“Rogue” as in a rogue agent? Is McCain running for CIA chief or President?

The wheels are falling off McCain’s straight talk express. No denying it. While the young men and women of America’s armed forces are dying in the far east “theater” (isn’t that a tasteless word to describe a barbaric war zone?), McCain and Palin advisers are actually right now as I type engaged in an anonymous battle of words through the press!

The trivial bickering is about whether Palin is being a “rogue diva” by suggesting the GOP should not have pulled out of Michigan, and for characterizing McCain’s automated phone call campaign as “irritating.” Sounds like the odd couple need a stern lecture. Is there a leader in the GOP party who is available for an intervention? Colin? Oops, too late.

McCain’s people are yapping, Palin’s people are yapping back, and meanwhile Obama and Biden are making giant strides in the polls. Is McCain just a poor leader, or has the Diva in Miss Palin finally flown the cuckoo’s nest for good?

Not that I care. Don’t get me wrong. I’d vote for Bobby and Whitney before  I’d vote for John and Sarah—heck I would take Roseanne and Tom over the maverick and the hockey mom!  But McCain does portray himself as a seasoned leader, so I can’t help but wonder what game he’s watching. How could all this disloyalty fester on a true leader’s watch? And Palin? With her self-proclaimed expertise in sportsmanship and teamwork? Shameful.

But who should be assigned blame for Palin’s “rogue” statements that appear to be eroding any remote chance the GOP had of pulling off a miracle even the 1980 US olympic hockey team would be proud of? Do we blame McCain for what might be perceived as the inability to secure his running mate’s allegiance? Or do we blame Plain for not being a team player?

Why even ask these questions? Why not. I believe there is a lesson to be learned from this debacle, and I’m always up for learning a lesson–especially when I can explore the topic with sports analogies!

I’m a lifetime basketball nut and student of both armchair sports psychology and coaching. When I read about the McCain infighting, I immediately thought of the effects divas have on sports teams, and the typical outcome. One piece of anecdotal evidence immediately springs to mind..

Enter Kobe Bryant. Love him or hate him, he is one of the greatest to ever play the game. Unfortunately he’s a legendary diva too, and his infamous public rants on topics ranging from Laker business policy, to Shaq’s hush money policy, splintered his Lakers team, and ultimately led to the disbanding of what arguably would have been the most dominant team in NBA history. Jordan won 6 titles. It is often asserted the Shaq-Kobe Lakers might have won as many as 10 had they stayed healthy and resolved their differences.

What happened? According to most sources, including Lakers Head Coach Phil Jackson (whose books I recommend, even if you are not a sports fan), Bryant’s head swelled bigger than a basketball left in an oven too long (yes, I have done it–inflates the ball when you don’t have a pump), to the point where he was out of control and inconsolable.  Word is the calamity came to a head when Bryant gave owner Jerry Bus an ultmatum: Shaq or me. Bus chose Kobe and sent Shaq packing. The rest is history.

The point here is Bryant put his own agenda ahead of the team’s. What exactly was his agenda? We may never know, but many people opine his goal was to become the next Michael Jordan–and Shaq was in his way. And when it came time to settle their differences, Kobe decided he didn’t want to come to the table. In a sentence? Kobe’s pride killed the Lakers. Many people, including Shaq given his implicit barbs even to this day, still haven’t forgiven him. Pride is a terrible thing.

In the aftermath of the Lakers fall from grace, a lot of people wondered why Coach Phil Jackson wasn’t able to rein Bryant in, as he had done so effectively with perennial all stars and big egos like Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan, and even Dennis Rodman when Jackson previously coached the Chicago Bulls to a staggering SIX championship titles. What happened? Did Jackson lose control? And of so how? To hear Jackson tell it, it was Kobe’s stubborness and obsessive fixation on being the focal point of the Lakers offense. Bryant says it wasn’t his fault. O’Neal has been passive aggressive with only sharp jabs posing as jokes or raps directed at Kobe through the press.

My father and I have spent many hours through the years analyzing coaches in the NBA, not to mention team chemistry, and the common denominators we observe between winning teams and losing teams. In fact we could probably write a whole series of speculative books in these topics, right Dad?

Here’s what I theorize happened with the Lakers. As much as I admire Phil Jackson, I think after the third Lakers championship he lost his edge. Maybe he got lazy. Maybe he met with the team less. Maybe he didn’t champion that zen-like focus and discipline he is famous for that year. Maybe his relationship with Bus’s daughter Jeanie got in the way. But whatever the case, I bet he took his eye off the ball long enough for clique-like loyalties to form between players.. which led to a Kobe camp and a Shaq camp.. and never the twain shall meet. In the end Jackson failed to rein his team members in and poof, that assemblage of talent was gone forever.  Successive championships squandered.

Here’s what I theorize has happened with McCain: Perhaps he failed his team the same way Coach jackson might have; maybe he took his eye off the ball  too long and allowed Palin to grow an ego bigger than the team. But if i was a betting, I’d put my money on this more likely scenario: McCain never had the leadership skills and experience to secure Palin’s loyalty in the first place; and if even if he had, Palin didn’t have the humility to even be receptive to it. And so ultimately I posit the blame falls on McCain because he recruited the wrong person for the job. Why? Because despite what he says, he chose her because he liked her style… and never stopped to consider her substance. Character flaw or ignorance? I’ll leave that one for another day.

In the end, there probably won’t be many tears as the McRage straight-talk express sputters down the final stretch and into the annals of history. Nor will fathers and sons, sports fans, or political pundits ever sit around passionately debating how many championships John and Sarah  might have won had they worked as a team. I think it’s safe to say McCain’s would-be administration was headed for colossal failure no matter how many divas on staff were trying to hog the spotlight.

Joe