Now or never

How LeBron fares in the NBA will have lasting implications

No offense to LeBron James, but we need him to fail. We need him to fall short. To flop, choke, blow, bite and stink. We need him to be Ryan Leaf, Shawn Abner and Alexandre Daigle. We need him to go belly-up, be a head case, have clay feet, stone hands and an empty heart.

To speak the fan's language: We need him to suck. Again, no offense, LeBron. It's not you, it's us.

That we would take delight in a young man's failure is a sad commentary. Whether we resent the money or the fame or whatever. From a distance, James even seems likeable, comfortable within himself and maybe with even a little bit of a goofy side. But it's the hype machine around him that creates a natural backlash of resentment and impossible expectations. Just as we root for the overlooked underdog, so, too, do we root against a preordained champion.

We can't go through all of this again. It's too much. The magazine covers, The Life, Nike vs. Reebok, Hummer-gate, Retro Jersey-gate, Dickie V screaming like a pre-teen outside Justin Timberlake's gate. And there's the never-ending morality debate. I don't know if it's "right" or "wrong" to go straight from high school to the pros ... I just know that we've been completely manic in our attempt to find the next best thing.

It's not about whether James can or will succeed in the NBA. He can and he might. It's about how we'll react to his successes or his failures. If he truly pans out as advertised, then what's to stop us next year from broadcasting the Kalamazoo Church League final or, with a little better scouting, the live sonogram of a fetus in Phoenix who has spectacular lateral movement within the womb?

If James somehow can live up to the outrageous expectations we've placed before him, this festival of exploitation will become an annual event.

On the other hand, should LeBron be less like Mike and more like LaRue ... maybe we'll all learn a lesson in perspective and patience. Should LeBron let us down, the world just might be a better place. Not his world, necessarily, but since he already has a Phil Knight autograph worth $90 million, James can take one for the team.

If James is a bust, NBA clubs will have just cause to think twice about anointing such a young man as a savior. It's true that Kwame Brown's relative disappointment didn't dissuade anybody from slobbering all over James, but this is a whole different scenario. Brown was considered a gamble in 2001; James is considered a sure thing in 2003. If James can't live up to the billing, who can?

And if NBA clubs start showing a reluctance to use lottery picks on high schoolers, some of those prized prepsters just might decide to go to college to improve their stock.

And that would be a major lift for college basketball, which has been losing ground in the battle to keep the best talent in school. Not only would the level of play improve, but so would the status of the game as rabid college fans develop relationships with young players. In basketball, as in life, it's important to feel like you come from somewhere. James is going to show up in the NBA like a baby on the doorstep, devoid of bloodlines and background, no UNC shorts under his Cavs shorts to remind him of who he is.

And if high schoolers in the NBA Draft go back to being the exception instead of the rule, then the NBA benefits as well. It means more known quantities coming in to the league and fewer teenagers getting cut in training camp with nowhere else to go but back to the neighborhood. For every Kobe Bryant or Amare Stoudemire, there are five guys you've never heard of that didn't make it.

James is being touted as a can't-miss. Actually, he's being touted as the can't-miss of our lifetime. If he misses, it's going to be a long time before anybody dares drum up the same kind of hype for a high school star.

I believe that we all, deep down, still need our heroes to rise to the occasion ... not just show up for it.

David Vecsey's Voice of Reason column appears weekly on SI.com.

 

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