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02/04/2003 Archived Entry: "Fame and (Mis)Fortune"

I have one thing to say about the supposed LeBron James Debacle: let the man make his own selfish decisions. The sponsors are treating this 18/19 year old kid like a cashcow and soon to be urban posterboy for the NBA and everyone knows it. There is absolutely no sense is pointing the ethical blame for James to be wallowing in this prefame.

Feeding Candy to A Baby: AOL SPORTS

Everyone to Blame in James
Debacle -- Including Himself
High School, Mom, Media All at Fault

By JOHN FEINSTEIN
AOL Exclusive

It is almost impossible to know exactly where to begin when discussing what has now become the LeBron James Debacle.

So let's start with this: Did James knowingly break the Ohio High School Athletic Association's rules of amateurism when he accepted the two throwback jerseys that led to his being declared ineligible last Friday?

Of course he did.

And why did he do it? Because every single person he has dealt with for the past few years has sent him this message: The rules do not apply to you.

If there is anyone out there who believes that the jerseys were the first freebie given to James please send me the e-mail addresses of Santa and the Easter Bunny. Rules don't exist for great athletes. Often, LAWS don't exist for great athletes. Rarely are they prosecuted and when they are, regardless of how guilty they are, they usually walk away with probation or that famous catchall, "community service," as in, "go and serve your community by winning some games."

The James game has been out of control for a long time now. Let us, for a moment, review the list of guilty parties -- in no particular order:

-- The kid. He may be the least guilty because he's the youngest and least experienced person in the story but he has been a willing participant in all the hype; his posse growing like a weed; his willingness to flaunt the material prizes that have come his way even when warned that doing so could land him in trouble, becoming more apparent on almost a daily basis.

Consider this: on the day when he accepted the jerseys, he was still under investigation for driving the world's most famous Hummer. Clearly, he was certain the OHSAA would clear him for that and wouldn't touch him for a couple of jerseys, even if they were allegedly valued at $845. His claim that he was somehow "set up," rings very hollow.

-- The mom. The sense here is she's been enjoying the attention and the hype and, no doubt, the freebies, every bit as much as the kid. Again, there's certainly a lack of experience issue here, but if the mom dives into the grab-everything-you-can pool, how can you not expect the son to follow.

-- The high school. Perhaps the guiltiest of them all. The folks in charge there willingly turned their basketball team into a rock band, traveling all over the country, demanding (and often getting) outrageous appearance fees, sticking games on pay-per-view (you cannot be serious) and adopting a have-bucks-will-travel approach. At no point has anyone asked how all this affected the OTHER players. Sure, James isn't going to college and doesn't need to go to college because he will be a multimillionaire shortly, but what about his teammates? What's the message they've all been sent in all this? And, if James can't play again, what happens to their season and the state championship they had dreamed about.

-- The shoe companies. It is almost redundant to call them guilty. The bottom line for them is the bottom line -- period. They will do anything to recruit someone they think will make them money and God only knows what they have given to James; promised James; told James. Sonny Vaccaro, once with Nike, now with adidas, likes to say, "I just want to help kids." Here's how he can help a lot of them: go away and leave them alone. That goes for everyone else in his business too.

-- Street agents and hangers-on: See above about shoe companies. James may already hold the all-time record for Most Sycophants in Tow (MSIT).

-- The OHSAA. NOW they're going to declare the kid guilty of taking freebies? Oh please. That's no different from Inspector Renaud in Casablanca declaring, that he's "SHOCKED to learn that there's gambling going on" in Rick's Cafe as he is being handed his winnings for the night.

-- TV. ESPN, which is always the most guilty when it comes to over-hype on anything (mostly itself) did everything in its power this winter to turn James into another franchise, not unlike the NFL, NBA or any other league for which it pays a rights fee. It is laughable to hear Dick Vitale lecture people to "leave this kid alone" when he is smack in the middle of the machine that won't allow him to be left alone for a single second. The funniest moment though was when the ESPN flak indignantly declared before the first TV LeBron game that this was "absolutely a one-time thing." This was two weeks before it became a two-time thing. Anyone think the boys in Bristol were done with LeBron before all this happened?

-- The media. We're all guilty in something like this. First we build the kid up prematurely without having any real idea how good he may become and then we start shooting him down for being arrogant and acting above the rules and the law. Here's one thing that should happen tomorrow: USA Today should STOP ranking high school teams in any sport. It's a ludicrous exercise to begin with and all it does is swell heads all around the country. There should also be limits on travel -- maybe a 150-mile radius from a high school's location except during the holiday season -- and on all-star participation. How about two games per player?

That's a long list and doesn't even include all the talk on the Internet or on sports-talk radio where everyone seems to know what is best for James.

Personally, I don't know what's best for him because I don't know him or claim to know him. It is very easy to say none of these matters because he's going to be wealthy beyond his wildest dreams in a few weeks.

If there is one thing we've all probably figured out by now it is that wealth is not necessarily the be-all and end-all in life. It isn't something any of us would turn down, but there needs to be more in your life than money and hangers-on who want to spend that money.

Let us assume for the moment that James is as ready to play in the NBA as all the experts say. Those people and many others often forget that life in the NBA is not exactly nirvana, especially for an 18-year-old whose every move will be scrutinized and analyzed.

I am not one who gets misty-eyed over the value of a college education, but I do believe that those who say, "He's ready," when talking about high school kids have no idea what ready means.

Ready for what? To make a jump shot? Sure. But there's a lot more to being "ready" for that lifestyle than shooting range, passing ability or the now cliched "ups."

Why should a kid like James consider college? Only because it might be more FUN at 18 or 19 than the NBA. But that's it. And to almost all of them, the only validation as a player comes when you play in "The League."

Because James made it known by the end of his sophomore year that he had no intention of playing in college and even toyed with the idea of challenging the NBA rule which says your high school class must graduate before you can enter the draft, the sleazoids have been on him early. Not that going to college takes sleazoids out of your life; it doesn't. But in this case they've been out there for all to see and James has made no pretense of hiding them or pretending even for a second that a higher education is in his plans.

All of which simply makes him more honest than most who play that silly game. But the whole thing got out of hand because no one ever stepped in and said no -- to James, to the shoe companies, to TV, to the media, to the school with its hand out, to anyone. It was always yes, yes, yes and more, more, more and now everyone is running around acting as if the throwback jerseys were a beginning rather than an inevitable climax.

Of course there's more to come. There will be an appeal and James will be portrayed by many as some kind of innocent kid in this whole thing. He is anything but innocent. But he is less guilty than the alleged adults. For that reason alone, he should be allowed to finish his high school career.

But no more ESPN. No more pay-per-view games. No more $15,000 paydays for the school (it should give all the money it is making to charity) and no more games out of state, including all-star games. Let the kid play. Let his teammates have their shot at the state title.

And tell everyone else to go away and shut the hell up.

John Feinstein's column appears every Tuesday, exclusively on AOL Sports.

John Feinstein's new book -- The Punch... One Moment, Two Men and The Night That Changed Basketball -- is in bookstores everywhere and also available on-line.