Almost a month ago a lot of people were getting up in arms and heated about Lebron James' "The Decision" special. People accused Lebron of being an egomaniac and claimed that his decision to play with the Miami Heat was cynical and ill-advised. Wow, do I disagree.
First of all, I'm no great follower of basketball but I did follow the Lebron free agent story incredibly closely. Why? Because it was more interesting than actually watching basketball, a game where nothing matters until the last 2 minutes (which take ten minutes to play). To me, Lebron is actually bigger than basketball because I don't give a shit about the sport. The only time basketball has entered my day to day conversation has been when Lebron has done something super-human; like that time he scored something like 30 points in a row to carry his team to the next round of the play-offs. That's a holy shit thing to do. I mean, for fuck's sake the guy can do this at the drop of a hat:
Additionally, he seems like a pretty decent human being. People are railing against him as an egomaniac- well, yes. He is a professional athlete and to do any of the things he does, requires an absurd amount of self-confidence and ability. But look at other basketball players at his level. Kobe has been accused of rape, Michael Jordan turned out to be an asshole(see: his hall of fame induction speech), and other "wholesome" stars end up having illegitimate children, affairs, etc. If Lebron's only sin is realizing that he's pretty good at basketball, I think that puts him in the mid to low range on the professional basketball player asshole scale. He's a lot more humble in interviews than most other pro players I've seen interviewed. This whole "decision" thing was a PR gaffe, yes, but i fail to see how it's that big of a deal. He did little to heighten the spectacle above and beyond what it already was. While other players are trying to posture and talk shit on twitter, he is tweeting about how he hates going to the dentist and how single mothers should stay strong (his mother was 16 when she had him and his dad was a deadbeat).
Another complaint has been that Lebron's decision to join the heat was a "cynical" bid to win championships. This argument makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. Most players make their decisions based on the maximum amount of money they can make. Their main loyalty is to their pocket book, not their legacy. I don't know about you, but that seems cynical to me. We pay these people exorbitant sums of money to entertain us by trying to win. And then we get angry when someone places the game over the money? Indeed a lot of this anger seems to be inconsistent by it's own internal logic. Take the Owner of the Cleveland Cavalier's totally ridiculous letter to Lebron (originally published on the Cavs website in 24 point comic sans, no joke)
Here is the logic on it's own terms: We loved you because you really tried to win for us because you are good at and love basketball. You could not win with us, so you left. How dare you not be loyal to this location(despite staying here far longer than you probably should have), but rather to winning (which is why we loved you in the first place)! Now we are going to act like spoiled children!! Take that!!
I think a lot of the backlash has to do with fan entitlement and an immature spurned lover mentality: If we can have you, we love you; if not- fuck you! I for one think his decision is fairly principled. How it affects his legacy is another story (In other words, creating the impression that he could not win on his own).
Another thing that I think the Lebron debacle did, which is a net positive, is show that the players can have more control over their careers, rather than just being puppets for owners and GMs. Of course this has a lot to do with Lebron being good enough that he was in near-universal demand, but it does highlight how ridiculous professional sports leagues systems are. If most people want a job they shop around at however many companies are in demand of their skill. There are many options and a good amount of freedom to negotiate the price for their talent based on the market rate and their qualifications (though admittedly the market blows right now). If I'm a free agent in a major sport my options are limited to only the teams in my league that have available roster spots and, unless I am a superstar, I have to take what they offer me. Otherwise, I am unemployed. This is probably the most poorly-articulated part of my argument since I only started following sports relatively recently. I do know that studies show Lebron has been DRASTICALLY underpaid given the amount of value he creates.
I do agree that from a public relations standpoint, "Lebron James: The Decision, an ESPN Joint" was a huge debacle. His PR team should have anticipated that sports fans are largely children when it comes to shit like this and treated them as such. Hell, he didn't even look happy to be there. But for people like me, who aren't overly invested in any team and have a little bit of maturity, the off-season Lebron free-agency was the most engaging thing I'd seen in basketball since I was little and basketball meant Michael Jordan.
I've never given a shit about basketball before, but this November I will be watching the Miami Heat.
But who knows, maybe I just like Lebron because I'm a millenial
(citation: Many of these opinions were inspired by/stolen from Slate's sport's podcast Hang Up and Listen. It's really good.)
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