Byron Hurt: Why I Am Rooting for LeBron James

Why I Am Rooting for LeBron James

by Byron Hurt | special to NewBlackMan

Although he has yet to win his 1st NBA championship, LeBron James has proven one thing: wherever he plays the game of basketball, he wins. As a high school phenom at Akron’s St. Vincent - St. Mary's High School, James won three state championships en route to becoming a Cleveland hardwood legend. The state of Ohio named him Mr. Basketball three consecutive years, and after being named the MVP at the McDonald’s All-American Game, the EA Sports Classic, and the Jordan Capital Classic, James decided to forego college and entered the NBA draft. Many people thought, myself included, his decision to skip college was misguided. But James quickly turned doubters into believers.

When the Cleveland Cavaliers selected James as the number one pick overall, fans, coaches, analysts, and members of the media placed extraordinarily high expectations on the local hero dubbed “King James.” As a pro, James has exceeded those expectations in spectacular fashion. In his first NBA game, he performed under tremendous scrutiny, scoring 25 points, 9 assists, and 6 rebounds. The Clevelander quickly rose to superstar status and turned the lowly Cavaliers organization into a winning franchise after just three NBA seasons. After failing to make the playoffs in his rookie season, James led the Cavs to the NBA postseason from 2006-2010.

In 2007 – and with very little talent around him – James carried his team through the Eastern Conference Finals matching up against Tim Duncan’s San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals. Although the Spurs swept the Cavaliers 4-0, James and the upstart Cavaliers had arrived as the newest and unlikeliest perennial Eastern Conference powerhouse. He helped lift the Cleveland Cavaliers – a small-market team – to among the NBA elite. Sports networks ABC, ESPN, and TNT placed the Cavs into their nationally televised lineups. With James as its main attraction, the Cavalier franchise had a 60 plus win squad on its hands, and King James single-handedly bolstered the city's local economy. He also won an Olympic Gold medal as a member of the 2008 USA national basketball team. The new face of the NBA, James became a model of grace, dignity, maturity, and supreme athleticism.

Despite comparisons to some the NBA’s all-time greats like Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson, people often question James' ability to take over and close out big games in their final moments, like Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant. But James seems to walk through such criticism, and uses his key attribute, sharing the ball, to his advantage. James is the quintessential team player who enjoys keeping his teammates involved in the game. As a result, James lifts the play of his teammates, all the while elevating his own game – and the game of basketball itself.

James' poise is equally impressive. Many athletes with such burdensome expectations would implode under the bright lights, yet James performs brilliantly, over and over again, as if he was born to take the NBA’s center stage. For a young man who did not attend college, his post-game and one-on-one interviews with the media prove that he is intelligent, well spoken, and has a very high basketball I.Q. For nearly two years, the sports media hounded him about his next career move once his contract with the Cavaliers expired in July 2010. Sports fans nationwide speculated about his future plans – rabidly insisted he join their favorite team. James coolly handled the media's interrogation of his looming free agency, and deftly held his cards close to the vest. When he finally became a free agent, and with the entire NBA world watching, James publicly made his bold, life-changing decision on national television in an hour-long special called “The Decision.”

Sports pundits and NBA fans derided James for his awkward self-promotion, in which the reigning NBA MVP conversed for nearly an hour with sports reporter Jim Gray before ultimately revealing his decision. His decision? To leave the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team built to contend for championship, to join the Miami Heat, a team that struggled to make it into the playoffs. James’ choice left Cleveland's owner, Dan Gilbert, feeling spurned, and the Cavs’ fan base instantly turned on James, claiming the league’s MVP was a quitter and disloyal to the city of Cleveland. Other fans across the country, particularly in New York, New Jersey, and Chicago, whose teams had publicly serenaded James for two years to join them, felt snubbed by James' decision to head to Miami. Many became bitterly hostile, sending James racist hate mail and frequently booing James whenever his new Heat team played in their cities’ basketball arenas. But by choosing the Heat over the Cavaliers, Knicks, Nets, and Bulls, James revealed that he was neither Dan Gilbert's million-dollar slave nor the possession of legions of desperate fans. In “The Decision,” James decided to be his own man, and made the unpopular, independent declaration to go his own way.

Almost one year after his decision, James still hasn't recovered from selecting to follow his own heart and mind. As a result, his image has taken a huge hit, and his popularity has diminished greatly among NBA fans. In a recent ESPN poll, 59% shows that the majority of NBA fans do not want James to win an NBA championship. It is likely fans are rooting against him simply because James didn't play to their expectations. Instead, LeBron James self-actualized by taking ownership of his life. He did what he wanted to do and hasn’t looked back with regret or concern for naysayer opinions. He used his personal power and athletic value to carve out a new identity, shape his own destiny, and in the process, did not cow tow to the media, fans, or submit to the powers that be.

Although I wanted LeBron to join the New York Knicks or the future Brooklyn Nets, I respected and appreciated the courage it must have taken for the superstar to make such a risky move. “The Decision” for which James is still often criticized, took guts that many athletes (and most people) just don’t have when it comes to making potentially life-altering choices.   But LeBron James did have the guts to do make a bold call, and now his risky decision seems to be paying off nicely. On Thursday night, his Miami Heat defeated the Chicago Bulls in this year's Eastern Conference Finals. Almost one year after leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers, James is back in the NBA championship and will compete against Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks to win his first NBA championship.

While most fans will be rooting against LeBron James, I will be rooting for him as if he were my own son. I admire James’ aptitude to make a sound decision in his own best interest, regardless of how others around him felt about it.

If only we could all be such bold, empowered, self-affirming, deciders.

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Byron Hurt is a former college athlete and the host of the Emmy Award-nominated television show, REEL WORKS with Byron Hurt. He is also the producer/director of the upcoming documentary film, Soul Food Junkies.

Can Dirk Save the NBA?

Can Dirk Save the NBA?

by Walter Greason | Special to NewBlackMan

Game 7 of the 2011 Finals - Dirk Nowitzki receives a pass on the wing, guarded by LeBron James in the last minute of a tightly fought series. Two games have gone to overtime. None of the victories have been by more than three points. James' ascension as the pre-eminent international star hinges on the next eight seconds. While Nowitzki's play in the post-season has elevated him to the top echelon of current athletes in the NBA, doubts persist about his ability to deliver a championship under this kind of pressure. He fakes right and dribbles twice hard to his left to the elbow of the lane and elevates for a high-arcing shot over James' outstretched arm. The ball floats forever, and the fate of the NBA rests on its descent.

In 2006, the Dallas Mavericks lost an embarrassing Finals series to the Miami Heat, led by Dwayne Wade and Shaquille O'Neal, because they gave up a late lead in Game 3 and proceeded to lose the next three games. It was a final bow for O'Neal, demonstrating that he could win a title without Kobe Bryant. For Wade, it was an emergence on the national and international stage that held tremendous promise for future performance. Over the next five years, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics took center stage in the league as O'Neal's star faded and Wade became more famous for his cell phone commercials alongside Charles Barkley.

In this time, the NBA struggled to continue its development as a sports franchise in the American marketplace, despite the struggles of Major League Baseball. Bryant, Wade, Dwight Howard, and James were unable to break through the scandals of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and other alleged steroid users to capture the imaginations of the American public the way Michael Jordan had. The NBA could not escape the reality that it was a predominantly African American league reliant on a majority white American consumer base. In markets like Utah, Indiana, and Memphis (not to mention Oakland, Houston, and San Antonio) racial and ethnic considerations shaped the rosters and marketing of the NBA franchises over the last decade in ways that were unimaginable between 1980 and 2000. The problem was not the failure of athletes to reproduce Michael Jordan's skills, performance, or image. It was the absence of a Larry Bird figure to challenge any of them.

Nowitzki held the promise of a great white basketball player when he arrived in the 2006 Finals. Yet as a German player, he did not spark the interest of white Americans to even the same degree that his former teammate from Canada, Steve Nash, did. (See Nash's two MVP awards over a more deserving O'Neal for evidence of Nash's popularity.) Because Nowitzki lost in 2006, then suffered a humiliating first-round exit against Golden State in a later playoff series, he could not become the inheritor of Larry Bird's legacy that would motivate passionate interest among the white men, ages 35-65, who powered the global marketing force of the National Football League. The opportunity presents itself again now in 2011 after the Dallas Mavericks' victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

With James and the Heat going back to the Finals this year to meet Nowitzki and the Mavericks, the ascension of James as the league's leading superstar and best player would only reinforce the marketing trends against broader white (and corporate) interests in the NBA. Compare the advertisers for the NFL, MLB, and NBA sometime. Just watch how different the products and actors are in the various commercial breaks. You will notice subtle but important gradations about the markets the different leagues serve. If Nowitzki overcame James, especially in a series of emotionally draining, well-played games, a new version of the Larry Bird-Magic Johnson rivalry of the 1980s would be born. It was that era that created the possibility of Jordan's global appeal. If the NBA hopes to create a global sensation that will extend its reach for new generations of fans in the twenty-first century, Nowitzki must defeat James in this year's Finals. Dirk may be the last chance to save the NBA.

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Walter Greason is Associate Professor of History at Ursinus College. He is the author of The Path to Freedom: Black Families in New Jersey, The History Press, 2010