On my twitter feed last week, I said I was LeBron’d out. For those that know me, you’ll know that I follow every iteration of the National Basketball Association. So when the biggest star to come along since Michael Jordan, Lebron James went on the free-agent market I was very interested to see who he would sign with. However, with all the hype associated with his departure from Cleveland, by last week I was totally turned off. And I am a basketball fan! I could just imagine what some people were thinking who only has a passing interest in Lebron James or the NBA.
For those of you who don’t know, Lebron James is a 6’8″ professional basketball player who grew up in Akron Ohio and was drafted by the hometown Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003. He was drafted 1st, right out of high school and it just so happened his hometown team was lucky enough to get him. His basketball skills are a combination of power, strength and speed that is unmatched in NBA history. I really like Lebron James as a player. In my mind he has a special combination of skills that make him a great, great player.
He has never won a championship even though he has led Cleveland to some very good regular-season records over the last three years. Local Piston fans will remember that he literally pushed the Pistons out the back door three years ago by scoring 29 out of the last 30 points Cleveland scored in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final. So when he went into free agency after last season, the hype was unprecedented.
All the major American news media centers were focused on what Lebron thinks, feels, what his friends feel, what his grandmother said, and all the different cars that were going into his driveway. It was bizarre at best as this rich American athlete could command such attention from the American media. The Canadian media was the same way, albeit if he had been a hockey star it probably would have been worse. At the end of the day he even put together an hour-long special on ESPN, the American sports network to let the world know his decision. Yes, I tuned in and after about 45 minutes of talking about Lebron James, he was finally asked where he was going and he said Miami. That was the team that already had two special basketball megastars on it with the names of Dwayne Wade and a personal favorite of mine former Raptors Chris Bosh.
It was pretty shocking from a basketball perspective as all three stars took $15 million less to play together under the NBA salary cap rules. It certainly will be a compelling story next year when the NBA opens the season. Needless to say, it will be different for me because I think that whole “Lebron episode” has cheapened the sport and made many of us think what’s up with all this? What has our society transformed into to put so much credence on what a star athlete twitches about when the world has so many more acute needs?
When Lebron James left Cleveland Cavaliers according to Forbes magazine their value decreased by about $100 million and the Miami franchise value increased by $40 million. The average price of a basketball season ticket in Miami increased to $8250 from $3239 according to a popular website which monitors ticket prices. So despite how repugnant you might have found this Lebron spectacle, they were big dollars involved and lots of jobs on the line.
The NBA certainly has some thinking to do regarding so much talent ending up on one team. It has to do with the NBA’s soft salary cap but in this case it also has to do with the three players wanting to play together. As a fan I think it really cheapens the league, because why buy a ticket in Toronto, Cleveland or even Detroit next year. It seems like a foregone conclusion who is going to reach the NBA finals. Spreading a little parity or mandating a little parity over this league needs to be done.
Having said all this who am I to judge the world and collectively how we judge our sports heroes. For instance we shower them with so much money and they are so privileged while the vast majority of people in this world don’t have enough for their basic needs. For instance last week in South Africa, Spain beat the Netherlands for the World Cup. It didn’t matter where you were in this world outside of North America, that World Cup is all that mattered.
So it is, what it is. I will tune in next fall when there is frost on the pumpkin to see Lebron play. I even might enjoy it. However, the spectacle of a rich American basketball player holding the world’s attention at ransom over the last few weeks changed my sports paradigm. I’m not as interested anymore. For Lebron and everybody else out there in professional sports, that might be something to worry about.