Wednesday, November 3, 2010

What should I do?

Ah, Nike putting their finger on the pulse of American society as usual. I do like the new Lebron commercial, and I have had many people tell me they hate it. My first question is why? To which the main response is, that it shows no loyalty to any city or team, the entire NBA is just one business transaction to the players. Now to pose another question, how many players have been cut from teams and basically thrown out of cities because they performed poorly under pressure or in a big game, how many popular players have seen fans turn on them for one comment or action. Do you know what his life is like? Do you know what lead to his decision? Can you honestly tell me that any player who is competitive enough to play professional sports isn't going to try their absolute hardest to win every single game they play in? (Randy Moss not included) You can't make it to the level these people play at without a refusal to lose. Fans have the right to turn on players, why should the players have a different option, to stand there and let the fans brutalize them and shout insults.

Now granted I do think Lebron could have handled the whole discussion process a little bit better. He did however put is heart and soul into making that team win for a solid seven years. He did everything he could to win there, including putting the team on his back and carrying them through the playoffs when every player around him seemed to tense up. I can tell you one thing the Cavs owners don't hate Lebron, they may resent his decision to leave Cleveland but he was the best thing to happen to sports in that town in over twenty years, and made basketball big there again.
I am fine with people not liking Lebron, I personally don't like Kobe or Melo, both are great players and have strong followings, but I don't think it is fair to hate someone just because they took a job in another city. For one reason or another it didn't seem likely that Cleveland was going to win any time soon, the Celtics were still surprisingly strong last year and the Magic have been putting together very good teams for the past few years. So can you really blame the guy for moving cities and teams? Say what you want about Lebron while a player like himself is going to make a lot of money through endorsements and his contract every year, but when all is said and done all he wants in the championship. Lets think back a few years, how is what Lebron and Bosh just did any different that what Garnett and Allen did with the Celtics? In fact if you look at it Lebron and Bosh are getting paid the same this year. Garnet is getting paid 8,000,000 more a year than Allen and 5,000,000 more a year than Piearce. Look at what Kobe makes a year (and rightly so) he is making over 10,000,000 more a year then the man who was voted the leagues MVP the last two seasons! Does anyone want a list of who is making more than Lebron this year for me to prove this point?Kevin Garnett: $18,832,044
Amare Stoudemire: $16,486,611
Elton Brand: $15,959,099
Joe Johnson: $16,324,500
Vince Carter: $17,522,375
Dwight Howard: $16,647,130
Rashard Lewis: $19,573,711
Gilbert Arenus: $17,730,694
Andrei Kirilenko: $17,823,000
Deron Williams: $14,940,153
Kenyon Martin: $16,545,454
Carmelo Anthony: $17,149,243
Tim Duncan: $18,835,381
Cris Paul: $14,940,153
Zach Randolf: $17,666,666
Yao Ming: $17,686,100
Dirk Nowitzki: $17,278,618
Kobe Bryant: $24,806,250
Pau Gasol: $17,823,000

On a side note LeBron I understand the fans have turned on you quite a bit and that your popularity is down. However you did avoid some of the trouble Rooney went through when he recently tried to switch teams. Forty fans stood outside his house and yelled for an entire day that if he left Manchester United they would KILL him!

1 comment: