The Tragedy Of Appreciating SOBs Too Late | Defector

Kyle Busch and Claude Lemieux died at relatively young ages, and their deaths prompted public reaction that moved from grudging admiration to full admiration. Both were intensely competitive and were often treated as villains during their careers. After their deaths, their achievements became easier to acknowledge as earlier hesitations and qualifications were put into perspective. Busch died at 41 from sepsis linked to bacterial pneumonia, ending a nearly two-decade NASCAR career marked by dominance that made competitors feel inadequate. Lemieux spent 21 years in hockey, winning four Stanley Cups and scoring 459 goals, and was known as an elite defensive forward. He was also known for a vicious, behind-the-play hit on Kris Draper that broke bones and fueled a long rivalry between teams.

"The deaths of NASCAR driver Kyle Busch and hockey player Claude Lemieux are chronologically circumstantial but linked in a broader sense by public reaction, which has run largely along the line of grudging admiration turning to fulsome admiration, not despite but because of all those grudges. They were highly and sometimes objectionably competitive men, and as such were held to be villains of a sort during their careers. In both cases, their brilliance became easier to acknowledge after the hesitations and qualifications related to all that were shocked back into perspective by their deaths."

"Busch died at age 41, allegedly due to sepsis caused by bacterial pneumonia. That shockingly untimely death ended a nearly two-decade run as the driver who most, in the words of fellow driver Ryan Blaney, "made you feel inadequate, and [made] you feel talentless because you see him do these things, and it's like, 'I don't know how he does it. I really don't understand it.'" He was the hardest of chargers, a man who suffered competitors sporadically and fools not at all; before he died, Busch could be equally commodious and disputatious depending on the day."

"Lemieux was equally notable on the merits. Over 21 years in hockey he had compiled four Stanley Cups and 459 goals in combined regular seasons and playoffs; he ranked sixth overall in playoff goals with 80, and was regarded as one the game's elite defensive forwards. This was not what he was best known for, though. He was best known for the vicious hit he put on Detroit's Kris Draper that was so egregious-Lemieux checked Draper from behind into the boards during the 1996 Western Conference final, breaking Draper's jaw, nose, and cheekbone-that it sparked not just a brawl in that game but a rivalry between the Red Wings and Lemieux's Colorado Avalanche that lasted until well after Lemieu"

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