LeBron

In the history of American athletes, has there been a player who started out so easy to root for and so easy to like who worked so hard to make people hate him. I mean, who would possibly ever like Kobe Bryant except for a Lakers fan? And one would discount what a Lakers fan said as the ravings of an inherently immoral person.* But LeBron, everybody liked that guy until he seemingly overnight decided to alienate every single person in the United States. A bit harsh on him? Yes, but his postgame comments only made him seem petulant:

“At the end of the day, all the people that were rooting for me to fail … at the end of the day, tomorrow they have to wake up and have the same life that [they had] before they woke up today. They got the same personal problems they had today. And I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things I want to do.”

It seems to me that telling the nation you are better than they are is a bad idea, even if you believe it. Even if it is true.

LeBron at the very least needs to take the Kirby Puckett route. Puckett turned out to be a complete asshole. But nobody knew this when he played because he was smart enough to realize his image relied on him being a good guy. So he put on an act when dealing with the fans and the media, even if he hated them in the end. Act for God’s sake, act.

*Note–As a Blazers fan, I am allowed to say whatever I want about Lakers fans, especially after the NBA decided before the 4th quarter of the 2000 Conference Finals that it didn’t want a small market team like Portland in the finals.