LeBron James is more of a king-in-waiting than Prince Charles can ever hope to be. Just 17, his remarkable basketball talent has propelled him onto the covers of Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine, put one of his game on national prime-time cable, and has made Ohio the center of the prep basketball universe.
No high school player has ever been wrapped in such anticipation. No high schooler has ever been declared overqualified for college by a broadcaster. No high schooler has ever been such a man among boys. In his national television debut last week, the Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary’s senior, scored 31 points against Oak Hill Academy, the number-one ranked high school team in the country.
James is almost certainly going to the NBA next June. He is almost certain to be the number one pick. And the team that gets him is almost certainly going to expect him to be the best player in their franchise’s history in a very short time, unless the team happens to be Chicago.
Cleveland Cavaliers coach John Lucas already has put his money where his mouth is when it comes to James. A $150,000 fine and a two-game suspension for tampering with a draft-ineligible player when he invited James to an impromptu team workout last summer.
Regardless of where he ends up, all eyes will be on him. It doesn’t bother James now to be in the media glare, because it is all positive. The question is, when the spotlight stops being glamorous and starts being sweltering, and at some point it will, how will James react?
People are hesitant to publicly criticize James too much because, after all, he’s still just a kid. There will undoubtedly be an adjustment period for James to the NBA. There is so much hype surrounding James that the pieces are falling terribly into place: if he goes out and has a bad first half to next season, struggles for playing time, and even begins to smack of a bust, the sharks will start to circle.
The NBA is studded with players who achieved stardom right out of high school. But for every Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett, there are those who weren’t ready emotionally (Leon Smith) or physically (Kwame Brown, DeSagna Diop).
Then again, there has never been as much expected of a 17-year-old basketball player. James is simply uncharted water. He is not a measuring stick, he is an anomaly. The hope is that the hundreds of people who will be handling him in the coming years handle him gently. He will unfortunately be used wherever he winds up.
But there is a not-so-thin line between use and abuse, between challenging and overwhelming a young player. And with the number of people already having a vested interest in James, his train could very easily become a runaway.
