Here is a recent Star Tribune article about throwback jerseys.
-Myron
Exactly!
I wonder what the implications are that the throwback jerseys were so horribly overpriced and overvalued? I can’t imagine there was actually any demand at those outlandish prices for such uniforms.
How about leading your team to the State Championship? Last I checked, hoops was still a team sport. I guess when he gets to the NBA, he’ll just tell them he doesn’t need to practice, either. No sense risking an injury, right? After all, what’s there to prove at practice, anyway? I mean, he’s already proven so much, being 18 freaking years old and soon to be
a multi-gazillionaire and all. Why even play in the NBA at all? Just sign the shoe deal, do the video game, and go straight to the Hall of Fame.:dubious:
I read an article today by a reporter who claims Labron was hoodwinked.
BUULSHIT!
The guy knows he’s talented and that people want to jump the gravy train in any way possible. I find it nearly impossible to believe he didn’t know what he did was wrong.
As for the Hummer, it will eventually come out as to who gave his mother the damned thing in order to give it to her son.
It already came out, Mr. Blue Sky. She got loan approval from the dealership. See, when your son is poised to make millions of dollars within a year, people have no problem giving you loans. And it’s not against the law.
I hear you, but it has already been done. James led Akron St.Vincent-St. Mary to the Ohio high school division 3 state championship as a sophomore in 2001. This season’s title is still up for grabs, of course, but one can understand how James might have a “been there, done that” mindset about the Ohio high school championship. His current teammates and coaches might gripe, but then again without James they wouldn’t already have gotten a free trip to L.A. to play in Pauley Pavillion (sp?) either.
And it’s just my opinion, of course, but one of the nice things about James’ game is that it looks like he understands it is a team game. He is a very good and unselfish passer.
Add me to the list of people who thinks $845 is a hell of a lot for two shirts. :eek:
Aren’t you forgetting something, Mr. Steak? Lebron James is in high school. He is legally obligated to attend high school. There is no law that says he couldn’t still be a pro athlete while in high school, but he didn’t go that route. (There is actually precedent for this kind of thing; Bob Feller pitched for the Cleveland Indians in the late 1930s while only 17 years old.)
If he wanted to play high school basketball, than he had to follow the same rules every other high school athlete is bound by.
Both the OHSAA and the NCAA are not “telling kids to forgo millions in potential earnings.” They are making rules for fair competition that everyone must follow in order to compete. Anyone who doesn’t want to abide by them is free to go straight to the pro ranks. And if they aren’t good enough to go straight to the pros, then they had damn well better follow the rules of competition for the level they are good enough to compete in. There is no such thing as a RIGHT to play basketball. You break the rules and you’re out, plain and simple. If you didn’t want to follow the rules, well, nobody held a gun to your head and forced you to play in the first place.
After reading the Sports Illustrated article on Lebron James, I can’t say I pity the kid a lot. No one derserves to get their ass kissed as much as his at age 18. And his high school was milking his fame for all it was worth, sending his team off to play in venues all over the country. He and his school got what was coming to them. Kudos to the OHSAA (under which I once competed myself) for restoring sanity to northeastern Ohio, and putting an end to the show before it got even more out of hand.
One thing that bothers me with the whole situation… it seems that only athletes are unable to take advantage of their marketability and earn money. A high school student can take a job, millions across the country do every year. Some take jobs in acting, or in commercials, and earn a very pretty penny. LeBron cannot take a job say… promoting athletic shoes, because he’s an athlete. More specifically, he cannot have a job and be an athlete at the same time. However, a student who takes part in non-athletic activities is free to take whatever job they want for whatever money they want without risk of being banned from that activity.
Children are paid to be in commercials all the time, there isn’t anything evil or pernicious about it, it’s just a job. Why shouldn’t a person be allowed to compete in scholastic sports while having a fully above board paying job doing whatever they want?
As for “just” waiting a few months to get his money, let us not forget Willis McGahee, who, in the Fiesta Bowl this year blew out 3 ligaments in his knee, and may have ended his dream of playing pro football. If LeBron plays out the season, and has a career threatening injury, he is the only person who loses. ESPN, his school, and a half dozen other groups will have squeezed hundreds of thousands of dollars out of his talents, and he’ll be left with nothing. McGahee may have gotten nothing out of his experience except a “free” Miami education, which he could have afforded 10 times over if he were allowed to work and play at the same time.
Not exactly. While there is no law forbidding it, NBA rules prevent a player from entering the league before his high school class has graduated (pretty sure this rule was instituted after LeBron threatened to come out last year.)
Personally, I think that the whole thing is the fault of people like the editorial boards of Sports Illustrated and ESPN. If they had made the decision not to cover this kid until he graduated, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
The problem with this is everyone loses BUT LeBron. He’s still going to get his money, but his teammates, his school, etc. lose out.
As for the jerseys, I don’t think it’s been explained completely here yet. It wasn’t just that this store gave him two jerseys for free. LeBron posed for pictures with the store owner accepting the jerseys–sounds pretty much like an endorsement to me, which is against the rules. If the owner just wanted LeBron to have them because he’s a fan, then he would have run them through his mom. There was a clear exchange of value-for-value here.
And as for college (and now even high school) athletes not being allowed to make money, I call bullshiat. Add up the value of what Division 1 scholarship athletes make in terms of tuition, books, room and board, and equipment, and I think it comes out quit nicely. And it’s not just football and basketball players either–there’s plenty of volleyball or soccer players at our school getting the exact same perks (although tens of thousands don’t watch them play).
I understand why it is illegal for Lebron to accept ‘gifts’ and ‘donations’, but *what I don’t get * is why is it ok for his high school to *raise * ticket prices *and * sell these games to cable TV ( ESPN?).
If Lebron is not allowed to make $ off his talent, then the school shouldn’t either.
(From the one constant news clip they show of his game, the kid looks to be remarkable. I wish him well, but if he actually makes it passed the first couple of years without drugs, legal, major image problems, I’d be very surprised. Color me jaded.)