Essay: "Video Game James"

It's easy to forget, these days, how much people used to love Lebron James. I'm too lazy to look up the study, but the spread between those who looked on him favourably and those who disliked him was enormous for such a prominent athlete. Of course, that's all gone now, thanks to the way he publicly screwed around with Cleveland last year.

The whole "Decision" saga was one of the most bizarre stunts I have ever witnessed. And, right off the bat, let's not get dragged into a stupid straw-man argument about how James had the right leave if he wanted to. Of course he did; it was all in how he did it. It's like breaking up with a girl. You have a right do it, just not to be a dick about it.

The longer the "Deciscion" dragged on, the more sure I became he was going to return to Cleveland. How could he go anywhere else? I thought. He must know that although everyone wants him to come to "their" team, everyone's second choice is for him to go back to Cleveland, to stay in his unfortunate home town, and to bring a championship (finally) to Ohio.  Surely, I thought, he's just preening, enjoying his moment, so that all his fans will love him even more for almost having lost him.

When he famously told us was "taking his talents to South Beach" I was stunned.  I just didn't see how he could be so utterly blind.  It was like choosing Veronica over Betty in front of the whole world after an agonizing year-long process.  Needless to say, everyone hates James now. That magic popularity he had before is totally gone.  The entire civilized world rejoiced in his defeat to the goddamn Mavericks, of all teams, a couple of weeks ago.

All this raises the question: what in God's name was he thinking?

The obvious answer is that he was turning "heel."  In other words, he was acting like a dick on purpose. This is pretty common in pro-wrestling, where most fans tune in to watch the "heel" lose rather than the good guy (or "face") win.  Combat athletes that are perceived to be boring (such as Chael Sonnen or Floyd Mayweather) often cultivate a "heel" personality to increase their marketability. Even Muhammad Ali admitted to doing this to a certain extent.

But why would Lebron James do such a thing? He was already the most popular basketball player in the world, with remarkably few people having anything bad to say about him at all. Moreover, James seemed honestly surprised by the huge backlash against him after the "Decision."  But how could he be surprised? How could he have expected anything different than what happened?

The answer, when you think about it, is simple. He thought we loved him. And we did, sort of. If you think way back and you're honest with yourself, most of us did love Lebron James. He was a great athlete, he was a nice enough guy, he was playing for his home team who were a bunch of pathetic underdogs that were easy to root for.

But people don't love athletes, not the way they love teams. A fan's loyalty to his team is absolutely incredible. No matter how shitty they are, no matter how much they lose, no matter how stupid the people in charge of them are, a real fan's loyalty never wavers. Sure, he might not come out to the games as much, but he doesn't defect. A Leafs fan will never start cheering for the Sens, or vice versa. They would rather stop watching hockey altogether.

This loyalty does not extend to athletes. No matter how beloved the athlete, if they have a couple of bad games, the fans will boo them relentlessly. And when fans turn on an athlete, they don't just criticize their performance, they cast dreadful assertions against their characater (he has no heart, he doesn't want to win, he isn't trying).

But James, bathed in all that adulation, thought he was different. He thought we loved him the way his friends or his mom did. He thought we were sitting there, disinterested about where he was going to end up, rooting for James and not for any of the billion dollar organizations that employed him, thinking to ourselves: "Gee, where's Lebron going? I hope wherever it is he's happy and wins a lot of championships!"  And then he got a rather rude awakening.

It's sad, but not uncommon. Think of all the rich guys who think they have great "game" because it's easy to pick up women, or beautiful ladies who think they're intersting because men hang on their every word. Think of the hedge fund managers and lawyers that believe they're paid so highly because they're worth more to society. It's so easy to convince you're special when things are going your way.  Then you get thinking you're indispensible, you overplay your hand, and blam! You're on the outside looking in.

Lebron has blown that special connection he had with the fans, that unique, amazing story he had going for him. And what's he going to get in return? Tough to say. Most people would say a bucket-load of championships, although they may or may not be "tainted" since he teamed up with the competition.

Personally, although I don't quite have the balls to say James won't win a championship, I do believe it might be harder than some people think.  For a while Lebron was nicknamed "Video Game James" because he made everything look easy, but championships in real life are tough.

We remember Dirk Nowitzki as being super clutch in that series, but he actually only scored 21 points in game 6, the same number as Lebron. We remember Kobe Bryant as being an assassin, but in game 7 of the Finals last year, he shot 6 for 24!

And we remember the old Chicago Bulls sweeping everyone and MJ scoring a 100 points, but even for them, things didn't come easy. They were in close games. They lost some of them. MJ was great, sure, the best if you like, the numbers don't lie, but he was human, he made mistakes, he missed shots.  Go watch a game on NBA Classic if you don't believe me. The Bulls won because they had Jordan, but they also had Pippin (not only a hall of famer but a player who complemented Jordan exceptionally well) and another all star in either Grant or Rodman, and finally a host of good, gritty role players like Steve Kerr and Tony Kukoc who made some critical shots. On any given night, one of those guys, and not Jordan, might be the player of the game. The Bulls had to gut out those wins, they didn't coast through them. They never coasted, ever. That's why they won.

James and Wade seem to believe that their loss was a fluke. They think they'll pick up their hardware next year. But they'll have to learn to play together, and they'll need help from the supporting cast, for that to happen.

Only Chris Bosh seemed to know the truth. When asked about Nowitzki, he said: “There’s nothing extra. There’s nothing super. [Nowitzki] was just himself. And in these situations, I think when you’re yourself and you play your basketball, the best thing always happen. ... He’s worked very hard, for a very long time and he deserves it. I think we can take a page out of their book and really just pay attention to people’s work ethic and how much time they put into the game. Obviously, what we did wasn’t enough.”

Who knows what's next for James? He got kicked in the junk and lost to the man who's the poster boy for sticking with an underachieving team.  It might be a bit easier to root for him, to like him again, next year.

But here's the thing: people don't love James, and they never did. Not for himself. That should be abundantly clear right now. And if he keeps losing, if they go out in the 2nd round to Chicago next year, he's going to find that out. Even the fans in Miami will turn on him. Real life is not a video game, where the results are guaranteed. Real life is tough. And if there's a lesson in this pathetic story for us, it's that everyone, even the most favoured of all, have to find that out sooner or later.