Let the "King" be.

I as much as anyone, I wanted the Heat to lose in the NBA championships.   To me they embody everything that is bad in professional sports.  They are about stars & not team or team play.  The "Decision"  and the promise of 7 NBA championships showed such arrogance. It's all about me.  Lebron's behavior in this regard is anything but as a good role model.

But, is it arrogance or is it immaturity?  Afterall, since he was a young teen, he has been touted as the next Michael Jordan. Today he is called the Greatest Basketball Player in the World & maybe ever.  Millions of dollars and media attention were thrown at him.  What "Kid" wouldn't be engulfed by all of it!  How much of what we saw was really him or what the media painted him out to be.  Who is the real Lebron James? 

What if any counseling was he or any of the young athletes out there given.  Will Bryce Harper of the Nationals fall under the same kind of money & attention King Jamnes received?  How will they or any future young star deal?  Do the professional sports gurus owe it to these Kids to counsel them in how to deal with all the attention.  Should these Kids be protected in some way so that they continue to grow up before they are put under such scrutiny? 

The NBA says that they do give their draftees counseling.  But why do we continue to hear of the kind of behaviors we are hearing? If we want our stars to really be good role models & if they are allowed to live some type of normal life, then we owe them help in doing this.

Funny, we offer young professionals in many lines of work a mentor to help them learn & deal.  But we think money will be all these young professional athletes need?  Many of them come from almost nothing.  I suggest we give them a mentor and counseling so that maybe future Lebron James can avoid the kind of first 9 years King James has had to deal with.  I sincerely hope that winning his first title is the beginning of better times ahead for this young man.  Maybe now we will get to see the real Lebron James.  Afterall, he's still only 26.