http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-plaschke-lebron-james-20100709,0,5931688.column

On an ESPN show, the King shows up a supportive community.
By Bill Plaschke
July 8, 2010 | 11:27 p.m

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If you are going to leave the team where you’ve spent all seven seasons, leave the area where you’ve spent all 25 years, doesn’t decorum dictate that you do it quietly, gently, gracefully? Given that this town hasn’t enjoyed a major sports championship in 46 years, and given that your departure could keep them from winning anything for many more years, don’t you think of them first? Did no part of last season’s $15.8-million salary mandate, you know, manners?

You want to leave this place where you are so beloved, fine. Leave it like a man. Issue a news release announcing your decision and thanking Cleveland for its support. Hold a local news conference with the Cleveland media to reiterate those thanks. Then, and only then, do you appear on a national ESPN show to talk about your decision.

But no, years of coddling have filled James with such narcissism that he no longer sees anyone but himself. While reaping financial rewards as this country’s most successful basketball prodigy, James has paid the price in a failure to develop integrity or character. Hey, if you can dunk on someone, why do you have to be sensitive to them?

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MP4B = “Millionaires Playing For Billionaires”

This is “entertainment”.

It has nothing to do with humanity (i.e., think the USA 1980 Hockey team), the struggle to attain something (i.e., think the movie RUDY), overcome adversity (i.e., that fellow who without arms or legs swims the English Channel), or the nobility of sport (i.e., Little Leaguers line up to congratulate the winning team; Japanese baseball players salute the umpire, not revile him).

It’s all about the benjamins and extracting them from the booboisie. (1).

There’s something elegant about truly amateur sports. Before the money got into it, women’s college basketball was like that. Young women busting butt for its own sake.

There is no longer “nobility” in Sports. LeBron is just following in the footsteps of Tiger, Kobe, McGwire, Pete Rose, … right down to Marion Jones lying about steroids. Even children, Danny Almonte in Little League; a baseball scandal without the big buxs.

So why should I care?

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(1) booboisie (boob’wa-ze) n. The class of the population composed of the stupid and gullible.

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