Noder's note: LeBron James is a high school basketball player at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Ohio, subject to the most hype of any high schooler since The Artist Formerly Known As Lew Alcindor. James was recently ruled ineligible for the remainder of the season for accepting approximately $800 in gifts from a local merchant. James is expected to be the #1 pick in this year's NBA Draft.
What you've written is slightly condescending and very unfair -- it paints LeBron James as some kind of criminal, or at the very least someone who has executed some form of poor judgment. The line between professional and amateur athlete is blurred considerably, and varies from sport to sport. A high school baseball prospect has the rights to negotiate with his team for almost a year, at which point he is returned to the draft and can continue playing at an amateur level. A college basketball player can declare eligibility for the NBA Draft, but if he signs an agent, he loses his amateur status in the eyes of the NCAA. Pro football has a ban on drafting college sophomores, regardless of talent, and the NCAA will suspend you fewer games for accepting free jerseys at a store than they will for playing in an over-40 men's league. Does it really matter what his "amateur status" is?
You take an eighteen year old and subject him to the kind of hype and attention that LeBron James has received, and then try to convince me that this wasn't going to happen? Time out, Green Bay. When your games are being televised nationally, you're being referred to as "King James", half the girls in school are willing to suck your dick, and half the guys try to hang around you to be cool by association? A kid who had nothing and now has everything thrust upon him? And you want him to worry about his amateur status with the Ohio State High School Athletic Association? Please.
Yeah, he gets new shoes. That's what sponsors do. Any team that's on television is going to have an athletic sponsor, high school or college. You think Texas high school football doesn't have athletic sponsors? Guess again. There's a state where the high school championship is played in front of a sold-out crowd at Texas Stadium. Nike was the sponsor at Boston College while I was there. My roommate got free shoes as often as he wanted, too. And T-shirts. And shorts. Does that mean he was a professional? Even if he was forbidden by NCAA rules to hold a paying job? Even if, on a campus where a breakfast sandwich and a glass of milk costs $6.50, he was given a $25 a day meal stipend and expected to maintain a weight of 225 pounds despite three hours of rigorous practice each day? Even if the $100 check his dad sent him each month was barely enough spending money for two weeks? And even if he hadn't taken any of the gifts that the sponsor gave -- legally, under NCAA rules -- played it straight all the way just to be sure, aren't colleges and universities essentially paying all of their athletes in excess of $100,000 worth of tuition, room, and board for four years?
I suppose accepting that Mach 3 Razor that Gillette sends you when you turn 18 would constitute his violating his "amateur status" in some eyes?
The media frenzy surrounding LeBron James has divided most folks into one of two camps. The first are those who think that LeBron is a kid caught up in all of this hype, through no fault of his own. Nearly 61% of voters in an informal ESPN.com poll agreed that the OSHAA unfairly singled James out. I'd wager than most of that 61% can't name another high school basketball player in the state of Ohio, so naturally, he's being singled out. I'd also wager that some of those folks would forgive Osama Bin Laden, if he could nail the three and play great transition defense. These are the ones who treat our athletes like heroes, forgive their transgressions, and can't understand why James was suspended.
The other camp are those who are angry at the supposed commercialization and bastardization of sports, the iconification of thugs and criminals. Sports were simpler way back before everything became a circus, back when the blacks played in a different league and Ty Cobb climbed into the stands during a game to physically beat a fan in a wheelchair. Ah yes, give them back the good old days, before the underclassmen left school early for the professional ranks, before the high schoolers made the jump. These people see the trend as inevitable, waiting for that terrible day when we start marking eighth graders in this country for stardom and following their daily progress from puberty to the professionals. (Hey, that sure didn't happen with Ronaldo, did it?)
Despite the fact that a long time NBA coach and scout called LeBron a poor perimeter shooter, an "atrocious" defender with a "barely adequate left hand" dribble (Vince Carter, anyone?), he's going to be the number one pick in the NBA Draft. Why is that? Have you seen an NBA game lately? Is it any wonder that the U.S. finished sixth at the latest World Championships? For a slumping league whose All-Star Team couldn't defeat the 1986 Boston Celtics, this kid is just about the best thing going.
LeBron James is driving a Hummer for the same reason that I'm driving a 4Runner. Neither Mrs. James or myself have the money to pay for it outright. But the bank forsees us being able to pay for the vehicle in the future, and has thus allowed us to pay in installments. So he's driving an H2 and wearing a slick looking jersey... why should he be "more careful"? Who says that he was less careful? Amateur status? Professional status? Who cares? It's all bullshit. He's not an amateur. He's not a professional. He not right and he's not wrong.
He's a boy. Leave him the fuck alone, because God knows no one else is going to.