Ummmmmmmm, ok then.
Lots of things don’t make sense to me. Like how they get the little “m” on M&M’s. Or Dwyane Wade’s fashion choices. Or anything Metta World Peace has ever said.
Then there’s the things that both make no sense and seem equally stupid. Like One Direction concerts. Or any decision the Charlotte Bobcats make. Or anything World Peace has ever said. Or LeBron James admitting that basketball isn’t his favorite sport.
The Chosen One was on the sideline of the Ohio State-Wisconsin game this past Saturday night and gave an interview with ESPN’s Heather Cox. During their chat, LeBron offered up quite the sentiment, admitting he preferred football to basketball.
“I love the sport (football) more than basketball,” he told Cox on ABC, per ESPN’s Kevin Neghandi (h/t Sporting News)
LeBron’s affinity for a brutal sport where owners can run their players into the ground before leaving them battered, bruised and unemployed doesn’t really surprise me. He’s a well-documented Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees fan, in addition to headlining the still commonly hated Miami Heat. He’s also a fan of evil corporations, grade-school bullies and roots for Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies.
What surprises me is that he can actually say with it a straight face. It’s not ust that he’s getting paid nearly $20.6 million next season to play in the NBA, though that does count for something. It’s that he had the balls to say it at all.
Admitting he likes football over basketball ruins the illusion that exists between him and die-hard basketball fans. They don’t idolize him because he’s built like a tight end; they adore him because he’s good at basketball. Even pundits like myself tend to believe players love the sport that made them rich, famous and able to elude reality checks. It just makes sense.
This doesn’t. If LeBron loves football so much, what made him choose basketball in the first place? The money? Perhaps. Base salaries in the NFL aren’t anything to write home about. Well-placed falafel carts make more in a year than some of the NFL’s players.
Bigger money, like all sports, is in the sponsorships and endorsements. But in a sport where players where helmets and aren’t always recognized in public, companies won’t flock towards players who aren’t quarterbacks. Why exactly? I’m not sure. I’d hazard it has something to do with the shorter shelf life at other positions. Why invest significant money in a player who may not be around very long?
Whatever the reason, LeBron plays the sport that offers more financial security for a majority of its players. So, good job there. Which is more than I can say for his latest soundbite. I thought he was smarter than that. Loving football is fine; the public loves icons with versatile interests.
Blatantly dissing the sport your paid millions upon millions of dollars to play, though, is one of the more inane things I’ve heard as of late. And it doesn’t sound like the usually media-savvy LeBron. Had it been Andrew Bynum or Brandon Jennings who said it, I wouldn’t have been shocked. But LeBron? The King? Who can do almost no wrong these days?
Color me 50 different shades of effing confused.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com. Follow @danfavale on Twitter for his latest posts and all things NBA.
