Jeter and LeBron and Becoming Complacent

I was reading through the EPIC Bill Simmons/Malcom Gladwell 3-part column on ESPN.com and one passage at the end stuck out at me:

"And that's the thing I worry about with LeBron. You say that this could go on for as long as he wants, but the truth is these things rarely go on for as long as anyone wants. U2 is a weird exception. In most cases, John turns on Paul, Axl gets fat and Kurt Cobain commits suicide. In your book, you talk about McHale's decision to keep playing the '87 playoffs with a broken foot, and how he was never really the same after that. A lesser player sits out. But the act of prudence and selfishness that prolongs the lesser player's career is why that person is a lesser player: If McHale puts his foot ahead of the interests of his team, he's not McHale, is he? I wonder if the kind of passion necessary for greatness inevitably limits someone's time at the top.

I've just been reading several of the books that were written about the fall of Bear Stearns, and those books illustrate another side of this story. Bear Stearns didn't fail because the employees were incompetent, because they weren't good at what they do. They failed because they were good at what they do. They were so successful for so long that they grew overconfident and arrogant and complacent. The biggest obstacle to success is success. My biggest worry for LeBron is that he wins the title this season. And if he wins again next year, and the year after that, then what do you have? A guy still in his mid-20s who has already done it all, and has no reason to doubt his own skills and judgments, ever."

And after reading that, I thought about the Yankees' Captain, Derek Jeter. Think about Jeter through 2003. He had been to the playoffs every season. He had won 6 AL Pennants and 4 World Series. And when they lost in those years, it wasn't his fault (he hit .333 with 2 HRs in 1997 vs. Cleveland, and .500 with 2 HRs in 2002 vs. Anaheim). He won Rookie Of The Year, an All Star MVP, a World Series MVP, led the league in hits, led the league in runs, and won an epic World Series game with a homerun. He would make amazing defensive plays, hit clutch homeruns, and played through injury. Jeter signed the second-largest contract in the game and dated many, many beautiful people. Do you know how old he was in 2003? 29.

What has happened since? I can't say that guy has been complacent, but injuries and a natural progression have taken over. All those years of playing through injuries and playing with that passion, have left him a little more feeble. But he had accomplished all that before he was 30. And, in some ways, it seems like he feels he "has no reason to doubt his own skills and judgments ever". He still mans short even though his skills at that position are subpar. He doesn't make adjustments in the field to compensate for this. If he went to Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi and said that he wanted to be moved, they'd do it in a second.

But they can't, because he's Derek Jeter and he's accomplished so much. And that's the fear with LeBron. It's not like you'd accuse either man of not trying out there. Actually, quite the opposite. But you wonder if success and all those intangibles (playing through injury, playing with passion, running every play, never quitting) finally catch up to you in the end--if you're not on steroids. Let's hope not. I think Jeter still has something still in the tank. I also think LeBron has too fiery and competitive a personality to ever become complacent. And I hope that both of them are winning championships in New York for many years to come.