I was a freshman in college and a group of us were having some off-topic conversation at the end of an American studies class on science fiction as cultural history (which, I know, I know, sounds like an eminently useless American studies class, but which was nevertheless fascinating and awesome), and the subject of Anna Kournikova came up. I think we were talking about athletes as celebrities. In any event, my 18-year-old self pffft-ed at the mention of her name and said something like “yeah, she sucks!” This was me, I guess, expressing my distaste at style overtaking substance; her picture seemed to be everywhere that fall, and she had just done some music video, despite the fact that she hadn’t accomplished anything of note on the court. At which point the professor stopped me and said, “She sucks?” with an arched eyebrow. He was a serious fellow and all of us desperately wanted his approval, so I sort of gulped and said “Well, I mean she’s ranked 50th or something.” He paused a second and replied, “In the world.”
Which brings me to LeBron James. I was in the wood-paneled locker room of my buddy’s fancy New York gym when “The Decision” originally aired. It was up on every screen in the room. And when it became clear that the 59 minutes of fluff were out of the way and that LeBron would soon announce the eponymous, every dude in the room sort of stopped what they were doing and watched. When King James said he was taking his talents to South Beach, the universal reaction of the locker room — young and old, black and white — was a groan of derision. Sure, a lot of them probably wanted him for the Knicks, but the fact was that we were witnessing a man who had booked a bloc of prime-time television for the sole purpose of breaking the hearts of an entire city — Cleveland. And even in the minutes that followed, the chatter in that locker room prefigured what would become all the major story lines of the season to come: that LeBron was a coward, and wanted to hide behind Bosh and Wade; that the Heat were now the evilest of evil empires, the team to root against; that if they failed to win a championship it would make LeBron the lynchpin in one of the most spectacular chokes of all time.
And so it was! Look, I’m a Yankee fan, and in the interest of penance I root for as many underdogs as I can find. Like everybody else in the country, I was pulling for the Mavs, and like everybody else I am taking pleasure in LeBron’s ego writing checks his body can’t cash.* But surely calling James “nothing but a loser”, as Esquire’s Scott Raab did today, is taking it a bit too far (the piece contains the phrase “the Whore of Akron’s flaccid legacy”. . . .) The fact is that James is the child of a teenage mom and an absentee, ex-con dad who is now a millionaire many times over, and one of the five or ten best ever to play the game. He is also, quite scarily, still in his prime. He’s yet to prove he can carry a team, and he’s got a world-historic PR problem, but he’s not, in any way, shape, or form, a loser. He’s not even Anna Kournikova.
*Most tellingly, the Heat were outscored in the series while LeBron was on the floor, and outscored the Mavs while he was on the bench.
My comment is this: It is a tad bit premature to call LeBron "one of the five or ten best ever to play the game."
Shoot, he's not even the best guy on his own team.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou see no way, shape or form that he is a loser? If you knew of a successful businessman who got where he is by stabbing a former business partner in the back, could you see at least one way that person is a loser?
Not to mention the fact that he was indeed on the losing team and, in fact, lost.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAlso, I think it is a given that people who say professional athletes suck are using a relative scale. Isn't it a given that all professional athletes are pretty good at their sport?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseQuite right, Mitch. The lowliest pro bench warmer was the best athlete in his city, dominated little league as a kid, starred, probably in multiple sports, in high school and (except baseball) was the star of his college team.
Although Kournikova never won a WTA singles title, she was actually ranked in the top ten, and made a number of finals. She was also ranked number 1 in doubles. I would submit that she had significantly more talent than, say, any of the Kardashians.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIs anybody around here going to congratulate the Mavs?
In a broader context, could you get some people to post on here who live outside the Northeast?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSeriously! Well said Norm. I love NR and read NRO almost religiously, but this is ridiculous and becoming quite frustrating.
Conservatives are supposed to represent Flyoverland.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI know where you're coming from. I'm reminded of a comment by Jay Nordlinger in Impromptus where someone snickered at John Ashcroft, and Jay commented, "He's been a Senator, Attorney General, etc. -- very accomplished and successful, even if the likes of you don't think so."
James is an extremely talented basketball player. He's also a complete jerk and a selfish pompous jerk and every other type of jerk one can be.
And -- he fails to deliver in the playoffs. He disappears when he should be dominating. He seems wimpy, afraid to try and to work hard when it counts.
Given what he could be and should be, and given how he acts, I'm pretty comfortable with loser. "Chronic underachiever" doesn't really cut it. "Loser" does the trick. Even if Wade & Bosh carry him to a title, he'll always be a loser.
If he lost by leaving it all on the floor and just being outmatched (like guys like Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller, Patrick Ewing, etc. did), then he wouldn't be as much of a loser.
In sum: Loser. Losing losing bi-losing loser.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd I don't hate the guy. I mean, I hate some people, but I don't hate Lebron. It doesn't require hate to call a guy a loser when he's a loser.
If I called Kobe a loser, that'd be hate, because he's not a loser. He's a pompous jerk, but not a loser.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOnly in American could Lebron do this!
He is an absolute marketing genius.
James created a villian that brought the NBA extra excitement and revenue. Unfortunately for him, he also directed the arrows to his own back. Note that he got hammered as a choker after he scores a triple-double ... absurd.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse...i don't even care much for the game (aussie rules 'n cricket more my games), but still enjoyed le choke losing..'n its the demeanour that truly illustrates the winner (see; not if u win, how u play the game)...btw, aussie rules always had a pertinent saying; a champion team will always beat a team of champions...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMr. James could kick my butt at basketball, but that isn't the issue. I don't make my living playing basketball. I don't call myself "the King" and didn't spend 60 minutes on national TV telling the world I would "take my talents to South Beach."
With a little more humility, he wouldn't be in such a bad place. However, by the standards he set for himself, he is in fact a loser.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJames may not be a loser, but he's not a winner either.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUntil he wins a ring he is a loser.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFreedom of Choice
Again I ask ... where else but America could one do what LeBron did? He is the quintessential American. The idea that he stabbed anybody in the back suggests that he's not free to do what he wants or that you and I would act differently.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLike many, I wanted to see LeBron be Michael Jordan. James himself seemed to want to be Magic Johnson. In the end, he was neither. At least not yet.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWho cares about Pro Basketball? I just love the picture of Anna!!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLebron's new nickname is "trey", because that's how many points he averaged in the fourth quarter in the finals. Anyone who goes back and watches that spectacle of an introduction of the big three in Miami from last summer knows why the Heat were hated. Watching those three dance and prance around the stage to rap music, with the fog machine and strobe lights going, while predicting multiple titles, and then watching them flame out, was fabulous.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThese writers like Scott Raab who write things like this are only doing what they accuse LeBron of doing: hyping their own status and egos within their professional world. When did the media come to think that they were as talented and important as the players they cover?
LeBron did not have a good series. But he did have a good playoffs to get the Heat to the finals. So, really, Scott Raab choked with this article.
Congrats to Dirk and the Mavs. I'm glad to see a gentleman like Nowitski win the championship in a sport where gentlemen are far too hard to find.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs a Cavs fan I am not a disinterested party; that said I suppose it would be no surprise that I have no love for James and am happy to see the Mavs win this one.
The defense of James as the son of an absentee dad makes James' behavior all the tacky. Dad dumps mom for a better offer down the road; James does the same to the Cavs.
I am not buying the whole money argument for athletes in general either. There is a big difference between an overpaid athlete making a 7-8 figure salary leaving to go to another team paying him another 7-8 figure salary and a working stiff like the rest of going from 60K to 70K.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDude- I understand hating James as a Cavs fan, but comparing an absentee father ditching his child and leaving a teenager to raise him is not even in the same moral universe. Get a grip.
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