“I add a mutha-f’a so you ig’nant jiggas hear me.” Lauryn Hill from The Fu-Gees, “Zealots”, The Score, 1996.
JUSTICE. “Give the dude a break!” This is what I found myself saying to the TV after Sunday night’s game, annnd while reading yesterday’s Ball Don’t Lie, annnd during the numerous conversations I’ve had about LeBron James’ artificial fall from grace. “The dude is young,” I proclaimed. “Let him grow up!!” Honestly y’all I didn’t say “dude”. I confess! When I was having these back-in-forths I used the n-word. “They really need to give the lil jigga a break” is what I REALLY said. “He’s young, and he’s a lot closer to an NBA championship than he’s ever gotten to in Cleveland.” I kept going. “Besides, LeBron James is to the Heat what Scottie Pippen was to the Bulls. Real talk: Wade is the Jordan for the Heat!! LeBron is his wingman.” It’s funny how popular media and fans build you up to tear you down so they can build you back up again. I resolve it is their way of showing loyalty to a great comeback story…I guess. I call it “The LeBron James Mentality.”
Look for the full version of “The LeBron James Mentality” in my forthcoming book. For now, I will give you all the short version. Remember I wrote in The Education of Shawn Carter that “Most Young Kings Get Their Head Cut Off”? Basically “The LeBron James Mentality” is a perspective of the BS that accompanies “the hustle”. When someone has the LJM it means that they are very much aware of their talents and gifts; they are aware of the marketability of those talents and gifts; and they are loyal to maximizing these talents and gifts to the fullest – even though it comes with criticism. To do anything different is unrighteous is what a student once said. I believe this is the perspective King James was operating from when he decided to leave the Cavaliers for the Heat. He felt like “Hey I’ve given this team several years of my career. It’s time I take my talents elsewhere so I can get to that mountaintop.” Yeah yeah he could’ve done it without all the media hoopla. Yeah yeah he could’ve been more graceful with the bad news. Let’s not forget that Lebron James is STILL a very YOUNG ball-player. He’s not Michael Jordan. No one is Michael Jordan. Not even Kobe. James has a lot to learn before he gets to that mountaintop. I’ve also learned that bad news is bad news no matter how you slice it. And no matter how James packaged it the people of Cleveland would’ve made him out to be a traitor regardless. So, he bit the bullet and bounced to the beach so that he could get to his destiny. I don’t think he was looking for a shortcut. I think he is looking to his goal of a championship. Period. What’s the difference in LeBron going to the Heat and a talented CEO-in-training taking a job with a new corporation because he/she feels like he/she has reached a glass ceiling with the corporation that hired him/her out of college? If it offers an opportunity for growth, then what’s the problem?
The DDR: I don’t think there’s a difference, and I’d like to see popular media and these disloyal fans back off LeBron James. He’s a young baller who’s loyalty is to his God, his talent, and his family first and foremost. The Heat lost. So what. Perhaps it has nothing to do with James not stepping up. Maybe it just wasn’t his time yet. Obviously, it was the Mavericks time. It was Nowitzki’s year. Remember how the media made Dirk out to be damn-near the worse NBA player in the league? Now he’s the best thing since sliced bread. Why? Because most young kings get their head cut off. They built Dirk up to tear him down to build him back up. I think more people need to get the LeBron James Mentality, and leap!! The net will eventually appear but not without criticism.
addison demoss
14 June
I believe you wrote a genius article. Everything you expressed is how I’ve felt about LeBron since he joined the Heat. He has the right to join whatever team he wants and make his own decisions. My only problem is that he appears to think championships would fall in his lap, as if there were not 31 other NBA teams that could compete. I think he will have to go through the same maturity process as Kobe did and only then will he start to get the media and championship monkey off his back. His comment at the post game press interview about people saying negative things towards him but still having the same issues the next day shows how much he has to grow. He could have simply said its something he can’t control and that he will do only what is in his control. It seemed like he said that to let out his own hidden frustration while taking a low blow to those not as fortunate as him. At the end of the day he’s still without a title.
dailydoseofrealness
14 June
Addison, I totally agree with you. He has a lot of growing to do. I think we should give him that room to grow. And you’re right. Whoever his publicist is should’ve briefed him on two different post-game responses: one of if they lost and one for if they won.
Joshua Moore
14 June
Great read. I don’t know if I agree totally. By all means, I wouldn’t consider Lebron a “young” player anymore. After all, he is 26, going on 27 years old; and has been in the league since he was 18. Sure, he has the right to play on whatever team he wants to, I mean I don’t think that’s a problem. It’s the attitude like Addison stated above. It’s not like the media is putting all of this on him, instead I find that he’s welcoming it. He wants to be the next Jordan incarnate, but he suffers from the same situation that my beloved and might I add newly crowned champions the Mavericks suffered from for years. It’s like sure he’s good, but when it comes time to the big games, it’s like he gets stage fright and can’t deliver consistently. I mean I wouldn’t buy into the hype that I’m the next Michael Jackson, and then I get booked to perform on the Grammys and I drop the ball. Like come on. I found his decision to “take his talents to South Beach” to be less Jay-Z hustle and more Andy Warhol in the late part of his career when he was trying to re-invent himself riding the coattails of a sizzling hot Basquiat. I mean, leaving a team is leaving a team, no big deal. But it was like despicable the way he carried it out. It was like he basically just said to the whole state of Ohio, which might I add put him on the map as a high school basketball phenom, “You guys are too simple and sorry and you are beneath me. I’m going to go chill on South Beach with the palm tress and the beautiful exotic women” Sure, Basquiat said most young kings get their head cut off, but Kanye would suggest it’s because they can’t handle the pressure once the Sword of Damocles pendulums over their head. That’s the difference between Jordan and Kobe as a collective and Lebron, in my opinion.
dailydoseofrealness
15 June
YEa Joshua. He definitely has to grow out of this “beneath me” attitude to become an all-around NBA champion.
cj
14 June
dr.j, you hit it right on the head. i think all of us could use a little ljm in our lives no matter the hustle…but you just can not help but think that it would have been a hell of a story…in my book he aimed for the moon and missed but he is for sure among the stars…it takes alot of courage to even dream of a task as big as his…trust me his haters AND YOURS are certainly hating but they have taken notice.
playa at da house
14 June
I am one who liked calliing LBJ “traitor”, more because of a loyalty to the people of Cleveland, than to a basketball team. Your perspective is great. Le B, like all of us, has the right to make his own choices, and he should pursue what works for him.
I don’t know about the other games, but in the last one Jason Kidd played like a man driven to the chamionship!