Lebron: The Individual Or The Team?
Photo by JC Gellidon on Unsplash
When Lebron James broke Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s all time points scoring record in the NBA last week, he did so with about 10 seconds still to go in the third quarter.
As soon as he scored that 38,388th point, the game was paused and celebrations ensued. His family came onto the court along with the press and a host of others.
There was a speech from the NBA Commissioner, from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and, of course, from Lebron himself. Abdul-jabbar then presented the ceremonial ball to Lebron before the game was finally resumed, some 10-15 minutes later.
In contrast, I’d be hard pressed to see the same thing happening in the English Premier League when some future player beats Alan Shearer’s all-time goal scoring record of 260.
I’m not saying it won’t be hyped up in the same way or that it won’t be celebrated, I’m saying with almost 100% certainty that the game will not be stopped midway to celebrate the achievement, followed by a series of speeches and an awards presentation.
Why is that?
Both are important achievements in their respective sports. Both will be hard records to beat for future generations. Both are (and will be) the source of endless pride for not simply the player, but the team and its fans.
So why the difference?
It seems to me that in the NBA (and possibly more widely in American sports), the individual is prized over the team. Yes, we certainly love our teams - we talk constantly about the need for team unity, collaboration and high performance - and we certainly promote the need for high performance teams, whether we’re in sports, business or schools.
But at the end of the day, we value the individual the most. We need a face. We need to be able to identify who is responsible, who led the way, who is the best.
Personally, I also think that there’s a perception that talking about winning “teams” as a whole unit is boring. Sure, they’re required, but it’s hard for the average Joe to connect with a “group of people”. There’s no personal connection there. It’s more human to look at a person - a name, someone who comes with a story, a background, an angle that resonates.
That human connection is the point and it’s amplified by a culture that has been built on individual achievement, the idea that “we can do anything we set our minds to” and “become who we want to be”. The individual sits front and center in that American ethos.
To be clear, that’s not a negative judgment, it’s simply an observation. Lebron deserves all of his accolades - it just struck me as odd how the game was stopped to celebrate this very individual achievement.
By the way, I’m also not saying that this doesn’t happen outside the US, it certainly does. But it’s amped up here to a level unseen elsewhere, perhaps driven by our media’s reach, visibility and culture. We love our winners and we especially love our individual winners even more.
That’s worth thinking about as we consider our own attitude towards winning teams, individual performers and overall achievement.
What do we value more? What do you think?
