Falsely Annointed?

  Have too many expectations been placed upon LeBron James?On the heels of a highly disappointing and uninspiring performance from LeBron James that has left people utterly perplexed, I’m not thinking about elbows, summer conspiracy theories or any other stuff like that.

Nope, I’m tapping into my inner FreeDarko and thinking about… imperial cults and God Kings? 

Stay with me.

God King: a human sovereign believed to be a deity or to have godlike attributes.  They are littered all throughout history, including early dynastic Chinese emperors, Roman emperors, Egyptian Pharaohs and Persian kings.  Even today, the compassionate Dalai Llama in Tibet and the ruthless and insane Kim Jong-Il in North Korea are considered to be godly, their rule mandated by the heavens above.

History has taught us about the dangers of placing all hope in false idols.  It’s simple, really: Putting a country’s politics, economics, military, media, agriculture, laws and everything else that comprises a state into the hands of one person is never a good idea.  Left unchecked for even short periods of time, these rulers become unquenchingly thirsty for power, choosing to abuse their position for personal gain at the expense of his people.  Currently, North Korea, under the second generation rule of the Kim family, remains as a basket case precisely because all the power is with an insane man.  Nepal was another clear example, until their ruler from beyond, King Gyanendra, was stripped of all power in a transition to a republic, a transition that is still going on (rather complicatedly) today.

Perhaps the biggest problem with these states, however, is that people truly believe in their divinely chosen ruler and his ability to handle everything, not knowing that he is bound to fail.  Broken down to its core, these nations fail because they think he is the Chosen One, when in reality, he’s just a dude like you and me.

Sound like a certain Cleveland Cavalier to you?

.LeBron isn’t a literal king – he’s just a basketball player, albeit a very important basketball player – and wields no state power (that we know of), thus making him quite different from early dynastic Chinese emperors, for Nepalese God Kings and over-the-top insane DOPRK dictators.

Yet, strikingly similar to these imperial cults and the flawed states they singularly manage, James has been anointed as the Chosen One by the media, shoe companies, you and me.  Even more, he’s taken the throne happily, using his position of power to build himself commercially and get away with showboating in victory, poor-sporting in defeat while remaining largely non-chalant in between.

If yesterday was any indicator, however, the ride may be over, the pitfalls of being a King with the only crown in town finally present for all to see.

‘Bron wasn’t always crowned King.  As he entered his junior year with two titles in two years, The L-Train was gaining steam, but still wasn’t chugging at top speed.  That changed, however, when Sports Illustrated anointed him as the Chosen One on its February 2002 cover, setting off a national media bonanza that followed his every move.  As the first high-school athlete to ever grace the cover of SI, the hysteria surrounding James hit everyone from Dick Vitale to the everyday weekend warrior, who extolled the virtues of LeBron, preaching the gospel of a seventeen year-old in sneakers to whoever was willing to listen.

The rest of the story most of us have seen.  Crowned King by his hordes of fanatical followers, LeBron was drafted number one overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers, seen as the savior to a city previously bereft of optimism.  In seven years, he has given us several memorable performances, delivered United States basketball back to its gold-medal winning ways and won two NBA MVPs.  He has developed into the most singularly unstoppable force in the NBA today.  

Simply, LeBron does everything.  He shoots from outside, pulls-up from mid-range and drives into the lane with unstoppable forward momentum.  His uncanny floor vision allows him to set up teammates for wide open jumpers and anticipate his opponents’ movements on defense.

And like his fellow Kings of divine nature that have ruled over the course of history, King James is fanatically worshipped by all his subjects.  When LeBron laughs, his teammates laugh.  When he scowls, the team knows it’s time to get serious.  When he injures his elbow, it’s front-page news.  When he miracously comes out of nowhere to erase a lay-up from behind, it gets its own statistical designation: chase-down-block, or CD.  When he releases a movie, the fans scramble to the theater, and the critics sing their praises.

It’s no matter if he hasn’t won an NBA title yet, for that is just a formality for this player of divine nature.  This is the Chosen One and he can do no wrong.

Unless, of course, he does something wrong.  Like have a bad game in the Playoffs, or even worse, a bad series.  Then, as we are seeing today, it’s chaos in the NBA kingdom.  He’s labeled as a fraud; a fake King who can’t beat a savvy Celtics team of five by himself.

What if we were wrong the whole time?  What if we were wrong for crowning LeBron as the Supreme Ruler of all things basketball at such a young age?

What if I told you that LeBron James isn’t a God King, because no such thing exists.  He is one man, and in the case of the Cleveland Cavaliers, the only man – player or coach – who is consistently great.  The problem here is the same problem in Pyongyang: There’s too much for one man to do.

Whether you blame the shoe companies for spoiling him at a young age in hopes that he would wear their sneakers, the media for writing grandiose, good-sounding, good-reading hyperbole, the fans for eating it all up, or LeBron himself for buying into the notion that he’s been King of basketball since his junior year of high school is up to you.  And whether you decide that high expectations come with the territory of being a superstar athlete is also for you to decide.  For some people will naturally believe that anyone who openly aspires to be a worldwide icon better be able to handle the pressure of individually handling an entire Playoff load. 

However, as last night showed us, nobody is perfect and nobody can do it alone.  And trust me, LeBron is very much alone.  It shouldn’t be like this.  A 30 year-old Antawn Jamison, a defensive liability who has never made it past the second-round of the Playoffs prior to this season, shouldn’t be hailed by management as the missing piece.  Neither should a way-past-his-prime Shaq.  Mo Williams shouldn’t be the number two scorer, Anthony Parker the defensive ace.  Mike Brown, who is the most unimaginative head coach offensively in the League, shouldn’t be coaching the most the most diverse and intrinsically unselfish offensive superstar since Magic Johnson in his prime.

Sorry if it sounds like we’ve been here before.  It doesn’t hide the facts.  Kobe won it three times with Shaq and Phil, zero times without and his legacy was temporarily written off as an immature, selfish player who needed to lean on another superstar to win titles.  Then he reunited with the Zen Master and teamed up Pau Gasol.  Now, with a fourth title under his belt and a fifth within reach, he’s unflinchingly mentioned as one of the best ever,  Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce couldn’t do it individually, so Danny Ainge and Kevin McHale teamed up to bring them all into Boston together, where they won an NBA title in dominant fashion in just their first year together.  Even Michael Jordan, the greatest player of all-time, had an All-Star sidekick in Scottie Pippen and the greatest head coach ever, Jackson.

Look, I’m as disappointed as any over LeBron’s 8:30pm early check-out last night from the Q.  MVP’s are supposed to rise to the occasion in big games, and LeBron unequivocally did not put forth an MVP effort.  And for that, I offer no excuses. 

But, maybe the Chosen One is telling us something.  Maybe he busts his elbow like the rest of us.  Maybe he has off nights every so often.  Maybe he can’t carry an overmatched head coach and an overrated group of teammates on his very broad shoulders.  Maybe, the God King is human after all.

What will happen tomorrow night in Boston?  Who knows.  Maybe LeBron improbably leads the Cavs back from a 3-2 deficit and gives us some more to write about.  Maybe he doesn’t.  Maybe he leaves Cleveland, claims his loyalty rests with Akron alone, and jets to New York or Chicago to hook up with an All-Star sidekick.  For the first time in LeBron’s career, the right move is not guaranteed.  We just don’t know what will happen.

We do know what happened in Nepal, though.  They wised up and realized that placing all hope into a man they believed was a walking God wasn’t a God after all.  Gyanendra was removed from his place in power, and now lives a low-key life as a member of the general public.

The comparison might not be perfect – nobody expects James to slink into an anonymous role as the ninth man for the Knicks anytime soon – but, it teaches us that one man can’t be expected to uphold an entire nation, or in this case, an entire NBA franchise.

I know, what a crazy thought: We expect too much.  Not even The Chosen One, the King, the back-to-back MVP can’t win a ring all by himself.  Whatever this is, a genuine injury, a plea for help, or a white flag, it’s real – it’s human.

Wake up, people.  He’s not a God King, he’s LeBron James.  And once we understand that, maybe we’ll understand that this short-sighted ‘Bron bashing is as backwards as the Hermit Kingdom itself.

Jon Pastuszek can be reached at jon@hoopsdaily.com