Question about Rich Rod

He's the most important NBA player, to the extent that he, as a concept, forced those who follow the league to deal with its residual racial demons and to the (concomitant) extent that he changed our perception of what a star player's relationship to "the streets" (or to black culture, in general) can be. He's the first guy to bring the tattoos and cornrows; the first bona fide star who was directly and obviously hip hop influenced, without a — sorry but I can't find a better word — whitewashing for widespread palatability. I mean, yeah, Shaq had rap albums but they were Disney-fied, even if Shaq's passion was obviously strong but never ever ever had he done anything as raw as "40 bars."

The mere existence of Iverson changed the way that we evaluated and accepted every NBA player to come before him or since. That's no understatement. We remember him crossing Jordan as sort of a coup for the game's organic intellectuals over the astroturfed superstars, even though we know that's not exactly fair. That might be a bit of an overstatement, but there's no denying that, in light of AI, it's hard not to think of Jordan and his "Republicans buy shoes too" ethos as milquetoast. Again, AI was a bona fide star doing this. He wasn't just some guy. And poor Kobe (my favorite player, possibly ever) struggled for years before he got over, largely because he was too modeled, in the early days, on Jordan's everything-to-all-people paradigm that AI destroyed (handily). 

Anyhow, every true Scotsman NBA fan understands AI's impact. And the "most important" NBA player has to rank among the "most important athletes" of the 21st century. If I had to make a list of ten it would have to include Tiger, Barry Bonds, AI, and Federer. The footballers would be a tossup (Beckham? Never even won the Ballon d'Or. Ronaldinho? Ronaldo? Zidane?) and no American football players really rise to "important," to my mind, the way AI does. But does that reflect my pro-NBA/soccer bias or the faceless machinistic nature of American football? I dunno. I'm just saying that the AI designation not only makes sense but is pretty much accepted among most thinking NBA fans. Did you see the Hero's Welcome he received in Turkey?