No. That line has received a lot of press, and a lot of casual sports fans will likely not take it well.
Agree with scotty that some of Wilbon's comments were valid, but the only thing people will remember, is Wilbon asking JK to leave our country. With respect to the big Kobe contract, people have to be realistic that the $$$ isn't always all performance related. I mean, when Beckham was brought to Real Madrid, the principal reason was to sell Real Madrid/Beckham merchandise and to increase the team's exposure. Do you know how many times over their sales of Beckham merchandise helped to cover his contract? That he helped the team, a little, win the Champions League, was a bonus. Likewise, Kobe is still a very good player, and will do well with the Lakers, but he is not $48 million good. However, Bryant is one of the biggest draws for the league, and sells a boatload of merchandise for the Lakers. I'm sure the Lakers will make a pretty penny on those merchandise sales which will help to cover a chunk of his contact. Not too many players could contribute that type of merchandise sales toward paying for their own contract like Kobe can.
If he said "We have a legit chance to win it..." every critic of his would cite that comment as evidence of his lunacy. On the other hand, answering as he did builds credibility within the side he's coaching. They'd no it was BS http://soccer.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/06/03/world-cup-2014-meet-23 Some of the players dont even expect to get out of the group...Falcao recently spoke about who will win the cup and didnt include Colombia. this is not abnormal at all
Actually, very little that Klinsmann said is inaccurate. A) We're not going to win the World Cup. B) We do pay a lot of fading stars like Donovan or Jeter, etc. a lot for their past accomplishments. The highest paid player in baseball this season is Ryan Howard. And yet if we look at statistics, not only is Ryan Howard not the best player in baseball.......................he's not even close to the best first baseman. Klinsmann was brought into US soccer to "shake things up" in a sense. Now that he's doing it, its not going over well in some quarters. Especially in mainstream media that are used to the "status quo." Hell, they are the status quo.
Of course Klinsmann doesn't like Kobe's situation; Klinsmann prefers old fading non-stars who are just happy to be there.
Klinsmann needs to keep his mouth shut about other sports in this country. His opinion is about as valid as a Skip Bayless or Stephen A Smith.
Yep, to most people around the world it's normal and makes sense. The problem is it's really abnormal in American sports. Across just about every sport, you never hear coaches or players say they can't win it all, and if they do then it's always going to make headlines. I think part of this might be due to the parity in our sports. We have the worst teams in the league turn around and make runs at the playoffs the next season all the time (Kansas City last season in the NFL). We have upsets happen all over the place, we love the "cindarella" teams in the NCAA tournament. We've had the miracle on ice, and we have a thousand movies where the underdog trains hard and beats the champion by having "heart" and "wanting it more." So to a lot of Americans, the idea that a player or coach could concede the tournament before it even starts doesn't make any sense. I don't think we have any problem as fans admitting we don't have much of a chance, but we never want to see the team itself think that.
My favorite quote in the article: (...by the way. I can't wait until I have enough clout in this industry to live off my past work. It can't come soon enough, frankly.)
This is all fine for sports that don't have salary caps which prohibit you from getting other players. That's not the case for the NBA. The Lakers have essentially forfeited a chance to win, in order to overpay an old and injured Kobe, which is dumb from a winning point of view. And how do you know Kobe is still a good player? He is a 35 year old that has a bum knee and a crapped out Achilles. The guy could barely get off the ground in the 6 games he played before injuring himself again last year. Hell, that is precisely the reason it was bad for the win column to invest so much in him. I'm not sure why people (including Wilbon, who I actually like) think that JK was out of line with that comment. To me, he was 100% right with the analogy.
Goose/gander. Wilbon is simply reacting to the xenophilia of needing a foreign coach to instill a foreign "mentality" in US soccer. I didn't think his rant was particularly illuminating, but it was hardly out of bounds. The Kobe analogy to the NT is completely stupid as the USSF does not complete for contracts with other NT's (well not in the NBA sense, Mr. Green ) As to Kobe's contract itself, as a Celtics fan, I just smile. Here in LA, a lot of Lakers fans are not happy about the contract with either the Lakers for offering or Kobe for accepting. But with the dearth of draft picks, I'm not sure that the team is ready for free agents yet. Maybe tank for a few years and have Kobe to draw fans is the optimal business decision.
Anyone who doesn't think so is being purposely obtuse or has their head so far up Klinsmann mannschaft that they honestly can't see how this is going to effect people that aren't on Big Soccer 12 hours a day. However you feel about Wilbon's comments...they are likely to reflect the feelings of the casual US soccer fans that are going to tune into the World Cup. It doesn't matter if Jurgen is right or not (he isn't) it's about how his comments are going to be perceived as the head of the USMNT.
Wilbon was wrong here. What's amusing is that when the Lakers offered Kobe that extension, they were largely killed for it by the NBA media at large. Why? Because the conversation was focused around limiting cap space and that Kobe isn't near the Kobe of old. It makes complete sense and that's likely what Jurgen was referring too. Performance. And what do you know, Kobe is old and trying to recover, Lakers haven't been a contender in a few year, he's eating up their cap space and while they have room to sign one good player and have a draft pick, that gets them nowhere near their usual standards. It's part of why Danny Ainge just did the opposite a year ago and didn't offer Garnett/Pierce extensions after Allen walked. You start the rebuild a year early rather than a year or two late. Now Boston might get Kevin Love and pair him with Rondo while the Lakers are hoping two senior citizens in Nash/Kobe can get healthy enough to just make a run at the 8th playoff spot. People arguing Kobe's effect on revenue on the business side(tickets/jersey sales) are talking about this from an angle the conversation wasn't focused on. That so many, including Wilbon don't get that, is poor form. Jurgen says a lot of shit, but he wasn't wrong here.
Klinnsy fans most certainly underestimate how much of a bigot Klinsmann sounds like. Yes, he sounds like he has a distinct problem, specifically with Americans, on many levels, not just soccer related. He needs a PR rep to tell him when to shut his mouth and just coach. Yes, I said he sounds like a BIGOT. He many not actually be one, but he certainly sounds like it. Win something in the US, and people will cut you some slack for controversial comments. Until then I just wish this guy would relax.
It sounds like you are saying people not born in America are bigots if they speak their mind about stuff while they are living here. Please tell me that was sarcasm.
How so? There's no salary cap for the USMNT. The only way the analogy works is if Kobe worse than every Laker, so that a better player gets cut so that he can be on the team. If Klinsmann had a budget, and every player cost in proportion to his previous USMNT goals, then the analogy would be fair. But Donovan's past doesn't cost Klinsmann any more than another player's past.
Really? I don't think he sounds like a bigot. I just think there's one aspect of American sporting culture he might not quite grasp. I'm NOT saying I disagree with him, by the way. Just that--in a puff piece with a national, non-soccer outlet, those weren't the most well-chosen words.
People are bigots if they are: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; JK is not a "victim" here, like you are trying to make him out to be. He is the one that is making very public remarks, and letting everyone know what his opinions are, not me. "This always happens in America," Yeah when you start a sentence like that about any country, or group of people tread lightly.
What generally pisses me off about Klinsman's 'we're not going to win the World Cup' comment is he's not doing it as an American but rather a German coaching the Americans. A very strong attribute and common sporting trait that I love about this country that no matter how out numbered, how big of an underdog, how disadvantaged we are, we don't concentrate on that and discuss likely failure before it happens. Because in some small corner of us all, Americans think we can do it, and we'll deal with the outcome when it happens and not discuss it beforehand. I wish he would address it rather like 'I have no idea how the tournament will end for us, I'm hoping to be successful and that starts with Ghana, Portugal, and Germany and getting out of the group. Where that journey ends only the soccer gods know, but I know one thing that this American team will give its all to be successful and make the country proud. It does our team absolutely nothing to talk about losing before the tournament starts. Nothing.
Because his analogy wasn't a money one. I don't understand why so many are making the mistake of saying it is. His overarching point was that over-valuing a player because of past accomplishments is a mistake for a team. In Kobe's case, overvaluing him means overpaying currently based on past accomplishment. In Donovan's case, overvaluing him means guaranteeing him a WC roster spot because he is the "sacred cow" due to past accomplishments and not because of current production. We may disagree on the Donovan issue (I've already stated that I do), but people going back to the "Kobe is a money issue and Donovan is not, so therefore JK is dumb for saying it" are watching the actual point he was making whoosh past their heads. The analogy was not the money.
So you think JK is 'intolerantly' devoted to his own opinions? We can pause while you look that word up. Bigotry can be an intolerance of beliefs or opinions that don't mirror your own. You know like telling someone they need to shut up, keep their opinions to themselves and just coach. Which is why I said I was hoping you were being sarcastic. I guess you weren't, you were just being funny.
OK then he is flat-out wrong with his argument. Because while NBA teams sometimes do overpay veteran stars, they neither award them undeserved roster spots nor play them more than their abilities deserve. Salaries have a lot of things going into them, but playing time is a meritocracy.*
I'll break it down: Kobe gets rewards now for past deeds. Many fans see no problem with the fact that his on court impact for the duration of the new contract will be low. They dont mind it because this is "normal" in most american sports. It happens often and will happen again. Klinsmann doesnt hate Kobe. Or money. Or Americans. He is befuddled and confused by this one aspect of what most americans consider "normal" (namely, rewarding legends for off-court/off-field factors and past contributions) JK sees no reason to honor this tradition. He claims that roster spots will be determined on current play, not past merits.