IT is but fitting that LeBron James and Serena Williams were voted Athletes of the Decade.
They won running away, so to speak.
James won three NBA (National Basketball Association) titles from 2010 to 2019—two at Miami and one in Cleveland.
James won three MVP (Most Valuable Player) awards in all three NBA Finals and three league MVPs as well in the decade past.
Add one Olympic gold and James has gone full circle.
Never mind the Fiba World Cup, which the NBA treats as second fiddle.
The Associated Press (AP), in choosing James to receive the plum, has also recognized the player’s admirable humanitarian work. James has built a school in his hometown Akron, Ohio.
James, who turned 35 on December 30, actually started the decade controversially by leaving Cleveland for Miami, in 2010.
Dubbed “The Decision,” James’s move angered his townmates, who burned his jersey in the heat of the moment.
But after six years and winning two NBA crowns for Miami, James returned to Cleveland. And, in his second season in 2017, he gave the Cavs their first ever NBA crown. All is forgotten, forgiven.
Second behind James in the AP voting was quarterback Tom Brady of the New England Patriots. Sprinter Usain Bolt was third, soccer star Lionel Messi fourth and swimmer Michael Phelps fifth.
James has played a total of 1,229 NBA games. His total of 33,334 points has strongly positioned him to overtake third-place highest scorer and now-retired Kobe Bryant. The league’s 1-2 in all-time scoring are the long-retired Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Karl Malone.
There is not enough words to describe Williams’s greatness the past 10 years.
An unprecedented dozen Grand Slam single titles. No. 1 successively for three-and-a-half years. And surviving a life-threatening blood clot to magnificently return to competitive form.
And how about coming back from pregnancy—and producing victories in no time as though she had not gone through a nine-month ordeal of being heavy with child?
And look at this: three of Williams’s five AP Female Athlete of the Year titles came in this decade—2013, 2015 and, yes, 2018 the year after giving birth to a girl, in 2017.
Her all-time high 23 Grand Slam singles is simply awesome, with half of them coming from 2010 to 2019—four Wimbledons, and three each at the US Open and Australian Open.
What else is there to accomplish?
Defeat Roger Federer in the Battle of The Sexes Part 2?
“She’s been my idol growing up,” said Simone Biles, the gymnastics sensation who was voted the 2019 AP Female Athlete of the Year. “She’s remained humble. She’s stayed true to herself and her character, and I think that’s really neat about an athlete. Once you start winning, some get cocky, but she’s stayed true to herself, win or lose.”
If there’s really someone who values defeats and turns grief into a great motivation, that’d be Williams.
“Whenever I lose, I get more determined, and it gives me something more to work toward,” Williams said. “I don’t get complacent, and I realize I need to work harder and I need to do better, and I want to do better—or I wouldn’t be playing the game.”
Are our Olympic dreamers paying attention?
THAT’S IT Why do we always greet everybody “Happy New Year” each time the first day of the year is near, is with us? Simple. Everybody wants us to be happy the entire year. Is that hard to do? Happy New Year!