Charisma

In order to be considered great at something, a person must achieve incredible results and must be widely recognized in his/her respective field.

For instance, if a certain basketball player thinks and says that he/she is great but hasn’t played in a somewhat high-level competition or is not even a household name in his/her city, that person is delusional.

Another example, a sports journalist is only considered great if that person could analyze in somewhat perfect details and has the ability to predict game winners more often than picking the losing team.

Let’s put one journalist to a test.

As of July 2021, the NBA has been running since the sixth of June 1946. In those 75 years, there have been incorrect predictions but nothing beats what Stephen A. Smith had done for 6-consecutive years.

In the 2011 NBA Championship, Stephen A. Smith picked the Miami Heat over the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks won in a 4–2 series.

In the 2012 NBA Championship, Stephen A. Smith picked the Oklahoma City Thunder over the Miami Heat. The Heat won in a 4–1 series.

In the 2013 NBA Championship, Stephen A. Smith picked the San Antonio Spurs over the Miami Heat. The Heat won in a 4–3 series.

After three consecutive years of incorrect predictions, people began noticing that pattern and started calling it the “Stephen A. Curse”. Some real hardcore fans started betting money on the opposing team Stephen A.’s picking. Unfortunately, it continued for another three more years.

In the 2014 NBA Championship, Stephen A. Smith picked the Miami Heat over San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs won in a 4–1 series.

In the 2015 NBA Championship, Stephen A. Smith picked the Cleveland Cavaliers over the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors won in a 4–2 series.

In the 2016 NBA Championship, Stephen A. Smith picked the Golden State Warriors over the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavaliers won in a 4–3 series.

From 2011 to the 2016 NBA Finals, Stephen A., singlehandedly, inaccurately predicted the NBA Finals Champions. It’s normal to choose the wrong team to win once, twice, or thrice but six times?

To put that in a crazier perspective, let’s compare it to a coin toss probability. Each person has a 50% chance of correctly guessing heads or tails, 25% chance for correctly guessing heads or tails twice in a row, 12.5% chance for correctly guessing heads or tails thrice in a row, 6.25% chance for correctly guessing heads or tails four times in a row, 3.12% chance for correctly guessing heads or tails five times in a row, and only 1.56% chance for correctly guessing heads or tails six times in a row.

In the 2016 NBA Finals, Stephen A. Smith had a 1.56% chance of guessing wrongly for the sixth time in a row and still managed to pull it off. That is in fact a ridiculous, bizarre feat.

Since joining the ESPN team in 2003, Stephen A. solidified his position as one of the biggest basketball journalists in history. Even for Stephen A. who follows and studies the sport of basketball most of his life could still be wrong for 6-consecutive seasons.

It is the most widely-recognized incorrect prediction in NBA finals history and it looks like it’s not going to be beaten anytime soon.

Question:

Why is ESPN still giving Stephen A. a chance if his analysis falls flat time and time again? Why won’t ESPN get other sports analysts that have better results and observations? What’s the one thing Stephen A. has that makes him irreplaceable?

Charisma.

A random person could perfectly predict the NBA finals champion for a decade but without that one thing, that is not going anywhere.

Another great example is probably the greatest WWE wrestler ever, John Cena. Cena has been a professional wrestler for over two decades. The only criticism he’s facing is that he only has 5 moves and he calls it the ‘Five Moves of Doom’.

A flying shoulder block, followed by a sit-out hip toss, then a side-release spinout powerbomb, which then leads to his infamous ‘you can’t see me’ Five Knuckle Shuffle, lastly, his signature finisher, originally called as FU but later turned into Attitude Adjustment.

Most wrestlers could do high-flying stunts, some truly innovative moves but without using charisma correctly, any incredible stuff becomes useless.

Charisma draws in emotions, hence, more attraction.

It’s why it could be used for the wrong purpose too. It’s the reason why people are being fooled. Charismatic people got the power to persuade and manipulate.

Even giving absurd analysis, Stephen A. Smith is not getting in trouble and he is still generating millions of dollars a year. Whatever he is saying, people will listen because his charisma could easily catch others’ attention.

Even using the most basic, generic, and repetitive moves, John Cena’s charisma transcended a wrestling generation and he could very well be, the greatest professional wrestler of all time.

That’s how powerful charisma could be when used perfectly.