What sometimes gets lost in this sort of discussion is that some of us actually liked and admired Jones before we understood how morally bankrupt she was. She was a hero to a lot of kids and even a few adults. She had a Wheaties-box grin. She was hard not to like. She was a terrific athlete. And she kept flashing that smile as she denied and denied and denied--as she lied repeatedly to our face.
Not every great athlete who uses PEDs is particularly likeable. Roger Clemens was just a big, tough, taciturn guy. Lance often seems poised on the edge of a 'roid rage. But MJ was likeable as hell.
When somebody that talented and likeable lies repeatedly to your face, it tends to make you cynical about every other athlete she's competing against. It makes you cynical about the sport. Her behavior is a part of why this place gets so cranky when the question of PED and "enhanced" WR's comes up. She's helped make us all somewhat more cynical. That cynicism is bred by frustration; a sense that we've been had by precisely the person who is supposed to inspire us; who HAS inspired us.
If she had any honor at all, she would stop talking to groups of young people about "making one big mistake." She'd go off and work quietly to make the world a better place. What all of us are picking up on, I think, is that the same need to win at all costs has mutated into a continuing need for public approval in the form of an "object lesson in repentance and making better choices."
I don't doubt that MJ has learned something about the costs of making bad choices, but it's not clear to me that she's got grace enough to step out of the limelight and let others more capable than her redeem the sport that she's tarnished.
Sometimes, confronted by celebrities who insist on extending their already way overextended 15 minutes of celebrity by any means necessary, I heard Don Imus's disgusted snarl in my head: "Oh just SHUT UP."