News came last week that Tamir Goodman, once a prospect so heralded at the high school level that he earned the moniker "The Jewish Jordan" before he was old enough to buy cigarettes, was retiring from basketball after a career that did not, alas, lead him to become the greatest player in the NBA. Sadly, he never achieved his goal of even making the league.

While this is unsurprising- it is a nearly impossible standard to reach Michael Jordan's eminence, even with the relative modifier "Jewish" in front of the namesake- what I find most interesting is just how quickly the Jewish community affixed this nickname to Goodman.

We are, as a people, desperate for our iconic modern sports hero. It's been a while since we had one.

That is not to say there aren't prominent Jews in sports today. As I have traveled around the country, giving talks about my book, The Baseball Talmud, I have been quick to point out that 2009 contained the most Jewish players in any single season of Major League Baseball.

And many of those players are not mere journeymen: Kevin Youkilis, Ryan Braun and Ian Kinsler have all been standout hitters, while Scott Feldman and Jason Marquis have excelled in particular on the mound.

But what has struck me among the people I've met during my tour is the reverence for Sandy Koufax. It is at a level that surpasses even the Jewish baseball fan's love for Youkilis locally in Boston, or for Braun in Milwaukee. He was an icon.

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Dmitriy Salita, an undefeated welterweight boxer and Golden Gloves champion, is an Orthodox Jew. His personal website describes him as “a famous Jew boxer,” and he climbs into the ring to the thumping bass of Matisyahu, the Hasidic reggae star. If Salita gets his way, he’ll be the next Jewish media icon. He’d better be careful what he wishes for. With his Hasidic music and exhibitionistic piety, Salita may awaken a dangerous and venerable beast: hagiographical journalism that sets messianic expectations for Jewish athletes, musicians, or anyone else who fits neatly into the timeworn narrative about the Jew who thrives in a goyish ...