Grange on Ovechkin: Mid-career crisis
Posted January 16, 2012 7:25 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The temptation for athletes to want to be rappers is completely understandable.
Like, if you’re Alexander Ovechkin and you’re earning $9.5-million this season while on your way to finishing 44th in the NHL scoring race, it’s hard to look around and think of someone who has it better than you do.
But then you’re waking up from the kind of afternoon nap that only athletes and toddlers have and maybe you catch a few music videos and it’s kind of hard not to conclude that rappers might have it just a little better.
The Bentley’s, the jet-skis, the cigars lit with money – and no concussions!
It’s a good (video) life. Maybe not $124-million guaranteed contract good, but the grass is always greener.
And so now we are treated to Ovechkin trading rhymes with noted Russian hip-hop star Sasha Belyi (well, noted by fans of Russian hip-hop) who claims to be able to rap at the rate of 700 words a minute.
The name of the song?
Champion. Say it really fast and it still doesn’t make sense.
If it were me I might have called it ‘Southeast Division Champion’ or ‘Regular season Champion’ just for accuracy’s sake, but again, that’s me.
Regardless, it’s not a satire, though if it were it would be a good one.
As for whether it’s about to rock hip-hop to its core, well, let’s just say that it’s a worthy addition to the “Raplete” pantheon, populated by the likes of Deion Sanders, Allen Iverson and Shaquille O’Neal.
Ovechkin, who is featured throughout the video vibrating in place, making vague, rap-like hand gestures and yes dancing with an overbite, is believed to be the first NHL star to go big in the rap game.
“We used to compete in karaoke bars on who would say more words per minute. I joked that he had no teeth, and he joked that he plays hockey,” said Belyi. “That was the main topic of the humor between us. And then I had an idea. This year I wrote a rap “Champion”, which is devoted to Alex.”
Devoting a song named ‘Champion’ to Ovechkin reminds me of Shaq’s defense of his ring-less legacy early in career, when he’d hit back at critics by pointing out that he’d won titles on every level except college and the pros.
The reality is there’s not much to be read into Ovechkin’s verse dropping, other than it might even be a good thing.
A non-scientific survey of other raplete’s career arcs suggests that the urge to be a star for things that you’re not actually capable of being good at is the equivalent of an awkward adolescence for a certain kind of athlete: a stage that they simply need to get through before getting on with their life’s work.
Shaq got his rap pretensions out of the way before he began collecting rings; his championship resume was built mostly after his film career tailed off.
Kobe Bryant has won five of his six rings since his brief dalliance in music.
What to make of Ovie’s rhymes?
It seems absurd to suggest that the window for a 26-year-old, two-time Hart Trophy winner is somehow closing, but it’s reasonable to argue that he’s got to find a way to raise his game again.
Maybe it’s training all summer instead of shooting commercials and videos? It seems to be working for Steven Stamkos, who has supplanted Ovechkin as the NHL’s premier sniper.
Ovechkin has long been compared to LeBron James – back when it was a compliment – because of the way he could physically dominate his opposition.
The comparison remains apt because Ovechkin, like James, has worked hard to build a brand in advance of winning anything.
The magazine covers and the goofy commercial persona was tolerable – even welcome in the staid hockey world – when Ovechkin was scoring 65 goals a season and turning Bruce Boudreau into a folk hero with spare chins.
But nearly two years into a slump that has become the new normal and with Boudreau now known as the fat guy fired for daring to bench the Capitals star, Ovechkin’s charm is wearing off.
His goal-scoring touch has returned of late including six goals in his late eight games, though just one his last four. However, he’s hardly gained the full respect of incoming Caps coach Dale Hunter who didn’t have his franchise player on the ice for the last four minutes of the Caps’ 4-3 win over Tampa Bay on Friday night.
Is there something in Russian that rhymes with “hard-ass Canadian coach doesn’t trust you?”
