sports Man of the Year is totally out.

If anything it should be Lance Armstrong. He has been in the news for all the wrong reasons and his downfall has been epic. Sports Illustrated won't give a giant spotlight to the terrible things about sports when its a feel good award. Sorta like Time Magazine and the number of villains out there that probably should have won Man of the Year when its supposed to go who had the biggest impact.

(edited by lotjx on 3.12.12 1402)
graves9
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#3 Posted on 3.12.12 1417.28
Reposted on: 3.12.19 1417.29
I would have gone with Dickey. He was the most compelling story of the year in sports. Whether he was climbing mount Kilimanjaro for charity, writing a book and then after having two really good years he took it up a notch and became one of the best pitchers in the game at 38, and won 20 games and won the CY Young. He would have been so much better of a pick then a great player winning a championship on a stacked team, IMO.
Peter The Hegemon
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#4 Posted on 3.12.12 1800.40
Reposted on: 3.12.19 1802.42
When in doubt, in an Olympic year, especially a summer Olympic year, go there. Usain Bolt would've been a good choice. Gabby Douglas or Ryan Lochte would have been decent.

Agree that if the Tigers had won the Series Miggy would have been it.
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#5 Posted on 3.12.12 1954.14
Reposted on: 3.12.19 1959.03
Should make it Paterno with the same logic that Time uses when they announce "Person of the Year".
Big Bad
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#6 Posted on 3.12.12 2358.38
Reposted on: 3.12.19 2359.02
Paterno actually did win SOTY back in the 80's --- the worst of the 'sketchy in hindsight' winners (Pete Rose, Lance Armstrong, McGwire/Sosa, Brett Favre) that seemed good at the time.

Whereas Time's award is specifically supposed to go to just the top newsmaker of the year (for better or for worse), SI's award specifically has a sportsmanship aspect attached to it. It's to go to the person who has both the greatest achievement combined with great off-the-field attributes. To this extent, it's hard to see James as a great choice.

While LBJ's general jerkiness isn't THAT great a sin in comparison to some of the past bad winners, why couldn't SI have picked one of the champions of the past year who also had a seemingly clean character? What about one of the Mannings, Lionel Messi, Nicklas Lidstrom, Rory McIlroy, Roger Federer, Buster Posey, R.A. Dickey, Mike Trout or (as Peter the Hegemon pointed out) any number of Olympians --- Bolt, Douglas, Franklin, any of the great British winners or even Phelps again.



(edited by Big Bad on 4.12.12 0059)
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#7 Posted on 4.12.12 1337.57
Reposted on: 4.12.19 1343.06
    Originally posted by Big Bad
    While LBJ's general jerkiness isn't THAT great a sin in comparison to some of the past bad winners, why couldn't SI have picked one of the champions of the past year who also had a seemingly clean character? What about one of the Mannings, Lionel Messi, Nicklas Lidstrom, Rory McIlroy, Roger Federer, Buster Posey, R.A. Dickey, Mike Trout or (as Peter the Hegemon pointed out) any number of Olympians --- Bolt, Douglas, Franklin, any of the great British winners or even Phelps again.


LeBron's 2012: NBA MVP, NBA title, NBA Finals MVP, Olympic gold medal. Nobody else really has an argument, especially when you consider how much the title means to his legacy. (And while by definition his Olympic gold medal means it HAS to be an "Olympic Year", that is somewhat unfortunate to other Olympic athletes who only get a shot once every four years.)
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