Keidel: Can American Pharoah Revive Horse Racing?
By Jason Keidel
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Sports, at their purest, always hold crossover appeal when done divinely. And while anyone can appreciate the art and aesthetic of athletic splendor, it's the themes under the feet and feats, beyond the sterile statistics that capture the masses.
Saturday wasn't about a horse galloping to the finish line, but rather what the final furlong represented -- a race against a symbolic field of dead, iconic horses and against history, a 37-year chasm between Affirmed and the affirmation of American Pharoah. It was about the notion that a horse could not endure the rigors of three rugged races in five weeks against otherwise rested animals. It was about the structure and paradigm and fairness. Trainers conspired to have the apparatus changed rather than just breed and build a horse to hurdle the historic obstacles that only a few studs have over the last century. Thank goodness this horse finally and perhaps forever closed the argument.
The NBA Finals aren't about two talented teams jousting for the Larry O'Brien Trophy. It is again about history, two sordid teams climbing to prominence. LeBron James is chasing the dream, trying to squeeze through the wide window of collective Cleveland misery and the closing window of his own mortality, trying to attain the twin-virtues of local sports messiah and perhaps crowning himself as the best basketball player in history.
Meanwhile, Golden State is also trying to insert itself into the archives, and win its first world title since Rick Barry spun his underhand free throws back in 1975. Oakland has suffered much over the last 40 years, well beyond the basketball court. Yet they still support their team as though they were a dynasty.
And perhaps no Midwestern town other than Detroit has suffered the way Cleveland has. The shuttered buildings and businesses, the dearth of decent jobs, the rusted mill towns, have become the de facto flag of the region. Then they lost their son, the Chosen One, who went on an extended spring break in South Beach, perhaps the worst PR blunder in history, then bagged two titles while he was at it, in the shadow of his flaming jerseys in Ohio. Sport became a springboard, a conduit to a cultural maze.
Just like Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao was more than a boxing match. It was about supremacy and legacy. But did it enrich the sport or just the two men?
Did the horse race, did the bout, actually revive two floundering sports? The two Sports of Kings, while not dead, have been on life support for years, for myriad reasons, ranging from corruption to indifference.
Even to this jaded boxing junkie, the May 2 bout was a dud. And it did nothing to inject money or mojo into pugilism beyond the two pugilists. Anyone who says MayPac impacted the world of boxing just doesn't care to absorb the facts. Will horse racing suffer the same fate?
Mike Francesa talked about American Pharoah's future. After a few, perfunctory races, it will live the life - an endless string of amorous encounters with female horses for pay. But how does that breathe life into the sport? Does it spawn life beyond the foals and goals of increased interest? As soon as it makes a name for itself, it retires for breeding purposes.
And since Mayweather and Pacquiao are deep into the back nine of their careers. Pacquiao is in professional peril: a year away from his next fight, when he will be 37 and returning from major surgery. So the sport's future and fertility rests solely on Mayweather, who will fall soon, either by retirement or the hand of his opponent. No sport is more cruel to the old than boxing. The sweet science eventually sours on everyone, even one of Mayweather's talent and temerity.
Such is the problem with individual sports, sans teammates. They all ride on celebrities, no matter how many legs they use. Will anyone care about women's tennis once Serena Williams packs her racket for good?
Not that the NBA doesn't need a galaxy of stars, but the sport is relatively robust, thanks to LeBron. Steph Curry is a sublime player, but his MVP award is borrowed. LeBron is clearly king, the drawing card, the main name on the marquee. He is the reason casual observers tune in, just as we watched the Belmont because of American Pharoah.
So when LeBron led his MASH unit in scoring, rebounds, and assists in Game 2, sneaking out of Oakland with a win, the series and sport morphed into a referendum on his singular talent.
It was the 35th time LeBron led a team in all three stats in the playoffs. Larry Bird is next, with 14 such games. No point in parsing the LeBron vs. Jordan debate. But no one can debate the genius of James.
LeBron James is essential to this series, this sport, this society because, like all artists, his splendor transcends his platform. Like that horse on Saturday, a man on Sunday turned a moment into an event, widened the lens from a playing field to a field of dreams.
So while two sports of kings struggle to survive, King James is thriving. We need this, for the performer to transcend the sports section, beyond the bowels of a newspaper, bringing his A-Game to the A-Section of the New York Times. No matter how ephemeral, American Pharoah left his hoof prints all over our souls.
And all sports, and all of society, gain when greatness pulses beyond the sports page.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
