Sweet Stench of Success

To answer your question, Alistair, what happened was the real King showed up.

Lebron James, global icon, was never designed to win gritty, team-driven, playoff basketball games. He was designed to sell shoes and make witty commercials where five versions of the King argue about who gets the last piece of honey-glazed ham at a family dinner. Lebron James made his Decision on national television because that's where Lebron James lives - on national television. In some ways, the grand project of James' life is just as well-served being the loser of the NBA finals as it would have been had he emerged victorious.

This series aside, James will always be compared unfavorably to Michael Jordan. When Jordan was growing up, playing college ball, even his first few years in the Association, basketball was very different than it is today. Jordan changed that with his shoe line, his Jumpman logo, and his ridiculous level of play that made being clutch in the Finals the final benchmark of all success. Until the Jordan era, a little kid in Akron (or Santa Claus, IN, or the Bronx) didn't practice layups on a rim with no net dreaming of becoming a "global icon". Maybe a comfortable life for them and their families. Maybe some small measure of local fame. But never an icon.

Lebron James has made every move from a young age - switching from football to basketball, a more star driven sport, playing out of his mind in the Olympics, televising the crucifixion of Cleveland - to extend the limits of his own hype. Dirk Nowitzki just became a first-ballot hall of famer, something we'll likely appreciate more in 20 years than we will for the next four, or as long as the volatile experiment in South Beach is hanging on the tips of everyone's tongues. Whether by his own doing or the media's creation, Lebron James is the center of the basketball universe, even in defeat. The fact is, Lebron James wasn't just afraid of the moment - he was terrified. Karl Malone did not play his best basketball in the 98 finals, and lost to one of the all-time great teams. Charles Barkely did play at his best in 1993, but was never going to beat MJ. Lebron James played like garbage against Dirk and a group of aging mid-level stars - he was outplayed by Jason Terry. The previous post discussed James' athleticism, his passing, his inhuman abilities to score the basketball - but he doesn't have the fierce will to win, the heart of a champion. And maybe he never wanted it.

In the 2007 NFL draft, the Oakland Raiders made one of the worst decisions in their franchise's checkered history by selecting Jamarcus Russell, the LSU quarterback, with the first overall selection. Russell had almost unmatched size and arm-strength. QB guru Tom Martinez, who has mentored everyone from Tom Brady to Dan Marino, called Russell the purest physical specimen he had ever coached. Sound familiar? After 3 years, and 40 million dollars, the Raiders cut loose Russell, who didn't have a competitive football bone in his body. No team has come calling at his door since. All Russell seemed to want was a fistful of dollars. All James wanted, and got, was his face on a thousand front pages. The expression on it, one of confusion and disgrace, was irrelevant.