To be or you aren't

Clutch and the mentality of greatness is the issue that I’m hoping to address today. Especially as this relates to C. Renaldo. It would be a fool’s errand to argue against the poetic skill of the 23 year old Renaldo; his surname alone seemingly ensures his spot in the pantheon. What irks me about his talent though is his willingness to hide his ability, to guard his brilliance until success and applause are ensured. Those of you who watch the premiership certainly understand this: C. Ronaldo will bide his time and fill a role until his team secures a 1-0 lead, he’ll then unleash his vast array of baroque footwork and incisive passing.

A player with such talent should perform on a high level at all times. The manner in which he is emboldened by leads is the first and most damning critique of his mettle. His performance throughout the premiership, his monumental stats, are little more to me than a reflections across an ocean of another superlative regular season talent, Alex Rodriguez. Time and time again Ronaldo falls short in the clutch, the world cup, the euro cup, the champion’s league, he has in these events no hardware to boast of. There is no doubt that he has a chance to serve his doubters this week, but he must.

To add a little about what being talked about here of recent, Robert Horry is the one Spurs player who plays as if he is a real person. Having learned his game from other greats, rather than Duncan and David Robinson, he has the guts and the glory, not just the latter for the soul of the former.