One interesting thing to me about LeBron is his posse. Let's be really honest here: when we hear the words "NBA superstar" and "posse", we think bad things. But not once has any of LeBron's high school buddies shown up on a police blotter, not once have we seen one of them on TMZ. And that's a credit to both LeBron and themselves.
But when push comes to shove, it turns out maybe your high school buddies don't really know what's best for you. I don't know if they could understand that a career-long, noble pursuit of a title with his hometown, underdog team would always keep LeBron's name within the same breath as MJ, and a mere one or two rings would forever keep him in the argument, as opposed to this Faustian bargain he has now made wherein even if he wins 5 people will yawn "MJ won 6" (or hell, by then Kobe 9 or something) and never deign to compare the two again. I don't know if high school buddies who have spent the past 7 years under the employ of "Keep LBJ Happy, Inc" can really think that one through. I don't know if one of his high school buddies can not only understand the situation enough to tell him "hey, no matter where you go, this whole circus is gonna backfire on you, dont do the ESPN show" as well as have the balls to tell him so.
Hey, there's no way I could've thought all that through when I was 25. No way. My only hope at 25 would be for me to be smart enough to realize that I should have an adult be dead honest with me, someone a lot smarter and more experienced than myself. From what I've read thus far, LeBron didn't really have that yesterday. He had Maverick Carter. Over the next few weeks, I'm told I can come to expect tales from the teams that met with LeBron about baffling, naive questions lobbed their way by, basically, high school kids.
I still feel like LeBron's a really, really good guy, and one day he'll look back at the past few weeks with embarrassment. Part of why we'll always like LeBron will also always be the reason he never becomes a winner: he's a nice guy who, at the end of the day, just craves to be a part of something. He doesn't wanna be Elvis, he wants to be George Harrison.
Another thing that has to end now must be athletes calling themselves "winners" despite never having won anything. I'm not calling LeBron a loser. Not even close. But the fact is, he's never won anything. Ever. Which means that technically, he's not a winner. And yet how many times have we had to hear him refer to himself as a "winner"?
When it comes to sports, winning and losing is in black and white. There is no question. Winning can be quantified: Kobe 5, LeBron 0 for instance.
Here are some people LeBron might wanna start talking to, instead of his high school buddies. There's still hope for him. Any one of the people listed below would love to have his future, but not one would trade their past.
Michael Jordan: 1 NCAA title, 6 NBA rings
Magic Johnson: 1 NCAA title, 5 NBA rings
Bill Russell: 2 NCAA titles, 11 NBA rings
Larry Bird: NCAA runner-up with the cast of Hee-Haw, 3 NBA rings
Kobe Bryant: 5 NBA rings
Tim Duncan: 3 NBA rings
Kareem Abdul Jabbar: 3 NCAA titles, 6 NBA rings
Robert Horry: 7 NBA titles
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