Sidney Crosby or LeBron James?
THE WATERCOOLER
QUESTION:Sidney Crosby helped the Penguins reach the Eastern Conference Finals with a win over the Caps in Game 7 on Tuesday. Is Crosby, in his fourth year, more important to the NHL than LeBron James, in his sixth year, is to the NBA?
BERNIE MIKLASZ:
Not a chance. Round 2 should get 2 minutes for instigating me. Crosby has yet to establish a wide crossover appeal, while LeBron is already a marketing King, easily identifiable to millions of Americans. Also, Crosby has no personality. Quiet. He isn’t inclined to sell the game. Helluva player, immense talent but not even a blip on the radar when compared to James.
TOM TIMMERMANN:
The NHL is far more in need of talented, charismatic players like Crosby than the NBA is. (Especially English speaking ones.) The NHL has a much smaller pool of Crosby-esque players to draw from. Without James, the NBA has several other players to build an ad campaign around — Kobe Bryant, arrest not withstanding, Dwayne Wade, somebody off Boston, for starters. Wayne Gretzky made the NHL what it is today, even playing in Edmonton. Crosby isn’t Gretzky, but he’s the kind of player the league needs at the moment. Language barriers will keep Malkin and Ovechkin and Datsyuk from being the face of the NHL.
JEFF GORDON:
Sid the Kid’s importance to the NHL is much greater. True, the NBA needs LeBron to become the Next Jordan and keep pro basketball industry growing through these tough economic times. He is the league’s most important employee. But the NHL’s need for a transcendent star is much greater. Gary Bettman’s league is still off on the fringe of the national sports scene, earning scant TV ratings. If current trends continue, pro hockey could lose its tenuous footing in the Sun Belt. The NHL needs Crosby-Ovechkin to become Magic-Bird.
DAN O’NEILL:
The biggest difference between Sidney Crosby and LeBron James is that James carries more responsibility in terms of being the face of the NBA. Crosby may or may not be the best player in the NHL - I’d take Pavel Datsyuk myself. Regardless, there are a number of other equally dynamic stars, from Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Patrick Kane, Henrik Zetterberg, Datsyuk … on down to even T.J. Oshie.
In the NBA, Kobe Bryant might be in the same ballpark talent-wise King James, but Bryant’s image off the court has never been completely restored from his extra-marital incident. There are a handful of other notable NBA players, but when you throw in the age and positive image James projects, I think the NBA clearly leans more heavily on him for profile than the NHL has to lean on Crosby.
Of course, neither holds a candle to what Tiger Woods means to professional golf.
JEREMY RUTHERFORD:
While both superstars are vital to their respective leagues, I give the edge to Crosby. I have friends who are hard-core NBA fans and I have friends who are casual NBA fans and, with either group, we can have a 10-minute conversation about the NBA playoffs and not even bring up LeBron. Meanwhile, I can’t remember my last conversation with an NHL fan that didn’t include some mention of “Sid the Kid.” Here’s a story: My brother had people over to his house to watch last night’s Pittsburgh-Washington game, and we watched even when the score was 5-0. Tonight, they’re are two Game 7s on TV (Boston-Carolina, Anaheim-Detroit) and guess what . . . there’s no get-together at my brother’s tonight. I think all of this speaks to the broader popularity of the NBA and the overall disinterest in the NHL, unless it’s headline-grabbing.
Lebron is far more important to his league based on the nature of the game itself. Lebron is on the court about 75-85% of the game compared to Crosby’s 30-40%. Crosby wears a helmet so his face is not as easily seen and on a given shift he may not even touch the puck. When Lebron is on the court, the ball is in his hands the majority of every possession. That’s why stars in the NBA are far more marketable and Lebron is more important to the NBA.