I think everyone would love to control the way their image is perceived.

It's natural for us to want to remember our own sporting achievements or sports performances we've been a part of as fans in a perfect and ideological way. As the years pass sports stories become like Diane Lane and look better with age. A long birdie chip from 60 yards becomes a 150-yard eagle, a hat trick in high school hockey eventually starts to rival Darryl Sittler's record for points in a game and a solo homerun in the eighth inning becomes a grand slam coming with two outs in the bottom of the ninth with your team down by three. We've all stretched the truth so you can hardly blame a guy like the N. Korean President who controls the country's media. Just imagine if you controlled the media and in turn controlled everything said about you. I'd imagine it would be a lot like Dave Chappelle's rendition of the Dave Chappelle movie.

So this got me thinking what sports events/happenings from the last few years will people exaggerate and preserve in history as much better then they actually were. Otherwise affectionately known as the Limp Bizkit award:

· Michael Jordan's comeback with the Washington Wizards: Jordan had already accomplished the dream retirement scenario when he clinched the Bulls' 6th championship trophy with a game winning shot. Jordan averaged 8-10 points below his career scoring average in his two seasons as a Wizard and the athleticism that was once his signature had regressed. Over time people will forget how bad this decision truly was.

· Heritage Classic: This legends game was coupled with the NHL's first ever outdoor game which added up to the must-see NHL event of the year. Even now people look back on the event fondly but what gets lost in the sentimentality is how the Heritage game was a bust of Pamela Anderson proportions. The Oilers' glory days reunion of Gretzky, Messier, Kurri and Coffey was a big disappointment with Gretzky failing to even register a point in his return to the Oilers jersey.

· Steve Bartman: Even now, less then one year since the infamous Chicago Cubs fan reached out and stole a foul ball away from Cubs outfielder Moises "I'll take a pass on shaking your hand" Alou people exaggerate how the incident played out. As time passes people will retell how it happened in Game 7 and not Game 6 and it was the World Series and not the NLCS. Still if I was Bartman I would stay in that witness relocation program for a little longer, just until the Cubs win a World Series.

· Canada's Men's Olympic Team Dominates Tournament: People will only remember Canada's 5-2 trashing of the Americans in the Gold Medal game and state the Canadians strolled their way to their first Olympic hockey gold medal in 50 years when in fact the two week prelude to the gold was filled with tense, nailbitting and downright scary moments. Canada stumbled through the round robin with a 1-1-1 and narrowly beat Finland in a quarterfinal game. Canada also received some divine intervention when Belarus pulled off a shocking upset of Sweden, a team that throttled Canada in the opening game thus clearing the golden path for Canada.

· Todd Bertuzzi's "assault" of Steve Moore: From the onset this was one of the most sensationalized sports stories in quite some time. Inaccurate reporting of Moore's injuries were prevalent, the major misnomer was a broken neck, when in fact Moore suffered hairline fractures in his neck. With each media report Bertuzzi's weight escalated and Moore's age lowered to paint a greater characterization of victim and villain.

· LeBron James dominant rookie campaign: Five years from now people will rant about how LeBron took the league by storm in his rookie campaign and played head and shoulders above any other rookie. Of course those people will be wrong for failing to appreciate the awesome and dominant seasons of fellow rookies Carmelo Anthony and Dwayne Wade. 'Melo and Wade had major impact seasons leading their teams to the playoffs; something LeBron was unable to accomplish.

	The media emphasized St.Louis' short stature.

Modern day media has a major role to play with sensationalizing so many sporting events. In this quick hit, ADD society, you need a hook to capture people's attention and unfortunately the best way to do that is to play up a story. To make Martin St. Louis' MVP season all the more impressive the media focused all their attention on St. Louis' diminutive frame. I'm, pretty sure I heard one news story report his height as "three apples high". The other side of the coin is that people are predisposed to exaggerate or put things in a better light because it's the way we build and store positive memories. You ever notice how quickly the attendance can escalate on a major sports event? Twenty-thousand may have actually witnessed Tiger Woods' surreal 2000 U.S. Open win at Pebble Beach when he lapped the field by 15 strokes but 250,000 people have told stories how they were there. Speaking of Tiger his 2000 season was/is perhaps the only sporting achievement you cannot overstate. It was true and utter dominance but we can exaggerate how hard he's fallen to reality since then, but that's a whole other article.