The King of Kings
It's not a basketball story, obviously, but a proper farewell to Pelé — on the day of his funeral — was a must for this child of the American soccer boom he sparked
First name LeBron. Last name James.
So let's be clear here: The nickname King was pretty much automatic.
It's a natural. It's irresistible, really. LeBron duly employs @KingJames as his Twitter and Instagram handles and I have used it in print more times than I could possibly count.
Yet I have to confess, in yet another one of my made-up rules on this new media planet called Substack, that I have convinced myself that it’s OK to compartmentalize LeBron as The King I cover as an NBA scribe.
My true sporting King, based on what little 1970s me decided and stubbornly vowed to never stray from, is Edson Arantes do Nascimento.
Pelé.
For this inflexible nostalgist, I don't think it will ever change. Muhammad Ali is The Greatest. Billie Jean King is the trailblazing Queen of Grand Slam glory and sports equality. And Pelé, who died Thursday at the age of 82, is the one and only O Rei.
The King.
Maybe my approach is too rigid, given all the sporting greats who have emerged since those three titans of the '60s and '70s along with the future greats I'll never see after my generation is long gone. Kings and Queens don't hold their seats eternally, right? The concept of succession is a fundamental element of monarchy rule.
I just can't help it. When I hear "King" in a sporting context, No. 10 is who I picture. It’s why I can’t stop searching for footage of Pelé’s three days of state mourning in Brazil. I always thought of him as immortal. You don’t want to believe he is gone.
He was not always embraced back home during and after his playing career, criticized — somewhat reminiscent of Michael Jordan at his playing peak — for refusing to take stronger political stands or a larger role in the quest for social justice in Brazil. His initial reasons for coming to the United States in 1975, likewise, were not exactly noble: Pelé was bankrupt and couldn't resist a three-year offer from the North American Soccer League's New York Cosmos worth a then-gargantuan $4.75 million.
O Rei was not wrong, though, when he announced at his introductory news conference that "soccer has finally arrived in the United States." He made the sport exist here.
Success was by no means instantaneous, but the foothold O Jogo Bonito now enjoys on U.S. soil all traces back to the 5-foot-8 striker who, for most of his life, was pretty much the most famous face in the world. Pelé-branded soccer balls and boots were soon on sale everywhere in the land of baseball. I didn't actually kick a soccer ball myself until my family left Western New York for Southern California in May 1978, but once he entered my orbit I inhaled all things Pelé and hungered for any connection to the NASL that I could muster.
I even purchased one of the above on eBay just a few years ago ... still clearly not over the fact that I somehow failed in my attempts to score a Pelé lunch box and Thermos when they were actually in circulation.
The NASL indeed folded in 1985, overrun by mismanagement and overexpansion, but the many stars from abroad who followed Pelé to America (Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff, Carlos Alberto, George Best, Johan Neeskens, Gerd Müller, Bobby Moore, Eusébio, et al.) and the monster crowds that the Pelé-and-Giorgio Chinaglia-powered Cosmos attracted showed the world what soccer could be in this country. It eventually led to a World Cup awarded to and hosted by the United States in 1994 ... two years before we had reestablished a legitimate professional league (MLS) here.
I met the man only once — at that 1994 World Cup — and like so many mortals before me (as well, frankly, as many celebrities and dignitaries) could barely speak when it was my turn. He had been retired for nearly 20 years by then, but I had never heard my father describe an athlete with such awe. So I'm pretty sure, without initially realizing it, that I was born with the same reverence.
Pelé was a spokesman for MasterCard at World Cup '94 and I was torn. Of course I wanted to be the rare American journalist called upon at this particular chaotic press call, but then I would actually have to address him out loud in a crowded setting. I don't even remember what I tried to ask. Which is probably for the best.
I have been perfectly content, since Thursday, to just watch clip after clip of his finishing greatness and read tribute after emotional tribute. English was clearly not his first language, but in almost every interview you can dial up on YouTube he says something poignant or moving.
I also can't stop watching my favorite of his thousands of goals ... naturally via bicycle kick in the movie Victory. The 1981 film starred so many absolute greats: Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, Max von Sydow, Ossie Ardiles and my beloved Mike Summerbee of Manchester City fame. Yet it could only be No. 10, playing the Trinidadian Corporal Luis Fernandez, who stole the show … executing the overheard kick that, if he did not quite invent, Pelé swiftly became synonymous with.
No one ever completed the move with more natural grace.
Allow me to ask, furthermore, how many home runs in the history of Yankee Stadium, old or new, matched the beauty of this real-life bicycle kick Pelé scored against Miami in 1976?
Soccer has gotten no closer to resolving its GOAT debate than the NBA has, but it's an easy one for me. Far easier than the basketball debate.
The most frequent argument against Pelé is that Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi played and thrived at higher club levels than Pelé, but I don't buy it. The Brazilian has the most glittering World Cup résumé of any individual in the sport's history, winning three Cups and scoring 12 goals. He was not allowed by his own country to leave Santos for a European giant in Spain or Italy or England in his playing prime; do we really think that the goals and trophies wouldn't have flowed had Pelé been permitted to sign for Real Madrid or Juventus?
He is credited with scoring 1,283 goals in 1,367 professional matches ... in a far more viciously physical climate than Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo have faced in the modern game ... and with a worldwide profile and cultural gravitas that only Ali could approach. How many athletes have been as synonymous with their country as Pelé and Brazil?
Perhaps the one and only Andy Warhol summed it up better than anyone else could when he said: "Pelé is one of the few who contradicted my theory. Instead of 15 minutes of fame, he will have 15 centuries.”
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Some Updates
I'm not sharing this in search of sympathy. It's simply in the name of candor that I want to pass along that for the past six or so days I've been dealing with one of those non-COVID illnesses you see on an NBA injury report.
Which has forced me to call some audibles.
We've managed to keep posting stories at our usual pace (five last week and another four or five likely this week) but I've also had to dial back some, regrettably bowing out of a couple TV assignments and scrapping one written piece. I definitely did receive some great submissions about some of your fondest on-court memories from 2022, but I couldn't quite assemble the piece fast enough in my current state to publish it before 2022 ran out.
My fault — not yours!
I think we've all moved on from last year at this point, helpfully nudged along by offensive eruptions from Donovan Mitchell (71 points) and Klay Thompson (54) on Monday night. So I've shelved the Year In Review idea until next December ... with a note to self already filed away to seek your input earlier to ensure timely construction of the story.
The good news: A full-fledged mailbag is still forthcoming soon. Questions are still welcome in the comment section below or via email at marcstein@substack.com.
Numbers Game
🏀 13
We're up to 13 games this season in which one player has scored 50 points after detonations Monday night from Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell and Golden State's Klay Thompson. The updated leaderboard:
Mitchell 71
Luka Dončić 60
Joel Embiid 59
Devin Booker 58
Anthony Davis 55
Thompson 54
Embiid 53
Pascal Siakam 52
Dončić 51
Booker 51
Darius Garland 51
Dončić 50
Stephen Curry 50
🏀 19
There were just 19 such games in total last season, led by 60-point outings for Kyrie Irving and Karl-Anthony Towns.
🏀 7
Mitchell joined the short list of seven players in NBA history to score at least 70 points in one game:
Wilt Chamberlain 100 (plus five other games with 70+)
Kobe Bryant 81
David Thompson 73
Elgin Baylor 71
David Robinson 71
Mitchell 71
Booker 70
🏀 5
Mitchell had only five points after one quarter.
🏀 34
Mitchell needed only 34 shot attempts to get his 71 points:
🏀 38
Good line from ace Substack columnist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on LeBron James' recent 38th birthday and the mere 485 points James needs to pass Kareem as the league's all-time leading scorer. Abdul-Jabbar, you see, holds the record with 38,387 points.
🏀 47
LeBron's 47 points Friday in Atlanta tied the fourth-highest league total for a player on his birthday, according to research from my fellow Substacker Justin Kubatko. Only Shaquille O'Neal (61 points on March 6, 2000), Dominique Wilkins (53 on Jan. 12, 1987) and LeBron himself (48 on Dec. 30, 2009) have topped it, with Stephen Curry also scoring 47 points on March 14, 2022.
🏀 12
The Nets' remarkable turnaround continues: 12 wins in a row and a 16-1 surge overall.
First of all, get well soon!
When I was a kid, my father took me to an exhibition game on Randall’s Island (if I recall correctly) between Santos and whatever Portuguese team that Eusébio played for. Even as a young guy who knew little about soccer, I found Pelé’s charisma on the pitch to be irresistible. RIP O Rei.
Personally didn't notice the drop in production. Think the most important part is to rest and feel better.
Mailbag question:
It feels like corners of the Pistons fandom are becoming increasingly soured on Dwane Casey. While I attributed the slow season start to injuries to Bagley and Burks, this healthy-ish (as NBA standards go) team, even without Cade, feels like a team under-performing expectations. With Troy Weaver recently receiving an extension, are there any rumblings about potential changes to the coaching staff or other front office positions?