So I asked my bosses here at The Hoop Doctors if I could put a cap on the whole Lebron James situation and the fallout that has occurred thereafter. Since they have graciously agreed, let me start out by establishing a few things.
First, the last column idea about the 5 Things Lebron James Would Suck At was meant in good fun. The guy is clearly the most talented basketball player the sport has ever seen and he seems like a rather intelligent guy, so I’m sure he could be good at most things if he wanted to. It was just a goofy take on all the angst that has been Lebron related in the last week.
Second, I know that this never truly puts a cap on the Lebron situation. Every time he makes a comment from now until the end of his Miami career it will make news. Every championship he wins will be debated and put into perspective. Every time he falls short we will scrutinize him and his cohorts and the city of Cleveland will have a little satisfaction. Either way, Lebron James will forever be news.
Third, regardless of the decision he made, it in no way diminishes what he is capable of on a basketball court. He is still incredibly talented and all the cities that feel scorned and bitter because he didn’t choose them, would still take him in a heartbeat. You cannot pass on talent like his.
With that being said I must put the onus of all this Lebron scorn on us. Not simply because we, as a fan base, make the news and the decision to read and react, but we as a fan base are in charge(and the media too) in building people up and giving them an identity. Whether that identity is real or fake will remain to be seen, but we decide what it is. We label them.
We decided to label Greg Norman as one of the all time chokers in golf because of all the majors he failed to win. We label Roger Federer as an all time tennis great because of all the majors he has piled up. We, at some point, stop taking into account all of Norman’s top 10 finishes or his tour wins. We, at the same time, stop looking at Federer’s losses to Nadal or the lack of premier talent he competed against during his run.
We at some point decide that a player is what he is and it is up to him to spend the rest of his career proving us otherwise. Good or bad. Or in the case of Lebron James he can change our perception in just 60 minutes.
But it was our perception of James, not the reality of him. It was us who believed he was something else. It was us who believed him to be a certain way and it was us who were saddened to find out he wasn’t.
What we believed is with a talent like that; such God given ability that Lebron had to want to win. He had to be the ultimate alpha male. He had to have smart people advising him and understand just want it takes to be on the mantle with Jordan , Russell, Bird, Magic, and Kobe. We made him something he wasn’t.
We believe our athletes, and someone of Lebron’s ability would be a win first guy. That’s what we like. That’s what we want. We want Jordan. We want our heroes to have talent we can only dream of with the desire to win as badly as we want them to. It’s the reason Jordan was so revered because he would do anything to win and we knew it. And we thought if we had that talent we would be the same way.
It’s the reason why we can’t help but root for Kobe just a little bit. He might not be a great person but you cannot knock or doubt his will to want to win. Even with the bottom lip jutting out or the put on intensity, he wants to win and you have to respect that.
We wanted Lebron to be that way and it just wasn’t in him to care about being the alpha dog and putting a team on his shoulders and taking them to the promise land. Sure, Lebron cared about winning, no athlete likes to lose. But what did the Lebron’s actions reflect? You rarely heard of intense summer sessions working on his game. You didn’t hear of improvements to make his game more complete. You heard them with Jordan. You heard them with Kobe. You hear them with Kevin Durant.
Lebron cares to win but doesn’t need to. It doesn’t drive him and it’s our fault for thinking it did. For the record, there is nothing wrong with not having a “winning is everything” mentality. There is far more to life than rings and wins. There is God, family, and friends. But we wanted more from Lebron. We expected more. That was our fault. We wanted him to rather beat Wade then join him in South Beach.
It was the decision we never saw coming. Even with the reports of him wanting to go to South Beach we thought it would never happen on National Television. You never pick the other woman on live TV. We assumed Lebron understood this because Michael would have. Peyton Manning would have. Alex Rodriguez would have. But we forgot that Lebron is a 25 year old kid with 25 year old kids influencing his every decision.
With age comes perspective and Lebron has none. And maybe he never would. It’s hard to have a grounded sense of self when you have been in a bubble your whole life and everyone around you has done what they could to please you. When we started hearing rumors that World Wide Wes was being pushed out of the inner circle that should have alerted us that all bets were off. He was foregoing the wisdom of a man with years of experience for a group of his friends. Anything was possible.
That’s why Lebron James became a public relations casualty. Lebron could have picked the best cast of players in Chicago. He could have gone after global icon status in New York. Or he could have been a hero and stayed home. But he didn’t. He let his hometown know, for the first time, on national tv that he would be heading to South Beach to play second fiddle to man in Dewayne Wade who will get all the credit if they win, and none of the blame if they lose.
So he compromised his basketball legacy and allowed his brand to take a significant hit for what reason? Acceptance. He said it then, and it was there all the time: he wanted to be a part of something. In high school he cherished the other 4 guys that made up his basketball teams starting five. These are guys who make up his inner circle today. Michael Jordan trashed his teammate from high school. Lebron remained loyal. For a guy who grew up without a father, the male friends in his life have been everything to him. That’s why they call the shots for Lebron and not smarter, more apt business associates. We assumed that Lebron did what he wanted but it didn’t seem like it. We assumed his friends knew what was best. Maybe Miami is the best decision but doing it on TV and putting it under the guise of a charity event made what he did feel dirty and it’s a decision anyone who looked out for Lebron and truly had his best interest at heart would have never allowed.
But his inner circle was in a compromising position. Lebron had his buddies in Bosh and Wade pulling him to South Beach and it was up to his friends to do what they have always done: support Lebron’s decision by convincing him it was the right thing to do. But that tv special…there is no way of knowing why he would make such a foolish choice.
One guess to that is ignorance. His inner circle must have never told him about the possible perception of it. Maybe they were too insulated and believed too much of the hype to see it either. If you saw Lebron at the Miami welcome party he looked a little uncomfortable. Perhaps because he never really thought he would receive the backlash he did. He had to know(or he’s completely stupid if he didn’t) that Cleveland would hate him. But the rest of the sporting world? That’s a fate he must have never imagined.
But it was our fault for assuming he thought about those kinds of things. It was our fault that we assumed he’d pick legacy, winning, or loyalty over friendship and what seems like the path of least resistance. We assumed he would understand that the legacy of a champion isn’t just about victories, but about how you achieved them. There was always something poetic about Michael beating Isaiah and those Pistons to get to his first title. Year after year they beat him down and knocked him out until finally he got strong enough to take them out. Had he decided the next year to sign with the Lakers and beat the Pistons in the finals the guess is that the championship would have felt hollow.
And we assume now that Lebron knows that he hasn’t escaped the pressure and Wade and Bosh won’t take any of the pressure off. Lebron must win. He no longer gets brownie points for staying at home. He must win and win a lot. In six years he must win a minimum of 3. Anything else will be considered an abject failure.
But we know Lebron a little better now don’t we? We should know that win or lose Lebron is content. He’ll always be considered one of the very best basketball players of all time but never in the Russell, Magic, Michael, Kobe, or Bird category. He’s shooting for the greatest Scottie Pippen of all time. But he’ll be doing it in South Beach with his friends and his inner circle will always be there for him no matter what. It is what matters to Lebron James. Shame on us for not seeing that in the first place.
