Max is a long time volunteer turned employee for mindyourmind as a Youth Outreach Assistant. He enjoys blogging, cats, and the state of Utah. Check him out on Twitter: @maxamilli

Last night the basketball world was validated when the Dallas Mavericks  became the 2010-2011 NBA champions. It had been a long time coming for a  team with future hall of famers Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd, their  journeys to the Promised Land had always been filled with superior teams  and self destructive choking when the pressure was on. But now they had  finally done it, they had worked their entire careers to reach this  moment and were ready to bask in the spotlight.

But where was the attention paid to when the game was over? There were  fewer shots of the Mavericks celebrated, and more of Miami Heat players  walking out of the arena. Lebron James wiping back a tear as he shuffled  into the locker room, Chris Bosh breaking down and crying in front of  television cameras. And then it became clear, the team that had been so  viciously followed and scrutinized by the media had lost. They hadn’t  been able to live up to the immense expectations, the non-stop  questioning, and the persistent rumors of broken relationships.

What kind of effect must that have on a player? To be on a team that  has such weight on its shoulders, an amount that nobody has ever seen  before. To be followed, dogged, chased by a gaggle of reporters looking  to ask the most inane and contrived questions about the size of your  headband. Where does that set in an athlete’s mind? Perhaps eventually  the pressure would be too much to handle and they would fall apart. When  it boils down to it athletes are just as venerable as regular folk, as  much as they try to pretend they’re not. And last night we saw what  happens when the media tries to break a team down, and as far as results  are concerned, it worked.

Do you think Athlete’s are beyond us in that you can judge them or pick  them apart more than you would a normal person? Is that the risk they  take, or does anybody really deserve that kind of scrutiny?

- Max