One performed in an individual sport, the other in a team game. One did his work on ice, the other on wood.
Nevertheless, Dan Jansen and LeBron James both know about perseverance. So when James finally won an NBA title with Miami in his ninth season, Jansen, a 1994 Olympic speed skating gold medalist, felt a sense of pride.
“It was absolutely inspiring,’’ Jansen said in a phone interview about the Heat eliminating Oklahoma City 4-1 on June 21. “It made me feel good. It made me appreciate what he had been through, and in a strange way kind of brought back memories for me. Two completely different sports, but individuals play those sports. And I think I can relate pretty well to what he was feeling.’’
Yes, there are differences between the two. Jansen gained tremendous sympathy when his sister Jane died of leukemia just before he raced in the 1988 Winter Olympics, while James hardly was a sympathetic figure for bolting his home-state Cleveland Cavaliers in the summer of 2010 and delivering the word on the much-panned television special “The Decision.’’
But there are similarities. Jansen, who was the best in the world at his distances, kept stumbling in big races, losing the 500 and 1,000 meters in both the 1988 and 1992 games and the 500 in 1994 before finally breaking through to claim his only Olympic medal, the 1,000 gold. James, while winning a pair of MVPs and ascending to being the best in the game, couldn’t win the big one, often faltering in the clutch.
“I know the feeling of not only wanting it very badly, but being, quite frankly, the best and not having it happen,’’ said Jansen, who never has met James but would welcome the chance. “And, when it does, it’s a huge relief …. There were those people out there, I don’t think they were rooting against me, I just think they didn’t think I could do it. They thought I was a choker and didn’t think I could handle the pressure.’’
Sound familiar? James was called a choker plenty while he routinely disappeared in fourth quarters in the Heat’s 4-2 Finals loss to Dallas in 2011.
Jansen and James already had shared being Olympic gold medalists, James having won his in Beijing in 2008. But the prize James always had coveted and what he thought he needed to validate his NBA career was the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Jansen, 47, is now a businessman and motivational speaker based in Charlotte, N.C. He delivers about 20 speeches a year, mainly to corporations, telling his story and stressing to his listeners to be the best they can be.
Jansen, who said he was inspired when John Elway finally won a Super Bowl in 1997 — his 15th season in Denver — and added another the next year to conclude his career, offers up names of other athletes in his speeches. He expects now to mention James.
“Absolutely,’’ Jansen said. “I think it’s a great example of not only the perseverance side of it, but kind of keeping your head up through it all and he kept working toward what his goal was …. When you leave a place that, quite frankly, was his home and people there are taking it personally and then he keeps failing, it’s easy for someone to say, ‘Oh, I don’t care about what other people think?’ But I think everybody in a way does, and it can’t be a lot of fun when you got a lot of people rooting against you as well as for you.’’
But James is having fun now. Jansen knows the feeling.
Chris Tomasson can be reached at christomasson@hotmail.com or on Twitter @christomasson
