Not since the Jay Leno show was mercifully cancelled earlier this year has a TV channel broadcast a monument to a single man’s ego like it will on Thursday evening when LeBron James makes his announcement as to which team he will choose to pay him tens of millions of dollars over the next five or six years.
I guess this is how it had to end. People have been arguing and debating about this for months. Teams have been re-shaping their roster for years to give themselves the best opportunity to bid for his services. What no team can ‘win’ in this sweepstakes is the one thing that fans really want in a player: their heart and soul.
In his Bachelor-esque ego trip through the free agency process over the last few weeks James has shown his true colors. He is a mercenary. He is in this solely for himself. Fans and teammates of every team in the NBA be damned.
LeBron looks at this process as an opportunity to define himself and his legacy. He can become a global icon by going to the biggest stage in the world in New York; can win multiple titles by joining the Bulls or (somehow) subjugating his ego and joining the all-star team down on South Beach; or he can re-write the statistical record books and become the King of the Midwest by staying in Cleveland (where, not-so-coincidentally he will also earn the biggest paycheck).
However, I think this whole process has turned him into something else entirely: Brett Favre.
Much like Brett, I get the feeling that after years of carrying an underachieving team, LeBron has warmed to all of this attention. Where Brett found an annual off-season retirement kept the media watchdogs glued to his every lawn mowing, this summer LeBron has found that every thought and whisper generates more media mentions than the entire Lohan family in a year.
Brett quickly became addicted to the spotlight and soon started to believe his own hype: he was bigger than his team or the game. This led into his downward spiral of spotlight addiction to the point he has become a running joke even to his most ardent followers: the boy who cried retirement.
In his bouncing from team to team, retirement press conference to comeback press conference, Brett turned himself into a joke but also turned most of the country against him. Gone was the good old boy from Mississippi that ruled a small northern Wisconsin town. He had been replaced by an ego-maniac in constant need of attention and praise.
It is easy to see LeBron slowly fall into this same trap. After the constant LeBron-watch over the last year, can you imagine LeBron simply going back to Cleveland and continuing to lead what is essentially the same team to the same early-round playoff exit for years to come? To maximize his Cavs contract he would sign up for 6 more years. That is the prime of his career – will he really spend it on mediocre teams in the Midwest while his buddies down in Miami start piling up titles or his older rival, Kobe, out in LA continues to put more championship rings between himself and LeBron in the race to be heralded as the ‘greatest player of his generation’.
No chance.
Even if he takes the money, it is hard to see LeBron not wanting to maintain this media glare. Like a Kardashian he is going to get addicted to the bright lights. When they shut off in a week and move on to the next story (ironically, probably back to Mississippi) how long will he go before craving it again?
A lot less than 6 years.
And in the process he achieves the same result as the Wrangler-clad one down in Hattiesburg; he kills the affection of fans everywhere and demonstrates what is most important.
Me, myself and I.
Sometimes it sucks to be a sports fan.
