What you are about to read may cause a lot of discomfort for all you ESPN-deprived Stuart Scott groupies out there. No, it is not that "Dream Job" is a sham, or that Woody Paige is missing part of his brain. It is an atrocity much worse. The ESPN execs have raised a golden idol, and he is LeBron James. It is time that the record is set straight on "The Chosen One," "King James." I think I just threw up in my mouth.
Bill O'Reilly would call this something like the "No-Spin Zone." But Bill O'Reilly also confuses loofahs for falafels, so we won't go there. The truth is LeBron James has become a phenomenon that has exceeded anything he does on the basketball court.
The absurdity started in the fall of LeBron's rookie season when ESPN hyped a game between the Cavaliers and Carmelo Anthony's Nuggets. They pushed it like it was the beginning of some historic rivalry on par with Magic and Bird. There were a few slight flaws, though: the two players had never faced each other before (unlike Magic and Bird who squared off for the NCAA title while in college), and the teams had absolutely no history either (unlike the Celtics and Lakers, who constantly met in the Finals). There was not even a hint of animosity between the two players. Not to mention it was a regular season game. What rivalries are born in November? The whole thing was an ESPN-invented brouhaha, a desperate attempt to plug their broadcasts with their newfound golden boy.
LeBron is the perfect face to market their NBA coverage, and ESPN is milking it regardless of his performance or character. Last October, a story broke that James had a child with his "long-time" girlfriend from high school. Amazingly, he drew absolutely no criticism. Sportscenter ran features about how he was a proud father, and sent him their congratulations. You did not hear anything about teenage pregnancy. Nothing about whether such an impressionable role model should be having children at his age out of wedlock. Not only did ESPN give him a free pass, they used it to try and build his image even more.
Still, it is not fair to kill the guy just because his popularity has reached absurd levels. James deserves a ton of credit, and his accolades are not by any means totally unfounded. There are reasons why he was appearing on the covers of basketball magazines as a junior at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School. There are reasons why his final high schools games became the first nationally televised high school games ever. There are reasons why Nike signed him to a $90 million shoe deal before he even played a game professionally.
The reasons? He is very good, and very young. There is some insultingly obvious Dr. Jack-esque analysis for you. After becoming the youngest player to win Rookie-of-the-Year honors, he is having a stellar sophomore season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, scoring 25.5 points with 7.6 assists and 7.0 rebounds per game. He ranks in the top 10 in a multitude of categories, including points (sixth), assists (sixth), steals (second), and minutes per game (fourth). In his second season, James has solidified himself as a top-flight NBA guard.
But that is about it. He is no basketball messiah. James is right there with Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady in terms of the best shooting guards in the NBA. The thing is, he is by no means a cut above either of those two players. Bryant is averaging 28.1 points, 6.5 assists and 6.0 rebounds per game, while McGrady is putting up numbers of 25.6 points, 6.0 assists and 6.2 rebounds per game. McGrady's statistics are perhaps the most impressive of the three, though, since they are garnered in Jeff Van Gundy's slow-it-down offense in Houston. LeBron is in good company, but he is in no way the leader of the pack.
At this point, the only rational explanation for the amount of hype and recognition James is getting is the same as always: his potential. LeBron has run the gamut so far. He has not disappointed up to this point. Yet it should be clear that he is not by any means the best player in the league, or even the best guard. For all of the attention he gets, Bron-Bron should be dominating the league the way Jordan did in his second full season with the Chicago Bulls (37.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.88 steals per game). The only real way to justify all the hoopla is to say that James still has the potential to become that player. He is still only 20 years old.
Will he significantly improve in the following seasons? Maybe, although it will be very difficult to make that kind of jump. It could be that LeBron is only really ahead of the curve, and not that his curve goes higher than the other stars in the league. What will happen five years down the line, when he can no longer be called a young phenom?
Sooner or later there will have to be real results for James, or this hype will become a beast that cannot be fed. Give him credit for doing the job so far - he has had a tremendous first two seasons and has posted some gaudy numbers. But if he does not win some playoff games, hit some game-winning shots, or significantly improve to the level of best guard in the game, the Chosen One might start to seem a little overrated. Not even ESPN can protect him from that.
