LeBron James is worth the hype

RALEIGH, N.C. -- I live in Raleigh, N.C. Mapquest tells me that Raleigh is exactly 539.47 miles from Akron, Ohio. So, why has LeBron James been on the front page of North Carolina’s second-largest newspaper twice this week?

He’s been on the cover of the local Raleigh newspaper because people want to know. At first, they wanted to see him play. ESPN gave the country that outlet. Now, they want to learn more. We love information. We need information and we crave information. There is no better example of sports fans fanning the fire than James. We as a sports loving society want to know everything about him. We need to know everything about him.

Well, soak up all you can because it’s going to be a long time before we have another high school player like him. Seriously, enjoy the James hype because as much as some media outlets would like to see high school basketball take center stage on TV in the future, it’s not going to happen. Right now, it can’t.

The reason why is that there won’t be another LeBron James to come along next year and get his mug on Sports Illustrated or drive up ratings on ESPN is simple. It’s not because there isn’t interest in wanting another James to come along, it’s because there isn’t another LeBron James.

At this point, we can’t look to anyone in the Class of 2004 and say they are good enough to warrant the same kind of media attention as LeBron. Trust me, I know the Class of 2004 and it’s a great class of kids but it’s lacking in LeBron clones.

See, as much as some would like to believe that James is the creation of media hype and shoe company executives, he’s not. This cat is the real deal on the hardwood and it’s not because he's just a scorer.

James, “The Chosen One” or “King James,” whatever you prefer to call him, might be a household name because of the media, but he’s received that attention by simply being as complete a high school player as he could be.

There have been guys who have come around and averaged more points and gotten more rebounds. But there haven’t been guys on the high school level who have combined his athleticism and skills with a great body and a vast knowledge of how to make each player who steps onto the floor with him better. We hear commentators use the phrase “he makes his teammates better.” Well, you know what? James does this better than anybody.

And, he’s a big-time talent. He’s taken his skills and impressed everyone who’s ever watched him by sharing them with his teammates. He’s the rare high school player who instead of focusing in on scoring 50 points (even though he put up a five-oh on Tuesday night, hitting 11 3s), is much more content with 30, 15 boards and a blowout win. Say what you want about him off the court, but there’s no replicating what he does on the floor.

For that reason, we can search high and low for another LeBron James to boost TV ratings next year, but it won’t happen. Keep this in mind too the next time you read a box score where he gets 30 points. If the kid is as good as everyone says, don’t you think he’s got something up his sleeve for a high school finale?

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