Squanto wrote:
How many times did Larry Bird punch another guy in the pills from behind and get away with it?

I enjoy watching Sidney Crosby play. He's extremely talented, and generally fun to watch.
What turns me off on the guy is the force feeding we get from him. There are plenty of other marketable players in this league that don't get any exposure because the strategy is 'All Sidney, All The Time'. You can't watch a SINGLE national broadcast without hearing a comparison to Crosby, a reference to Crosby, or a promo for Crosby. It's disgusting. When Gretzky was in the league he didn't get this kind of pub, and Crosby is no Gretzky.
I'll also defer to the players who call him a whiner. They're on the ice. They hear what he's saying. Earlier in his career he was notorious for chasing around the officials complaining about pretty obvious penalties, even before he was given the C. There's a time to complain, an a time to shut up. It took him longer to learn that than most.
None of that is much the case anymore.
So how long DO you label him and hold that all against him? 5 years? 10?
As I emntioned earlier, considering his age, talent and level of scrutiny/attention, I think the guy does a pretty good job of being reasonably normal in most every interview/profile I've seen.
Don't you wonder how many other players, even not-so-young, would be labeled as this if they were paid the same amount of attention? There are plenty of whiners and divers in the NHL, but they don't all have such a spotlight on them. If Derek Roy was a supertalent, his diving acumen would be highlighted for years after he stopped doing that.
And by the way, as far as the players calling him a whiner: So what? You don't think there's the slightest bit of envy or jealousy there because of his skill or perhaps some favoritism shown for a star player. Yeah, it goes on. Everybody knows it. You do have to factor that in when assessing the validity of any poll. I remember NBA players making fun of how if you just looked at Michael Jordan funny, you'd get a foul called on you!