Carmelo and 'King James' to save the day

Greetings to all.

I am a 19-year old that goes by the name of Tyler Bieck.

Before you jump to the conclusion that I am too young to be writing in this fine newspaper, let me make a point.

And then you can decide that my writing abilities are bunk.

My claim for maturity: I am older than two of the biggest "superstars" in the National Basketball Association. This wouldn't seem so strange if I were 24 or even 22-years old.

But, I am still in my teenage years, making it a tab bit odd.

Carmelo Anthony (age 19) of the Denver Nuggets and Lebron James (age 18) of the Cleveland Cavaliers are the two "superstars" that lend to my suffering of worthlessness each day because they are already millionaires and I have $127.48 to my name.

Anthony attended one year of college at Syracuse University last season.

With the Orangemen he captured the NCAA crown and jumped to the NBA after his freshmen season.

James (a.k.a. "King James," "The Chosen One" and any other preposterous nickname you can think up), who is good friends with Anthony, decided to skip the education that would have gotten in his way at college and declare himself eligible for the NBA Draft straight out of high school.

The Cavs then selected James with the first pick of the Draft.

Somewhere lost in this history is how or why James was given the nickname "King James."

James is so in love with the moniker that he has it tattooed on his bicep.

Fortunately, the media is in love with James almost as much as he is in love with his own self.

Not one to be shown up, Anthony nearly rivals James in media "darlingship."

It appears, at least in the current day, that these two may revitalize the NBA enough to bring it out of its depression it is presently engulfed in.

This will come as no easy task to two teenagers living in the dream world of sudden millionaires.

Anthony and James only need to look around them to learn how not to conduct their lives.

They must learn from the mistakes of other professional athletes and stay away from drugs, women and ABC announcer Bill Walton.

As any common sense human being would know, Walton should be the most feared of the trio.

Anyway, I am still wondering why the NBA is handing over the reigns to two teenagers, who will not be able to rent a car for five years. Thankfully for them, they can bypass the rental process and simply purchase vehicles to place in every NBA city.

I would recommend the Dodge Intrepid because of its spacious back seat and huge windows for maximum exposure.

It is saddening and unfortunate that the NBA must look to two teenagers to fill the void left by Michael Jordan's first, second and third retirements.

I believe that Anthony and James will develop into great players, but forcing the spotlight onto them at such a young age showcases the desperateness of the NBA to recapture its former glory days.

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the situation.

Maybe I'm just bitter that these two have been gifted with an amazing ability to play basketball, while the highlight of my own basketball career consists of making two consecutive three-pointers in a ninth-grade B team game (I proceeded to horrendously airball my next three shots).

Maybe it's that Anthony and James can bring a crowd to its feet with their dunks while I can‚t even touch the net of a basketball hoop because I'm only 5 feet 9 inches tall.

Okay, I'm only 5-8.

Fine -- 5-6, but I'm not going any lower.

Seriously, I do wish the best for both Anthony and James. I hope that they can bring the excitement back to the NBA along with the vintage short shorts of the NBA's early days.

If these two can succeed in this, it will finally make the late winter/spring sports season worth watching again.

And, maybe those short shorts will get the players to stop thinking that they are so tough.

Tyler Beick comes back to McCook, fresh off a rough tour of duty at Evangel College in Springfield, Mo., and has joined the Gazette as a reporter. He transferred to McCook Community College, and will cover MCC and area high school athletics as well as performing whatever other duties the Gazette might throw at him. You can email Tyler at sports@mccookgazette.com.