Player vs. Team: ESPN Version

I've noticed it for a while now, but this week has proved that ESPN has gone too far with their blatant love for individual performers. On a night where the two best teams in the NBA played each other the lead story was Lebron James scoring 50 points. Not to take anything away from Lebron, but he played against the Knicks and had already put up 45 points on them earlier in the year, so it's not like this was a new thing.

The real story of the night was the third meeting between the Pistons and Celtics this, with both teams winning on the road earlier in the year. This game was a much different feel than the previous two meetings as the Celtics took the lead earlier on and never surrendered. The Pistons made it an interesting game, but the Celtics prevailed. Yet this epic match up was somehow overshadowed by King James. Yes, he is great, but this isn't golf or tennis this is a team sport.

Then there is the football version and nothing bothers me more than watching Manning vs. Brady. They aren't even on the field at the same time. Sure comparing their accomplishments is interesting, but on an NFL preview show before the game they shouldn't be talking about Manning vs. Brady, they should be talking about Brady vs. the Colts defense and so on. For some reason the ESPN execs just love the individual star and when two of them meet up it will dominate the airwaves on all of the ESPN channels.

In my opinion the best time to preview the meeting between two great players is in baseball, when you have an ace vs. the slugger. You can't go wrong there because not only is it truly one-on-one, but it is arguably the key part of the game. If your star player can overpower their star player then you should have a good chance to win. The problem with ESPN is they apply this at the wrong times, in team sports the team should be the story.