LeBron James: The King of Spin Doctors, Great Minds & Fools

Last night a friend of mine asserted “coffee is for closers, and LeBron doesn’t ingest caffeine,” after the dichotomous superstar missed a fall away jumper in regulation that would of sent home the Boston Celtics, and given the Heat a 2-0 series lead.

The Heat won anyway. LeBron finished with 30 points, 9 rebounds, 8assists and 2 blocked shots, controlling the game through his facilitation. Yet according to Spin Doctors & Fools, this doesn’t matter.

“Dwayne Wade is a closer,” said my friend. And later, “Kobe never would have missed those two free throws. No killer instinct.”

While many people see the fallen King as a quitter, incomplete, an athletically infertile in closing situations, others see a facilitator, unselfish, methodical, cerebral, complete and utterly unstoppable player. His numbers are surreal this post-season, posting 30 points per game on 50% shooting, while leading the team in rebounding, assists, steals and blocked shots. So I wonder, are we watching the same game? Or is the world a game room of mirrors, where we seek our most flattering reflection?

Oscar Robertson said James “was in a world of his own,” regarding his athletic comparisons to Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant and Dwayne Wade. The Big O finished, “legacy conversations are for men long after their careers are over.” Robertson who won just one title in his fourteen year career with an average Buck franchise, empathizes with James. And despite the assertion that a great player must win multiple titles, the Big O’s legacy – aside from titles – topples the simpleton argument and re – questions what truly makes a player great.

Dwayne Wade agrees. Wade last year insisted,”nobody’s won a title on their own.” And in reality, nobody has won a title alone. Every great star won with other stars. Robertson’s coming alongside a young dynamic Kareem Abdul–Jabbar in 1971, Wade’s with the dominant Shaquille O’neal in 2006.

The dividing line for many fans, it seems, is whether or not stars organically grew into a franchise or inorganically put themselves there. This is, in no way, a fair assessment; blaming LeBron James for signing alongside Wade in Miami is like blaming a CEO for quitting his job with a lucrative private company in order to sign a deal with a publically traded powerhouse. Every person should have the right to “go up” in the world, and that, according to multiple sociological – science based research institutes (read here) is especially true of generations X, Y and Z. When X, Y, or Z feel “stagnate in their current job, they’ll usually move on elsewhere.” This is a tricky component to the hiring process for many job creators who hail from an era in American business when employees financially wed their bosses with an undying commitment to their working relationship.

Not so, for X, Y and Z. According to Kelly Services Business Model , the emergent generations crave a “team – sports atmosphere, [where they] feel they are being given a chance on the field from a younger age,” where as the older generation enjoyed working hard, long and fast on their own.  Generation X ( 1960 – 1980) is to blame for this shift, but it is LeBron James generation that has followed it through to it’s full fruition. This is the greatest pearl of wisdom describing the free agent era in American sports ( “given a chance…”) and the latest  super – team trend in the NBA.  Today’s players are not like their predecessors, who until traded, tended to play for one team and one team only.

Looking at James last three years in Cleveland, one can argue, the organization had become stagnant. While James continued to grow his game by improving his jump shot, perimeter defense and free throw shooting, Dan Gilbert continued to collect cheap wayfarers to build around the star. A 35 – year old Antawn Jamison or Shaq in his waning years, do not count. Both are moves to pretend away the reality, that Gilbert just didn’t want to spend the money to make the Cavaliers a true title contender.

Therefore, James did like any Gen Y kid, and moved on. He linked with a “team sports atmosphere,” in order to “give himself a chance from a younger age.” Entering his prime, James felt it necessary to seek a new employer that’d offer him a chance at sports – business superiority. And while it hasn’t been a perfectly smooth road in Miami ( no employer ever is ) it has been fruitful and productively assembled in the right direction.

50’s-era Modernists preach black, white, straight lines and edges. But to a man like James, who quietly promotes himself as a father, post-modern minority — American and NBA superstar, that old time thinking just does not add up. He is, after all, 100% like any other gen’ y or z American, where life’s lines are blurred and the world takes on a more artistic tapestry.  His move away from Cleveland was a move in a positive direction. He sought clarity of consistency from his employer and is now beginning to reap the fruit (whether bad or good) of making that difficult life – decision.