And the ball said....

Money does not equal greatness.
Cribs do not equal greatness.
Balance does not equal greatness.
Fame does not equal greatness.
Endorsements do not equal greatness.
Winning does not equal greatness.
Only greatness equals greatness.
Only greatness equals greatness.
Only greatness equals greatness.

Are these staments valid? Is greatness the only thing that equals greatness? Is greatness even the ultimate goal? Let's find out.

We'll start with the main point: Only greatness equals greatness. Anybody who's ever paid attention in philosophy class (waaa?) can tell you the reason why A = A, why greatness equals greatness. But is greatness the only thing that equals greatness? Klondike would probably pull out a thesaurus an dlist off synonyms. But let's stick to the topics mentioned.
Money does not equal greatness. I'll agree with this. There is so much discussion of overpaid athletes, overpaid executives, overpaid... Heck, in the NBA, you get at least $1 million a year just for showing up. If all it took to get $18 million a year was to be the worst defensive shortstop in the AL (Derek Jeter) - well, I can do that easily.
Cribs do not equal greatness. This is closely linked to the money theorem. Cribs are posessions. No posessions, no horde of material goods, can ever equal greatness. Can't buy me love, and can't buy me greatness.
Balance does not equal greatness. Well, yes and no. You have to be well rounded to be great, but being well rounded does not mean you're great. Hank Aaron is the all time leader in home runs and RsBI, but Willie Mays gets all the "greatest ever" talk. Why? Mays is known for his flashy defense, while Aaron is only known for his hitting. Also in the "greatest ever" discussion is Babe Ruth, who of course started as a decent pitcher. This statement may just a "Carmelo, please don't be bitter about LeBron" statement. Carmelo is known as a pure scorer, but LeBron of course is known for his scoring and his "crazy court vision." (LeBron's defense is a story for another day, however.)
Fame does not equal greatness. Agreed. Media hype is a funny thing. You've got the supposed "coast biases," as well as hype bandwagoning. Last year's rookies of the year are a good example of this. Dontrelle Willis gained fame through his flashy leg kick, and Angel Berroa became the "I sound smart for picking him" pick because of his team's newfound success. Still not sure that fame does not equal greatness? Paris Hilton. Anna Nicole Smith. That Jeter guy.
Endorsements do not equal greatness. This goes along with the money and cribs arguments. I'll chalk this up to another "Please don't be bitter, Carmelo," and move on.
Winning does not equal greatness. Here's the important one. Derek Jeter is considered great because he's associated with a winning team. But wait, weren't Luis Sojo and Jim Leyritz also key parts of most of those championships? Don't they get to be great, too? Is team greatness even that important? Let's consult Mr. John Wooden. "A player that makes the team great is far more valuable than a great player." Ah, so the goal is team greatness. But does team greatness come from winning? Yes, according to Ty Willingham ("The goal is to win.") and Herm Edwards ("Hello! You play to win the game!").
So, there you have it. The goal for the individual is to contribute to team greatness, and team greatness is acheived by winning. Now, I know this didn't live up to the hype at all, but at least you now know why I never became an English major.

Here's Looking at You

It's current RBS Leader and loyal KankaNation reader Nick Yonto, left, and Minnesota utilityman Nick Punto. Oh, and by, "Here's Looking at You," I mean, "Here's a Guy Whose Name Always Makes Me Say, 'What? Yonto's Playing for the Twins Now?'"

Transaction Wire

Nothing happened. At all. Unless you're the Twins, or Banned substances, in which case half your team is on the DL.

I'm having trouble with the Windows side of my computer, so the KankaMatic team pages won't be updated for a while. The stat rankings on those pages are up to date, however. In lieu of this, I'll use the days to come to start taking a look at ND players in the draft.