Lebron’s ego too big for own good

MCT/C.W. Griffin

Lebron James sure has a way with words. One of the newest stars of the Miami Heat has been an entertainer since his rookie year in the NBA, but now his favorite card to use seems to be the race card.

According to ESPN.com, Lebron has made the claim that much of the criticism he has received over the years is based on race.

“Everybody thinks it is a bed of roses and it’s not,” he reports, according to ESPN’s website. He even made the suggestion that the racial criticism he received in Cleveland were some of the reasons that he left Cleveland for Miami.

Pardon me, Lebron? The racial slurs and derogatory comments are inexcusable in every circumstance. Period. Especially in this generation, no one, pro-athlete or not, should have to endure racially charged insults or ignorance. That is the bottom line.

But Mr. James, did you really have so many racial slurs coming at you that you had to leave? You were loved in Cleveland and largely throughout the sports world as a whole, but unless you are truly being harassed on the issue of race, you cannot use that to justify your actions and your attitudes. Somebody needs to tell him to stop fishing for pity.

I firmly believe that Lebron is one of the rare professional athletes who has, for the most part, been able to handle his upper-echelon stardom with class. Sporadic class, that is. The Cleveland Cavaliers drafted him at 19, where he fell into the classic role of the young prodigy expected to be the core of an entire professional sports franchise. We’ve all heard of that delightful gig.

For six years, this 19-year-old boy performed like a grown man, and became a staple in his native state of Ohio, as well as one of the premier faces of professional basketball. He quickly climbed into the ranks of the world’s most renowned and popular athletes.

But it was in Cleveland where he also first realized that not everyone wanted to buy his jerseys. Lebron, understandably, let his head blow up to some degree, as blogs and opinion columns began to pop up about how he was immature as a person, despite his freakishly phenomenal athletic talent.

We as fans are predisposed to believe that these professional athletes that we have respect for should have the natural ability to deal with the pressures of fame and fortune. Rarely is this actually the case, and Lebron has done a moderately good job at it so far.

Frankly, though, he can also be a bit of a crybaby. But he was young, rich, and world famous. What could we expect? He was receiving a lot of negative criticism in the online blogging world, and many felt that his stardom was more like a stain than a medal. But this past summer, he took a controversial exodus to Miami, and the criticism lit up like a South Florida Saturday night.

In his hour-long segment of “The Decision”, James gave fans everywhere a reason to hate him down to his very core. It was then that be became known as a sellout, making a mockery of his career to that point.

Miami Heat fans have been overall very pleased with the addition of James; coupled with the signing of power forward Chris Bosh and the resigning guard Dwayne Wade, the King has received quite a welcome from his new team and his new city. But the fans he left in Cleveland, now his ex-fans, have begun to express open dissatisfaction with James. With respect to image, he is unfortunately losing his appeal to fans outside of Heat nation.

He basically stacked the team, and the entire league knows it. Even Michael Jordan, in an interview that aired on NBC said, “There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry [Bird], called up Magic [Johnson] and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team.”

I may not be the most avid fan and follower of the NBA, but here’s how I feel. Everybody, including the disgruntled fans in Cleveland, needs to forgive and forget. At the end of the day, James brings great things to a sport that had gone through a minor rough patch before the King entered his stride. I respect him as an athlete and usually as a person.

At the same time, however, the world is not out to hate you, Lebron. A man of your profile will always have critics, but you are still responsible for dealing with it. If Drik Nowitzki aired an hour-long special on his decision to leave the Dallas Mavericks, it wouldn’t be a race issue, but rather a judge of character. You’re right, Lebron, it may not be a bed of roses, but you have got to buck up and be a man when you deal with “haters”. That’s just part of being the King.

Posted by Paul Mikowski on Oct 26 2010. Filed under Paul's Perspective. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.