Over the last couple of years, comments surround certain players who are notorious for engaging in "hero ball." I guess you could characterize hero ball in the sense of a player who takes alot of chances and risks on the field or court, while sometimes leaving their teams in constant jeopardy or winning a great number of games for their teams. It's concept that could exist in anything, especially sports coming with such a push and a pull. If a player is talented enough, then they can afford to take those extraordinary risk, like going 3 on 1 in the lane or throwing into triple coverage down the field. Sometimes, making decisions or plays they don't really make sense or even becoming a little selfish with the ball or play-calling. On the other hand, "hero-ball" players can be exciting in any game, up 10 points or down by 25, you know that they'll always have a puncher's chance in any game, because of the huge gambles they take with their swashbuckling mentality. They tend to make really bad plays, decisions, or play-calls look outstanding at times. I believe the term is not synonymous with "being a cancer," which a player can also embody. A player can be a cancer without having any "hero ball" qualities, while a hero ball player can be a great locker room leader (or person) and a unifier. If a player is capable enough, he or she can very nearly singled handily lift a mediocre team into the playoffs or a championship game/round. Notable Hero ball players: NBA: Kobe Bryant -- defines this trope more so than Michael Jordan does, who I think popularized such a term, a little misleadingly. Michael Jordan -- in his earlier NBA days, not so much towards the championship years. Russell Westbrook -- The "new" hero ball guy of the league, while Durant is more of the "play it safe, maximize efficiency guy." Derrick Rose -- The "old-new" hero ball guy, but he got injured and seems skeptical about his knee, which may change his playing style. Stephon Marbury -- The talented, yet worst kind of hero ball guy. He managed to make almost every team worse that he went to, because of his playing style. Carmelo Anthony -- Earlier half of his career. Allen Iverson -- Enough said. Pete Maravich -- He was "that hero ball guy" in the 70s. Rick Barry -- He was "that other hero ball guy" in the 70s. Reggie Miller -- In the playoffs. Brandon Jennings -- In the Stephon Marbury way. Elvin Hayes -- Certainly. Larry Bird -- Mildly... not as much as some of the others above,though. NFL: Brett Favre -- If there's a such a thing as hero ball quarterback, he would be #1 without question. Dan Marino -- If there wasn't Favre, he'd be #1 without question. Michael Vick -- The "Video Game" Quarterback Terrell Owens -- It's kind of odd for receiver, because they don't touch the ball as often as QB. Joe Namath -- On this one, you can do three things -- watch old reels of Jet games, see what other players and coaches say about Namath through out his career, or simply look at his numbers. John Elway -- In his early days. Jay Cutler -- He's kind of falling into the Stephon Marbury type. Tim Tebow -- It's so spontaneous to him, it's not even funny, though he's not nearly as talented as the players above. MLB: Pretty much any great or good home run slugger with mediocre to poor batting average...swinging for the fences on most pitches versus getting on base or moving runners over driving them all in. -- Mark McGwire, Dave Kingman, Roy Sievers, Cecil Fielder, Jose Canseco, Adam Dunn, Dan Uggla, Ryan Howard, and others. Roger Clemens -- He'd always challenge a great slugger in most situations, unlike a few other great pitchers would not consider a walk. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeroBall http://deadspin.com/5915954/math-says-hero-ball-doesnt-work http://theknicksblog.com/knicks/in-mild-defense-of-hero-ball/ http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports....e-between-spurs-and-lakers-last-second-shots/ http://www.hardwoodhype.com/2012/05/hero-ball-redefined.html
The sports world of critiques, fans, and etc are kind of weird with this dynamic, because on the same token we often criticize players, like LeBron James, Tony Romo, Alex Rodriguez, Sergio Garcia, and others who do not quite not how to seize moments or go out into a game with a gunslinger mentality. For Houston fans, we often pointed to Matt Schaub, Yao Ming, or Tracy McGrady for not embodying a concept of hero ball.
Carmelo Anthony still does it, but he's not as bad as he was in Denver. Durant is actually not that bad at it, and is more often forced to play that way given his teammates lack of offense. He's nowhere as bad as Westbrook.
I neither understand nor use the term "hero ball" but I can say one thing. If you are going to lump the second best passer in the history of the game (next to Magic) in this category, then it must be a good label or you are misusing the label
stopped reading after you compared hero ball in different sports...sorry baseball doesn't have "Hero ball". Neither does football.
Believe the term "hero ball" was invented solely to make Lebron look better for being afraid to take big shots in favor of "looking for a more high percentage shot", like it was a good thing. Now anyone with the balls to take big shots is demonized in this new culture.
Of course, it does. You can tell me some quarterbacks do not make throws that put their teams and games in jeopardy of losing games versus other quarterbacks who make more safe and rational throws. You don't see the difference between QB, like Brett Favre versus Peyton Manning or Tom Brady.
Being great passer is somewhat irrelevant in that context, you cannot tell me Bird never took very risky shots or often took over the game scoring wise, sometimes to a detriment. Plus, I used the term "mildly." Honestly, I don't think it's a bad thing to be selfish or take extraordinary risk in a game.
This is off-topic...Go back and reread your posts. If you truly didn't think it was a bad thing to be selfish, you would've been much more unbiased in your prose. Players take risky shots which have great rewards, which you do not mention at all. Maybe it's unintentional, maybe not, but if you're going to come off as unbiased you should make it clear the pros and cons of each style of play.
And look where his team is in th 2nd round. Good defensive teams will just load towards the one star. Now you really need to share the ball if you want to go farther. In the reg season when we were top 1-3 on O we were moving the ball. If you look at the numbers in the playoffs in the games that we lost we had less than 20 assist each game. Hero ball as a defense is the easiest to defend because you just only have one defender using energy to defend while the other four defenders rest because as Ibaka said we are too selfish just play thf percentages and box out and rebound as opposed to defend, box out rebound. Hero ballades it a 2 step procees for the other teams D as opposed to a three step process.
Melo still does hero ball. Durant has played hero ball his entire career and he's great at it. Harden should be on the list too.
It's not a bad thing if they tend to play defense on the other end. watching melo playing hero ball and jogging back on defense is atrocious
