Using Beowulf to Defend Lebron

james

Sports Saturday

Lebron James has been taking a lot of heat recently for joining the Miami basketball team. (Did you catch the pun?) This past trading season was termed “the Lebron Sweepstakes,” and teams from around the country trekked to Cleveland to play court to “King James.” James made the occasion particularly gaudy by persuading ESPN to hold an hour-long special where he would announce his decision. Of course, by the end of it all Miami was ecstatic and everyone else, especially Cleveland, was . . . not.

Predictably, the attacks flooded in. People complained that, by joining with two excellent players (Chris Bosh and superstar Dwayne Wade), James was manufacturing a dream team. Michael Jordan commented that, when he played, the point was to play against the best, not join with them. Others said that, for the sake of a championship, Lebron was giving up his leadership status and joining Wade’s team. How could he ever be a contender with Jordan or Kobe Bryant for “greatest of all time” if he went that route?

Putting aside the fact that Jordan was and Bryant was and still is supported by far better players than those surrounding James in Cleveland—teams that were assembled, albeit by management rather than by players—I’d like to use Beowulf to defend James. (My sons Darien and Toby gave me the idea.) At issue is the question of whether someone can be considered truly great if he has help.

It’s important to note that, when Beowulf goes it alone, he almost destroys his society. Only when he subordinates his ego and joins with another does he slay the dragon that is laying waste to the countryside.


Literary scholars have noted that Beowulf, like the dragon, is a greedy hoarder. Beowulf does not hoard gold, however. He hoards fame. When he goes out to fight the dragon, he insists that the ball be in his hands. He wants to take the winning shot. The glory of slaying the beast must be his.

Because of Beowulf’s go-it-alone attitude, however, the dragon almost triumphs, raking him with its fire and injecting him with its poison. It is only because Wiglaf, Beowulf’s nephew, disregards instructions to stand back and comes to Beowulf’s aid that the dragon is slain. Wiglaf distracts the monster, at which point Beowulf plunges his sword into its belly.

Defenses could not entirely collapse on Michael Jordan because he had Scottie Pippin and Tony Kukoc and John Paxson and Steve Kerr. Kobe, meanwhile, had first Shaq and then Pau Gasol, not to mention Robert Horry (in the earlier championships) and Derek Fisher (in the later). James hasn’t had much more than himself.

It is possible to see the dragon fight as an internal battle. Beowulf’s insistence on individual glory means that he is in danger of becoming a human dragon, quick to anger, poisonous inside, scaly outside. The epic is filled with instances of self-absorbed kings who evolve into dragons, particularly the “last veteran” (whose funeral barrow the dragon moves into) and King Hrethel. Hrethel, held up to Beowulf as a cautionary tale, is a leader who flies into paranoid rages and lashes out at his followers. (It sounds like the Shaq and Kobe feud.) Beowulf, however, ultimately escapes dragonhood: because he lets go of his need for self sufficiency and allows Wiglaf  to help him, Beowulf goes out as a truly big man.

But it’s hard to let another into one’s life, and one could say that the entire society has a heroic individualism problem. The Danes look to Beowulf to save them from Grendel, but Grendel’s jealousy can be seen as a logical outgrowth of hypercompetitive individualism. Simmering envy can explode into murderous rampage when a warrior feels underappreciated and marginalized. In fact, Beowulf’s chest-bumping entrance into King Hrothgar’s hall at the beginning of Beowulf sets off jealous rage in Egeus, a fratricidal killer who instantly looks to start a quarrel.

The worship of great men makes the society vulnerable because such men can go bad. Contrast this with our own society where our social and political institutions are greater than any one individual. And then note the similarities, how the social fabric starts to fray when people put their own needs over the needs of society as a whole.

Back to Lebron. If he had stayed in Cleveland or if he had gone to Chicago or New York, he would have been indisputably the top dog. That team would have been Lebron’s team. Instead he took a lot less money so that he could play with friends and give himself a chance to win a championship. He is not a Michael Jordan who insisted on the spotlight while looking to grind every opponent into the dirt. (In MJ’s appalling but memorable Hall-of-Fame acceptance speech, he took the occasion to stick it to anyone who had ever challenged him, from a high school teammate to his college coach to players he had beaten in championship games.) It is as though, when Lebron wants to be a member of a team rather than Mr. Superstar, his individualist society castigates him for it.

Isn’t there something special about Lebron playing alongside other top-notch players? Isn’t this closer to the fun-loving figure that he projects? He isn’t aloof like Kobe. He doesn’t insist on individual dominance, the way that Jordan did (and Jordan was fortunate that he had a sidekick like Pippin willing to play along). Jordan would refer to his teammates as his “supporting cast.” Not Lebron.

In Beowulf’s case, because he has been so focused on building up his own glory, he leaves his society dangerously dependent upon him. He has not left the Geats with an heir and, while a generous king, he has disempowered his followers. Once he dies, Wiglaf predicts, Geatland will be overrun by Swedes and Franks and other foreign invaders.

Cleveland, it is true, will soon be overrun by Celtics and Knicks and Bulls, as well as by the team featuring its former leader. That’s another story. But Lebron’s collaborative vision could well bring a championship to Miami. Also, freed of the responsibilities of a power forward, he could become the most entertaining point guard since Magic Johnson. Think of a Lebron flying down the court and either taking it to the basket or dishing it off to fluidly to Wade or Bosh. That would be no small thing.

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