No joke, guys. Among the many mementos included in “Become Legendary: The Story of Michael Jordan,” there’s a Bugs Bunny sneaker. A big, black-and-gray “Air Bugs” kick (or was it “Hare Jordan?”), encased in Plexiglas and given prime real estate on a 40-foot-long timeline that traces MJ’s rise to immortality.
Its inclusion in the “Become Legendary” exhibit, launched last month at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in advance of No. 23’s impending induction, is contextualized by the fact that “Space Jam” was yet another marketing coup for Jordan, one that capped a 1996 chock full of top-shelf accomplishment: the Sherman’s March to 72-10; the return to first-team All-Everything status; the sweep of All-Star, league and Finals MVPs; the fourth ring; and the all-time shhhhh to those who clucked after his comeback from baseball in Birmingham. (The copy accompanying the shoe includes the following text: “The film was a huge success, and was loosely based on events in Jordan’s life.” Mostly, the parts where he’s tight bros with Wayne Knight.)
And yeah, that’s all true. (Especially that thing about Newman.) “Space Jam” was a hit — with $90.4 million in domestic ticket sales, it’s still the highest-grossing basketball movie of all time, according to Box Office Mojo. It entered theaters just before Thanksgiving, so it did end Jordan’s year in a temporal sense, and sharing the screen with iconic pop culture figures like the “Looney Tunes” characters did represent another step in Jordan’s expansion beyond “basketball player” and into something more akin to “all-purpose public entertainer.” Fair enough, considering the exhibit’s intent is to celebrate Jordan as not only the G.O.A.T., but also the nexus of modern-day athletic mythology.
But still, seeing that shoe — such an encroaching, goofy, reverence-draining element — share space on the same stretch of wall as Jordan’s 1981 McDonald’s All-American jersey and the University of North Carolina practice shorts he famously wore underneath his Bulls gear is jarring and, from a basketball fan’s perspective, kind of insulting. Like, “You’ve got 15 years worth of the career of the greatest and most accomplished athlete of my lifetime to pull from, and you’re giving us ‘Space Jam?'” Really?
To be fair, some portions of the exhibit do explore and illuminate Jordan’s actual life in basketball. Sections on UNC and the Bulls touch on his time in those formative locales and flesh out some of the key characters in his development, like Dean Smith and Phil Jackson. (The Chicago piece also includes a small, awkward statue, presented without comment, of Jordan in mid-dunk, sans tongue-wag.) Hanging from the rafters are jerseys from each step in his journey, starting with the blue-and-yellow of Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, N.C., and stretching all the way to the Wizards’ home whites.
A wall-sized tight shot of Jordan’s back, name and number details his jaw-dropping resume of awards and honors. And when it’s not pimping cartoon characters, the timeline does hit relevant on-court high points, like dropping 63 on Boston in ’86, averaging 35 per on 53.5 percent shooting in ’88, the dagger over Ehlo in ’89, the Double Nickel at MSG in ’95 (an event so tragic that it may or may not have led a 12-year-old Devine, rooting for Starks and Oak during a temporary break from “Golden Axe II” on Genesis, to cry big, fat, Hydrox-fueled tears).
Even cooler, an adjoining exhibit called “The Finals: Championship Moments” — a presentation of 30 images selected by NBA Senior Photographer Andrew D. Bernstein from the last 25 years of NBA championship series — shows off not only eight fantastic shots of Jordan in the Finals, but also the actual section of floor where Jordan hit the shot over Bryon Russell that put away Utah in 1998. Here’s what the accompanying copy says: “The hardwood flooring on display here is the Delta Center flooring where Jordan broke the hearts of Jazz fans everywhere and cemented his place in history.” (So, um, Jazz fans, maybe you’ll want to think about avoiding that room.)
All things considered, though, “Become Legendary” isn’t concerned with the fan’s perspective — at least, not primarily. The press release announcing the exhibit’s launch said the Hall of Fame “partnered with Jordan Brand, a division of NIKE, Inc. to create” the celebratory spread; as Richard Sandomir pointed out in The New York Times a couple of weeks back, what that really means is that the exhibit was “designed, installed, written, curated and paid for by the Jordan Brand” — an investment that Hall of Fame President and CEO John L. Doleva said in an interview with the Republican newspaper of Springfield cost the brand a cool $250,000. (Nike denied the quarter-mil figure in Sandomir’s Times article.)
As a result, Nike’s influence isn’t limited to the constant theatrical loop of the four-minute “What is Love?” Jordan Brand commercial in a small seatless theater at the center of the exhibit, or the section displaying the 24-year evolution of the Air Jordan shoe, a visually compelling showcase of sneakers framed by promotional images of the early Jordan, sketches of designs, notes on production elements and the like. It permeates everything, from the reference to the Jumpman logo as “an international status symbol of aspiration and success” to the inclusion of a pro-Nike Spike Lee quote alongside a note on the 1988 debut of the “Mars Blackmon” commercials (“Never before in the history of American business has a company put a black individual as the face of a company, and what Phillip Knight did was revolutionary”).
It also taints, to some degree, the items included in the shrine, as Sandomir reported: “Those six Chicago Bulls championship rings encased in plexiglass? He doesn’t own any of them. The wall of Air Jordans that looks like a display at Foot Locker? Jordan didn’t soar in any of them. … Not a jersey, a ball or a sneaker came straight from Jordan,” but were pulled instead from Nike’s corporate stash. So when you look at the McDonald’s All-American jersey or the UNC practice shorts, you’re not really seeing Michael Jordan’s history, but instead sort of a buffed-and-shined, not entirely authentic re-purposing. The effect is … well, odd, and possibly grimy. Like the game itself — the game Jordan mastered, the reason he’s being inducted this weekend — is ancillary to the story it created, to the way it can be shaped and presented.
For what it’s worth, the presentation of “Become Legendary” caught the eye of Darcy St. Onge, a 23-year-old studying visual communication design at the University of Hartford. He was at the Hall last Friday as part of a class trip to study the way different exhibits were designed and what their compositions were intended to lead visitors to focus on. So what did the Jordan exhibit lead him to focus on?
“The way that Michael Jordan was not just a basketball player … It’s definitely more of an homage to his accomplishments,” he said.
“That, and all the shoes.”
– By By J.E. Skeets l Yahoo News
Long before Tim Duncan(notes), the four NBA championships in nine years and Tony & Eva, there was David Robinson.
When he first swung by the San Antonio Spurs locker room to say hello, all he got were scowls.
“Most people felt like, ‘Who is this guy who thinks he’s going to save our team?”’ Robinson recalled. “I think it was more of a contempt than anything else. Plus, I think they kind of saw me as a goody-two shoes.”
From Saintly Savior to Hall of Famer. That’s The Admiral—a 7-1 Navy officer brought to rescue a franchise that seemed one good offer away from packing up and leaving town.
On Friday, Robinson will take part in the enshrinement ceremony, six years after he retired with practically an entire city still feeling indebted.
Former Spurs general manager Bob Bass practically jumped from his seat upon winning the No.1 draft pick in 1987. Red McCombs, the former Spurs owner and San Antonio business baron, literally banked his money on Robinson changing everything.
“I wouldn’t have bought the team back if it wasn’t for David,” McCombs said.
Robinson enters the Hall of Fame plenty decorated. Two NBA championships. A landslide MVP award in 1995. Ten All-Star nods. And the NBA even renamed its community assist award for Robinson, who has given $11 million to his San Antonio private school, The Carver Academy.
The 44-year-old will be overshadowed on a weekend belonging to Michael Jordan. John Stockton, another Hall inductee, will be feted as the NBA’s assist king. Rounding out the Hall’s NBA class this year is Jerry Sloan, who has set a record for coaching longevity in Utah.
Robinson holds no major records. He knows he won’t even go down as the greatest Spurs player; the prodigious Duncan already was wresting that distinction away when Robinson retired in 2003.
In San Antonio, his legacy to many will be having kept the Spurs in the nation’s seventh-largest city.
“I don’t want to belittle David the basketball player,” said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, a longtime San Antonio politician who was the city’s mayor in the early 1990s. “But what David did for this city was incredible.”
In a city now spoiled by success—the Spurs are the NBA’s winningest team this decade—San Antonio without the Spurs is a strange alternate reality.
Robinson came to the city at a time when, according to McCombs, “we were really in a low spot and needed something.”
The Spurs hadn’t had a winning season in six years. Attendance wilted. The city was starving for a superstar ever since George Gervin left town in 1985. (Gervin, the only other Spurs player in the Hall, and former coach Larry Brown will present Robinson.)
But once Robinson arrived in San Antonio—the Spurs had to wait two years so Robinson could fulfill a two-year hitch in the Navy—everyone paid attention.
“Imagine him as a young man walking in the gym and doing a handstand from one end to the other at 7-1,” said Spurs Gregg Popovich, who was then an assistant under Brown. “It took one practice and everybody knew that this was a different deal. That’s when the Spurs started winning again.”
Robinson averaged better than 24 points and 10 rebounds as a rookie, leading the Spurs to the biggest single-season turnaround in NBA history. About the only fan Robinson didn’t win over in San Antonio was a high school senior on the city’s northeast side who felt slighted when he asked for an autograph. Shaquille O’Neal(notes) would see Robinson again soon enough.
After the Hall ceremony, Robinson will continue a quiet retirement in San Antonio. He’ll stay focused on expanding his Carver Academy and raising his sons. And from his usual second row seat at the AT&T Center, he’ll watch the Spurs play—as winners.
“Looking back on it now, and seeing where we’ve come from all those many years ago, I’m very, very happy and very proud,” Robinson said. “I can’t imagine this team not being here. “
– By PAUL J. WEBER l AP
1915: That’s that then. The women go the same way as the Under-21s – after giving us some real hope of a major trophy, the Germans clinically take it away. Thanks for caring, see you soon.
England keeper Rachel Brown: “They were very clinical when they got the opportunity. We have come back from goals down before and we thought we coudl do it again, but we made basic errors and they made the most of it, so credit to them.”
From Alex, London, via text on 81111: “Brilliant game. The score is deceptive, the England women have done us proud! Women’s football is well on the way towards bigger things. Well done England.”
From AmsterdamYank on 606: “If the US men made it to a World Cup final and lost 6-2 to Brazil or Spain, I’d be over the moon about their performance. England’s woman are moving in the right direction.”
1900: The Germans, who have done this in the last four tournaments don’t forget, climb the stairs to receive their trophy. Michel Platini – victorious captain at Euro 84 – hands the cup to Birgit Prinz, and the party has started in earnest.
1857: The England players, to their great credit, are mostly smiling as they trudge up the steps at Helsinki’s Olympic Stadium to receive their losers’ medals from Uefa president Michel Platini.
Rachel Yankey on BBC Sport: “Obviously the girls will go back to the hotel and be extremely disappointed. But there are some strong characters and eventually they will see what a big achievement it is reaching this stage, how big it is for the future of women’s football in this country.”
From Darren, Falkirk, via text on 81111: “So the women make it to a major final for the first time in years and get thrashed by Germany and the Under-21s get to a major final for the first time in years and get thrashed by Germany. Anyone else worried about the omens approaching South Africa next year?”
BBC Sport’s Martin Keown: “In the end they just outmuscled us, outpowered us, especially the two girls up front, and their finishing was magnificent. They’ve got a lot of football left in them, too.”
1849: Full-time England 2-6 England
The scoreline is unbelievably harsh on England, but the best team won on the day, few could argue with that. The celebrations begin in earnest for the girls in red.
GERMANY WIN WOMEN’S EURO 2009 CHAMPIONSHIP
1846: Emily Westwood fires wide from comfortably outside the Germany area. We’re nearly done.
1846: We’re into injury time in Helsinki and there will be about two minutes of that.
1843: Karen Carney dribbles past two challenges but just runs the ball too far ahead of herself and Nadine Angerer comes out to gather.
1841: Emily Westwood comes on for England for the last few minutes, replacing Katie Chapman, who looks absolutely knackered.
1838: England’s players have gone, sadly. More German pressure and they cannot clear – eventually a shot is fired wide. Fatmire Bajramaj comes on for Kerstin Garefrekes.
1837: Far too late this change for England and it’s in the wrong area of the field too, as Chelsea striker Lianne Sanderson comes on for Eni Aluko.
From Ben, via text on 81111: “To BlueMonkey – what the hell are you talking about? This has been of higher quality and more competitive than 90% of Premier League and Champions League games.”
1834: Um, where have the England players gone? Germany attack and it looks like their entire team against four defenders. Luckily for England, Birgit Prinz fires at Rachel Brown, who gathers safely.
Germany goal: You don’t save those. And she didn’t. These two are absolutely deadly and it’s six as Inka Grings rolls the ball along the penalty area for strike partner Birgit Prinz to hammer a right-foot shot into the net. Unstoppable.
1831: GOAL England 2-6 Germany
Germany goal: Looks like we’ve got our player of the tournament. Germany win possession and break and suddenly it’s two-on-two. Unfortunately for England the two are Birgit Prinz and Inka Grings and the former tees up the latter to spank a left-foot shot into the far corner past poor Rachel Brown. Game over.
1828: GOAL England 2-5 Germany
1826: Twenty minutes remaining and England coach Hope Powell has not made any changes so far. She might need to, and sharpish.
1823: Birgit Prinz tries to meet a cross at the near post but Faye White does superbly to muscle her out of it and deny her the space to finish. As the game wears on, Germany are looking stronger.
1823: Celia Okoyino da Mbabi feeds a ball into the England box and Alex Scott’s sliced clearance cannons against the base of her own right-hand post and away to safety. That would have been that.
1822: England have about 25 minutes to get back into this game, trail as they do 4-2 to Germany. Jill Scott heads a corner wide.
From BulletMonkey on 606: “Good match this, actually. It was never going to be of the same standard as a men’s match, but it’s a lot more passionate than a lot of men’s football I see. And the flood of goals certainly helps.”
Germany goal: You can’t keep coming from two goals behind – is that the killer blow? Kerstin Garefrekes earns herself some room down the right and whips over a cross that Inka Grings heads over Rachel Brown’s dive and into the net.
1818: GOAL England 2-4 Germany
1815: The Germans pump another cross into the England box and Kerstin Garefrekes glances a header wide. The Germans take off Melanie Behringer and send on the brilliantly-named Celia Okoyino da Mbabi.
1813: That really was inspired stuff from Kelly Smith, the sort of goal you might have expected Dennis Bergkamp to score once upon a time. England are again right back in this game.
England goal: Magnificent. Another truly world-class goal as Karen Carney finds Kelly Smith in space just inside the German box, her first touch with her left foot brilliantly flicks the ball away from a defender and the second is an arrowing drive right into the far corner, giving Nadine Angerer absolutely no chance. I wonder…
1810: GOAL England 2-3 Germany
1809: England want a penalty, but Dagmar Damkova is having none of it after Kelly Smith takes a tumble in the German box.
Germany goal: Heartbreaker that one, right at the start of the half. A corner is swung in, England cannot clear, Annike Krahn’s shot cannons against the base of the post and then Kim Kulig slams in the rebound. It’s left England with a mountain to climb.
1806: GOAL England 1-3 Germany
1805: Germany break with pace again after England cede possession easily and Birgit Prinz is played in by Melanie Behringer and only Casey Stoney’s despairing tackle prevents a goal.
1804: Nervy moments as Germany pump the ball into the England box a couple of times and test the defence, but Hope Powell’s side deal well with their aerial threat.
1801: Back under way in the Finnish capital. We’re not finished yet, however.
From Adrian Clark, via text on 81111: “I see the Germans are getting away with plenty of aggressive play but falling over at the slightest tap… what a surprise!”
From true_toffee on 606: “It has been an interesting first half and the Germans’ second goal would grace any men’s tournament. Looking at it again, I think the goalkeeper could have kept it out, but still a great strike! I am confident England can score goals, I am just concerned they may concede more…”
BBC Sport’s Martin Keown: “The German front two, Prinz and Grings, are very good and have caused a lot of problems. But once England started playing their football they got right back into the game and they’ve got a real chance.”
1746: Half-time England 1-2 Germany
Far from over, this one – though in their semi-final, Germany improved noticeably after the break, so let’s hope that doesn’t happen again. Get the half-time teas in.
1744: England get a free-kick 30 yards out and Casey Stoney tries to take it quickly, but referee Dagmar Damkova is having none of it and Stoney is booked. Fara Williams fires the free-kick wide anyway.
1743: Hope Powell just needs to have some calming words with her team at the break. They are still right in this game, but recently they’ve started playing aimless long balls that aren’t getting them anywhere.
1741: Five minutes to go until the break at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium and England trail Germany 2-1 in the Euro 2009 final.
1738: Kerstin Garefrekes curls one from 25 yards and Rachel Brown plucks it away from danger – wasn’t quite top corner territory, but not far off.
1736: Clever from England, who play a short corner routine and Fara Williams’ cross is headed goalwards by Jill Scott, who sees her effort cleared off the line.
1733: England need to be careful – they seem keen to play their way out of trouble instead of putting a boot through it, and they are giving Germany a sniff when they shouldn’t have one. This time, Inka Grings just fails to latch on to Kerstin Garefrekes’ through ball.
1730: Crikey, we’ve only had half an hour. More goals to come in this one, you’d have to think.
From Luke in Herts, via text on 81111: “Why are Germany wearing Spain’s kit? It’s very off-putting.”
1726: Fara Williams sets her sights again and lashes one just past the angle of post and crossbar from 22 yards.
England goal: What the hell is going on?! Suddenly it’s carnage, and the three lions are back in it. Kelly Smith dribbles into the box, does a defender with ease, gets to the byeline and pulls it back underneath keeper Nadine Angerer’s body for Karen Carney to slot in from four yards. Game back on.
1724: GOAL England 1-2 Germany
Germany goal: That’s one of the greatest goals you’ll ever see in a final, I’m not joking. Melanie Behringer takes a touch 40 yards out and fizzes one into the top corner of Rachel Brown’s net. Let’s not focus on the keeper there – that is a sensational strike.
1722: GOAL England 0-2 Germany
1722: England have it all to do now, but they should take heart from the fact that they have been the better team so far.
Germany goal: Slightly against the run of play, but England had been giving the ball away a bit more often. Germany hit them on the break quickly and Inka Grings’ quick spin pass into the box is poked home by the predator Birgit Prinz for her first goal of the tournament.
1720: GOAL England 0-1 Germany
1716: No problems for Faye White as regards the physical battle, the England skipper bundling Birgit Prinz to the ground on halfway. Let’s hope she’s not wearing the mask of sorrow later…
1714: England are enjoying much the better of the play at the moment, confidently knocking the ball around the park. They keep looking for Eni Aluko – her pace is the big out-ball today.
From 2o-DeMoN-o9 on 606: “I thought that shot was in. I really did.”
1709: Ooooooooooooooooh. Kelly Smith is brought down 30 yards out and Fara Williams crashes the resulting set-piece goalwards, eventually watching it whistle a couple of yards wide. Keeper beaten.
1707: Karen Carney goes down with a thud near the touchline in a challenge with Melanie Behringer, as Birgit Prinz furiously appeals for a free-kick. This is lively.
1705: My word that was close. Birgit Prinz – who incredibly has not scored yet in this tournament – fastens on to a through ball but Faye White just manages to get in first to toe-poke it back to Rachel Brown. Great, vital challenge.
1703: England have a plan – get Eni Aluko away down the left. Searing pace takes her clear, but she just cannot keep it in play before getting a cross in. Interesting.
From Neil in Runcorn, via text on 81111: “Ten years ago, I was a naysayer on women’s football, but now I love to watch it. This tournament has shown just how “marketable” the sport can be. The Premier League and TV should take it by the scruff of the neck and turn the English women’s game into the best in the world.”
1700: With Uefa warlord and sometime president Michel Platini looking on from the stand, the Euro 2009 final gets under way.
1658: It’s England v Germany. The players are pumped and primed and we’re not far behind. Just about good to go in Helsinki.
1656: The teams are out, England led by their mask-wearing centre-back Faye White. It’s anthem time.
1655: Stevo’s Predo:
England 1-3 Germany
(Please bear in mind I am always, always wrong)
England striker Kelly Smith: “I’m trying to think about it as just another game, but obviously we are all really really looking forward to it. This core squad has been together for a very long time and we have to put in the performance of our lives to lift that trophy.”
1651: Back to the game. “Stop banging on about Germany,” I hear you cry. “They haven’t got Kelly Smith, have they?” No, no they haven’t. England’s 30-year-old taliswoman (?) is crucial to their hopes this afternoon and her return from injury neatly coincided with England’s return to form at the Euros. The 45-yard lob against Russia was pure class.
1647: Manually refresh your page, and as if by magic you will get live pictures from Helsinki at the top of this page, not to mention audio coverage and the very latest score top right. No trick, just treat.
From Nick in Stone, Staffs, via text on 81111: “I was stretcher-bearer at the Women’s Community Shield last season. Farah Williams went down injured and I was called on to the pitch, but my stretcher-bearing colleagues hadn’t turned up so I was on my tod. She looked at me. I said “firemans lift?” She was on her feet in a flash!”
1640: You will be. This German team is also the reigning Fifa Women’s World Cup holders, having won back-to-back titles in 2003 and 2007. You have to go back 10 years, to 1999, when they did not win one of the big two tournaments. Oh, and in striker Birgit Prinz, three-time Fifa Women’s World Player of the Year, they have one of the greats of the game who has scored 123 goals for her country. Gulp.
1637: Once more, Germany are the hot favourites, largely because their record in this event is simply outrageous. They have won six of the nine tournaments since its inception in 1984, including all of the last four. Last time around in 2005, they saw off Norway 3-1 at Blackburn’s Ewood Park, winning every single game along the way. Scared yet?
From thebutlerdidit on 606: “The time is here, the time is England’s. Germany have been hot and cold all tournament long and have failed to produce the scintillating form we know they can on a consistent basis. Hold onto your hats folks, methinks we are in for a shock.”
1631: So, Deutschland, we meet again. Only 74 days after the German Under-21 team demolished their English counterparts to win that particular Euro tournament in Malmo, Scandinavia once more hosts a meeting of two of the great foes in international football.
1627: But more of that chat later. Firstly, I must implore you to send me any thoughts that drift into your head on this splendid afternoon. Obviously if they are related to events in Helsinki, you’ve got better chance of getting your chat on this very page. Texts, as always, go to 81111, and as if we wouldn’t give you some sort of 606 thread to get involved in to boot. The day after England’s men reached the World Cup finals, the women need your support too. Big time.
1622: Euro 2009 final line-ups:
England: Brown, Stoney, Asante, White, Alex Scott, Jill Scott, Chapman, Aluko, Williams, Carney, Kelly Smith.
Subs: Chamberlain, Johnson, Sue Smith, Unitt, Handley, Sanderson, Westwood, Bassett, Buet, Clarke, Bardsley.
Germany Ladies: Angerer, Peter, Bartusiak, Krahn, Bresonik, Laudehr, Kulig, Behringer, Prinz, Garefrekes, Grings.
Subs: Holl, Stegemann, Mittag, Okoyino Da Mbaabi, Fuss, Mueller, Hingst, Bajramaj, Zietz, Schmidt, Weis.
Referee: Dagmar Damkova (Czech Republic)
1619: Welcome, to coverage of the Uefa Women’s Euro 2009 final in Helsinki, Finland, between Hope Powell’s England and Silvia Neid’s Germany. At stake, the title of the best team on the entire continent. A title one of these teams is well used to.
1615: England meet Germany in the final of a major international tournament with a trophy and bragging rights at stake. Frankly if you’re not in the mood for this, I don’t know why you bother.
– By Jonathan Stevenson l BBC
British Formula 1 legend Nigel Mansell has warned Brawn’s misfiring Jenson Button that he must “untighten himself” if he is to win the world championship.
Mansell, who won the title in 1992, believes the championship leader needs to adjust his approach after scoring just 11 points in the last five races.
“There’s obviously something going on with him,” said Mansell on Thursday. “He’s got to untighten himself.”
Button insisted he was in a “good place” ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.
Asked if he had been pondering championship point permutations with five races of the season remaining, Button admitted: “I think I was, but I’m not so much any more.
“I’ve been thinking about this race and getting the car set up in the best possible position we can for this weekend, spending at lot of time talking to my engineers.”
Button won six of the first seven races of the season but, after suffering a poor run of recent form, he is now 16 points ahead of team-mate Rubens Barrichello in the drivers’ championship table with a maximum of 50 available and five races to go.
The last grand prix, in Belgium, marked a season low for the Englishman as he qualified in 14th before being taken out of the race by rookie Renault driver Romain Grosjean in the first lap.
Despite not finishing at Spa, Button’s title rivals did not fully maximise the opportunity to further close the gap – Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel sits three points adrift of Barrichello in third, with his fourth-placed team-mate Mark Webber 20.5 off the lead.
In-form Barrichello moved back into contention for the title after winning the European Grand Prix in Valencia where Button, who has repeatedly insisted he is not feeling the pressure, could only finish seventh.
“You can’t have your team-mate out-qualifying you and out-racing you,” said Mansell, who is preparing to race a Ginetta-Zytek with his son Greg in the Le Mans Series championship finale at Silverstone this weekend.
The 56-year-old, who has won more grands prix than any British driver in history, had previously raised questions about Button’s future in F1, telling BBC Sport two years ago that he had “had the opportunity and he didn’t take it; there won’t be any more”.
Now, though, Mansell says he believes Button can hold off the chasing pack to emerge victorious after the last race of 2009 in Abu Dhabi.
“He’s got to be careful and give a bit of thought to what’s been happening,” he said.
“[But] he’s a mature enough driver now and accomplished enough to realise that even with a 16-point lead he must pay attention.
“When you win six races on the trot you start to think it’s easy. But it’s never easy until you cross that finishing line.
“But I really do believe he’ll bring the crown home for Great Britain.”
Talking of his rivals, Button insisted he has not identified any particular driver from Barrichello, Webber and Vettel as his main threat.
“It seems to be someone different every race weekend, which is a good thing,” he said. “People are taking points off each other.”
Should Button follow in the footsteps of McLaren’s reigning champion Lewis Hamilton, it would be the first time that British drivers have won back-to-back world titles since 1968 and 1969 when Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart achieved the feat.
And Mansell believes the British motor racing industry would reap the rewards.
“It will help to basically demonstrate to the sponsors and all the teams that the home of motorsport is England,” he said.
“And, hopefully, British drivers and British teams will get more funding because it’s been very difficult these past few years.”
– By Chris Whyatt l BBC
