Lebron Thinks he is God

As a Celtics fan, one might say I’m in denial or attempting to avoid reality by insulting the C’s recent opponents. But I’m really not kidding myself, the Celtics are on a big-time skid, and were massacred last night due to the undeniable greatness of the man most commonly (and disappointingly) known as King James. However, despite the fact that Lebron is legitimately the best player since Michael Jordan (sorry Kobe!), this guy just needs to cool it. On one level, Lebron is completely inauthentic. Choosing #23 (Jordan), his business is business attitude (Jordan), and his little smoke clap before games (Garnett), all were established while Lebron was still a little high schooler. Like Barkley has previously touched upon, LBJ23 does not need to copy others to launch his image. While by going to New York or wearing #23 ‘bron maximizes his publicity, only by demonstrating his own unique character will Lebron stand out as a separate entity from the stars of his time. In general it’d just be nice if it didn’t seem like all of his actions were pre-meditated and contrived.

I’m just going to come out and say it. Plain and simple, the dude is a megalomaniac. Look at the smoke clap, pictured on the right and referenced above. After unnecessarily tossing the white dust 12 feet into the air, Lebron poses as Jesus Christ, basking in the heavenly cloud he has just created. The guys thinks he is a god, and with pretty much all of ESPN lining up to give him a back rub, it’s sometimes hard to figure out how much of this ego-tripping is his fault.

To put it all in perspective, roughly 5 years ago, the league was facing serious image issues. Much of wealthy suburbia was concerned with the “gangster image” and thus, ratings and attendance were down. In response, many bball fans turned to the NCAA. Yet, in the past few years, the NBA has been back on the rise, mainly due to the drastic increase in talent and the emergence likable young stars. Unfortunately, I question whether this trend will continue, for once the common journalist starts to view Lebron in a more reasonable light, people may respond to his antics differently. The media loves to build players up and then tear them down. And even though Lebron stands tall at 6’9 280, even he is human, and transitively susceptible to these challenges that all players eventually have to face. Because no matter how many assists ‘bron records, the guy still needs to grease his temples in order to fit his inflated ego into the locker room doors.