If you know me at all, you know that my favorite athlete hands down is Lebron James. Before I get into a diatribe about why he should be in your favorites too, let me explain some general aspects underlying his very human struggle (something everyone reading should empathize with).
Happiness as a theory, to me, is predicated upon finding the reasonable ground between expectations and actuality. People who generally find actuality better than expectations are very happy (they are the minority). People who find expectations better than actuality are generally rather sad (again a minority). Most people find themselves in the middle, they generally live life to their expectations save for a few circumstances where they over or under perform. Moreover, society ascribes expectations to people based on its view of actuality. E.g. I would expect a Wharton student with a 4.0 GPA to work at a +$100,000 job merely because he ranked at the top of the class. Expectations would have to be modified to fit reality.
The rarest scenario that can be imagined is twofold; a individual who's actuality is so high or low that expectations set by himself and society prevent him from achieving happiness because they either suggest that he would merely be average (at which pt he would only be like everyone else) or godlike (achieving standards that are beyond human comprehension) in order to meet them. This is the story of Lebron James, an athlete of such incredible physical tools that nothing less than 7 championships would satisfy the moniker of "King James" I know a lot of people who use Lebron's talent against him. "Fuck that guy he is arrogant and didnt earn his skills", "he lacks the clutch gene", "he had to join with two superstars to win a ring", "he is robin to wade's batman". The problem with these statements is that they all rely on expectations which have been misapplied over time. Let me counter with the human perspective:
Lebron was built up by the same people who took him down when it was convenient. They labeled him the next big thing starting at age 14 and placed him on the cover of SI with the title "Chosen One". They gave him marketing deals and made him all the craze on 24 hour pointless sports radio/television. When he failed they talked about his failures to generate viewership. When he failed in 2011, they decided to spend an entire summer laughing at him and questioning if he ever deserved any of there original praise to begin with.
This isn't too different from humanity in general, and we each see it in our day to day lives. People are inherently self-interested and will do what it takes to satisfy themselves prior to ever helping another. The sports media rode his bandwagon when it would make them cool, and jumped off as soon as he fell off. What separates Lebron from the rest of the superstar athlete community is that he asks to be called out and berated by society because he genuinely cares about the expectations laid out for him. Unlike Kobe or MJ, Lebron will never blame a teammate for costing his team a win, he will instead put the burden on himself to make the team that much better and put the teammate in a position to win. Lebron will never take a last minute shot if he see that a proven shooter is left open on the floor. And no matter the circumstances, Lebron will always back his coaches decisions without trade drama etc. It took years of disrespect from the organization and coaches to get Lebron to leave the sports city he built to go to Miami. Even after arriving in Miami, Lebron refused to be labeled as a player of higher importance than his good friend Dwyane Wade despite the obvious spread in ability.
Lebron is the nice guy of the sports world; he makes himself a "doormat" because he cares about his fans, his family, and his reputation. Actions speak louder than words. After inking his first Nike deal, Lebron chose to hire his former high school basketball friends to act as his management team (remember the commercial... "should I stop listening to my friends, but they're my friends"). Despite the accusations laid out against his mom of an affair with a teammate on the Cavaliers, Lebron only blamed himself for the 08 playoff defeat and never pushed his mom out of his life. Lastly, Lebron married his high school sweetheart and decided to stay active in his children's lives, something his own father never did.
We tend to admire superstar athletes who are in actuality assholes because they don't give a shit. Guys like Kobe Bryant,Tom Brady, and Michael Jordan don't care about the people in their lives, or what anyone thinks of them. These guys have never faced failure even when they should have (recall Kobe's putrid 4-24 shooting in game 7 of the '09 final, which was saved by Pau Gasol and Ron Artest). In Jordan's case he was a gambling addict who many people who knew him said was heavily into alcohol and drugs and constantly having extra-marital affairs. Many people have noted that the only thing that drove Michael was the will to be better than everyone else on an intrinsic level, not to live up to any extant standard. But at the end of the day, people like winners, and these aspects are largely forgotten.
Now Lebron is a winner. Its refreshing to see an athlete of high character as well as talent claim what he has worked hard for his entire life. The difference here is that because Lebron cares and set up exaggerated standards for himself, we cant even use his talent as an excuse to say that he lacks work ethic. Actuality finally matches expectations(as unrealistic as they seem), and its nice to know that a person can place pressure on himself and rise from the darkest of places to win back the throne. As a fan, rest assured there is no other player in sports today who cares as much about the expectations laid out for him. Everyone has faced a similar fire whether you believe it or not. Now we can all standby and see if he can conquer MJ's shadow in a similar light.
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