cheryl
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What 'The Last Dance' reveals about Michael Jordan's legacy - ESPN
Noun
Something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past. -- Merriam-Webster
Professional athletes in the television age have absconded with the word legacy and returned it mangled beyond recognition. Seemingly every basket, home run or touchdown is accompanied by a player absorbed by his own moment, breathlessly declaring, I'm just trying to cement my legacy, when he's actually just adding to his accomplishments. There's ... a difference.
Legacy is what is left after there are no more clutch jumpers to make and no more opponents to stare down. It isn't what you've done but what it will mean. Legacies cannot be immediately assessed, for they have nothing to do with the present. They're not about you. At the end of 1998, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa thought their legacies were secure, and they were -- but not nearly in the way each envisioned. You must wait and see what time does to your time. Legacy is not yours. It's how the rest of us navigate what you've left in your wake.
Noun
Something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past. -- Merriam-Webster
Professional athletes in the television age have absconded with the word legacy and returned it mangled beyond recognition. Seemingly every basket, home run or touchdown is accompanied by a player absorbed by his own moment, breathlessly declaring, I'm just trying to cement my legacy, when he's actually just adding to his accomplishments. There's ... a difference.
Legacy is what is left after there are no more clutch jumpers to make and no more opponents to stare down. It isn't what you've done but what it will mean. Legacies cannot be immediately assessed, for they have nothing to do with the present. They're not about you. At the end of 1998, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa thought their legacies were secure, and they were -- but not nearly in the way each envisioned. You must wait and see what time does to your time. Legacy is not yours. It's how the rest of us navigate what you've left in your wake.