live long enough and you'll see yourself become the villain

About a week ago I watched Michael Jackson's This Is It. The MJ phenomenon is still going strong, five months after his death. In perhaps the best example of revisionist history I've seen in a while, everyone--from media to nonfans--are pretending like they've been admiring him always and weren't cracking jokes about his nose/behavior as recently as June 24th. let's face it--outside of the diehard fans, most were freaked out by his actions of the past decade (and half).I mean, the man has been widely accepted as a punchline for the past several years. But he passes away and suddenly--BAM. It's like everything from 1990 on had been erased from our memory. As if Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones came to our houses with the deneuralizer and flashed us with the red light.

Today, I read that Allen Iverson has been waived by the Grizzlies after a failed two game stint in which he threw another hissy fit about not getting enough playtime. For a player who has overcome so much (racism/prejudice/hate that put him behind bars during college, lack of size in a game dominated by bigs, the NBA's initial reluctance to market him because he was too street/hip hop) and has accomplished so much on the court (his 2001 finals run remain my single favorite non-Jordan non-Chuck basketball memory) he has now become a walking punchline. No team wants him. Labels such as "cancer" and "selfish" are being thrown at him. And probably rightfully so.

You know what these two seemingly unrelated stories remind me of?

Harvey Dent's line in The Dark Knight (the defining film of this freaking decade)

"Live long enough and you'll see yourself become the villain"

It's happened to Iverson. His epic career, one that has been full of Herculean feats (not strictly on-the-court achievements--after all he never did win it all--but rather all the things he has overcome), is going out with a whimper. He's not wanted by any team. His haters--whom he has fed Shut Up Juice on a daily basis for most of this decade--are now getting louder and louder. Even his diehard supporters, those who love him for his underdog traits, his heart, his keeping-it-real attitude, are shaking their heads.

"Why, AI, why?"

Bill Simmons wrote in his book that had Kurt Cobain lived, his legacy probably wouldn't be as strong as it is toady. Cobain would have had a public messy divorce, he probably would have made an ass of himself publicly (getting arrested on drug charges or whatever), and Nirvana would have eventually released some mediocre albums.

I agree with Simmons. Very few bands continue to release great album after great album (Radiohead and White Stripes are exceptions), it's not unfathomable that Nirvana would have released some crappy album in 99 when rock was at its lowest point in the late 90s (when New Found Glory, Creed, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and Blink 182 ruled and before The Strokes/White Stripes/The Vines/The Hives revived garage rock)

This goes back to Harvey Dent's line--live long enough and you will see yourself become the villain.

Let's use living and dying as a metaphor.

Iverson's career "lived" too long. We're now seeing the ugliness of his ego and the same "can't nobody tell me different" attitude that allowed him to overcome so much (seriously, the dude is 5'11 and 150 pounds and he's lasted 13 season in a sport ruled by giants, where 6'4 is considered short) is now ruining his reputation and making him a joke.

Had Iverson's career "died" a few years ago, say he suffers an abrupt career ending injury, we would have remembered him fondly and probably overrate him, like we always do to tragic figure who dies young.

Heath Ledger is being compared to the pantheon of actors (De Niro/Pacino/Brando), huh? Beacuse he gave a great performance (not greater than Jarvier Bardem as Anton Chigurh and died). Simmons already mentioned Cobain, so no need to rehash again.

The point is we tend to overrate and immortalize those who die young.

Imagine if De Niro died right after Raging Bull, we'd hail him as the undisputed greatest actor alive, no doubt. But instead, he lasted and we see him appear in trash like Righteous Kill (a movie so bad that I want to disown it from both De Niro/Pacino's filmography), Rocky and Bullwrinkle, and Hide and Seek.

"Sometimes dying is the best career move," writes Simmons.

It sounds like a joke, only it's not.

All them times that Iverson's been knocked down only to get up; all them injuries he played through. Ironically, if he had been wiped out by one of those injuries a few years back, we'd remember in better light than we do now.