MJ did it a little more slick…
Slaying the Dragon published 1996 (p.111)
For example, the media has made much of my relationship with Carl Lewis, one of the preeminent athletes of our time. Carl and I dont have a bad relationship; We’ve raced a half dozen times. I’ve won all but one, and otherwise we are cordial but certainly not friends. I have respect for carl as an athlete; there was no better performer in big meets, in the olympics and in world championships. Yet I do not respect the way he’s carried himself on the track circuit, the way he has repsonded to his own success. He has been, at various times, a bad winner, a bad loser, someone who has put self-promotion ahead of running, and someone who has imagined himself above everyone and everything around him.
Yet I learn more by watching Carl’s mistakes than by watch-
Slaying the Dragon (p.112)
ing the triumphs of most other athletes. When the unsucessfully tried his hand at fashion designing and pop singing, I learned the value of staying within your realm. When he announced before the 1984 Olympics that he’d be bigger than Michael Jackon, I was reminded of the dangerous progression from confidence into arrogance, and I saw the way people are statesman of track and field, Carl’s grandiose personality seems to have him trying too hard to gain the things we all want: respect and admiration. After a graceful and stirring victory in the long jump in the
Slaying the Dragon (pg.113)
Atlanta Olympics, Carl once again spoiled a warm reception by immediately campaigning for a spot on the 4x100m-meter relay team, a team he’d failed to qualify for and had rejected training with. I actually thought he should be on the team since he had proved hiself to be a pressure performer and we needed our best team out there. But that was the coach’s decision, and it was unseemly for Carl to campaign for it blatantl. He showed a lack of restraint and humiliy by publicly angling to make the team and a surprising naivete about how the public would perceive his campaign.
But that is Carl and in the end, watching others is a spectator sport. You can only learn so much about baseball by watching the game on television. You always learn more by playing the game yourself.
And you will learn much more about your own chase by looking inward…