With a superstar like Michael Jordan retired, Shaquille O’Neal contemplating retirement, and Kobe Bryant’s recent problems with the law, the NBA needs a superstar to fill Jordan’s gigantic shoes. The result of this is what we now know as LeBron James.
James is an 18-year-old NBA superstar already, and he has yet to play a minute in an NBA game. He drives around in a Hummer H2 and has over $100 million in endorsement deals, which includes $13 million with Coca Cola, and $90 million with Nike.
The first pick in this year’s NBA draft, James will make more money selling products than he will playing an entire season for the Cleveland Cavalries.
In high school at St. Mary St. Vincent in Akron, Ohio, James generated thousands of dollars when his high school games were televised on cable networks such as ESPN and ESPN2.
James has gathered more attention this year than the 2003 NBA champion San Antonio Spurs; however, the lime light has not been so good to Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett who as a freshman ran for over 1,200 yards and had more than 15 touchdowns. Clarett, after an amazing freshman season, ran into problems off the field. With being a sports star comes challenges that clearly Clarett was unable to handle.
After Ohio State won the National Championship game in the Fiesta Bowl, Clarett’s life started to take a downward spiral starting with the allegation that he was given special treatment on an examination in his African-American and African Studies classes. After some time passed and it looked as if Clarett had his priorities together, he was in the news again because of a false police report in which he claimed that he was robbed of $5,000 in stereo equipment, $800 in cash and $300 in clothing.
James was primed for the NBA ever since the ninth grade. While on the other hand it seems as if now the NFL has turned its back on Clarett. In the NBA where stars are needed, we see international stars such as Zydrunas Ilgauskas who grew up playing basketball in Lithuania; Emanuel Ginobili who grew played basketball in Argentina; and Vlade Divac who grew up playing basketball in Serbia-Montenegro.
In the NFL where stars already exist in the form of Michael Vick, Marshall Faulk and Donavan McNabb, the need for the “next big thing” is not so much of a focus, and the level of play is as high now as it has ever been. However, in the NBA the most common criticism is the lack of fundamentals, poor shooting and passing because of the influence of playground basketball and the strong fascination on the slam dunk.
The NBA has seen it’s share of “Michael Jordan bust” in the past years. First they compared Miami Heat guard Harold Minor to Jordan but that “experiment” never worked. Then Orlando Magic forward Grant Hill was next in line to take over the league, however an ankle injury ended that dream and quite possibly Hill’s career. Hill has been out of basketball for more than three years and has had several comeback attempts but none were successful. Finally there was Kobe, who in my opinion had the title hands down before the allegation of his raping a Colorado woman surfaced in the media.
In a way you can ask yourself who will have better luck: James or Clarett. At a glance you might say James because of all the money and cars but with James comes constant scrutiny, because everyone wants you to play your best every night for 82 games a year. On the other hand, if Clarett does make it to the NFL, (which I have no doubt that he will) he has room to grow and he doesn’t have to be the “man” because the team that he’ll play for will already have at least five superstars.
At 18 and 19 years old, it is hard for some of us to balance a checkbook and 15 hours of college, so imagine having to balance the opinion of fans, people in the media, family, and a full time job as a sport mega-star.
Some people often fold under the stress; however, sometimes a person who loves the game more than life itself comes along and withstands the pressure of being in the public eye. Hopefully these guys can do that because they have the talent to accomplish anything on the field that they put their minds to, even though sometimes off the field issues prove harder than what goes on during the game.