Over the past two weeks in the NBA, countless players have been asked who they would consider putting on the league’s “Mt. Rushmore”. Among those asked was two-time NBA champion and reigning MVP LeBron James of the Miami Heat. James concluded in an interview with NBA TV that his Mt. Rushmore would consist of Michael Jordan, Ervin “Magic” Johnson, Larry Bird, and Oscar Robertson. James added that when his career is all said and done, he would be on the Mt. Rushmore of the NBA as one of the four best to ever play the game. 
Naturally, the James-obsessed national media ran with the idea and Mt. Rushmore have become the two most uttered words on TV, trailing only “elite quarterback.”
The conversation of the concept of athletics-based Mt. Rushmore carried over into other leagues and sports as well, dominating a lot of the time on sports-talk radio and television. Analysts were creating Mt. Rushmores of MLB pitchers, NFL quarterbacks, NHL goalies, and different positions in different sports leagues following the idea appearing in NBA Discussions.
Here at the Mass Media sports section we love to have discussions about who we consider to be the greatest to ever play their respective sports; however, many of us felt that the Mt. Rushmore concept was a ridiculous one. Considering that the same question was asked of LeBron James back in August in an interview with FOX Sport’s Bill Reiter and the answer consisted of different players (Jordan, Johnson and Bird were maintained while “Dr. J” Julius Erving was in place of Oscar Robertson), many of us found the selections to be arbitrarily made.
Based on this feeling, the Mass Media sports section would like to offer you, our readers, some of our own Mt. Rushmore categories.
SI Swimsuit Models: Tyra Banks, Kate Upton, Christie Brinkley, and Heidi Klum.
Red Rangers from Power Rangers: Tommy Oliver of Power Rangers Zeo, Jason Lee Scott of the original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, Andros of Power Rangers in Space, and Rocky DeSantos of the second group from Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.
Celebrity Babies: The Royal Baby George Alexander Louis, Blue Ivy Carter, North West, and Blanket Jackson — Michael Jackson’s son, who is most famous for being dangled over the balcony of a hotel.
Pie: Apple, pumpkin, blueberry, and cherry.
One Direction: Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson.
While they are over-the-top and frivolous, our Mt. Rushmore ideas were used to make a point. In our ranking system we left off many possible representatives that have had a major impact or played a big role in each category. In the same regard, the NBA Mt. Rushmore presented by LeBron James (as well as many others) has left off greats such as Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain among many others.
While many consider Michael Jordan to be the greatest of all time, there are still those who argue otherwise and there is difficulty in determining who was the best to ever play the game. This makes the argument of creating a Mt. Rushmore from the NBA even more difficult and an unnecessary and arbitrary process.
Everyone has their own tastes and opinions, so why does one man’s Mt. Rushmore dominate the week’s sports stories? Because the obsession that the national media has for James is over the top, and his opinion is solid gold to them. Until people wise up and stop caring about this sort of story, Mt. Rushmores will be the talk of the town for the foreseeable future.