The Ohio State Athletic Association deemed prep star LeBron James ineligible for the rest of his senior season on Jan. 31 because he accepted two throwback jerseys from a clothing store in Cleveland, Ohio.
The kid’s got a Hummer (which his unemployed single mother got a loan to buy), boxes of free shoes and apparel, and he’s already been on national television more then once during this, his senior season, at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Ohio. People in Ohio even pay $7 to see his games on pay-per-view. Everyone around him wears shirts that say “”King James.”” Now “”King James”” will have to wait for the NBA to display his basketball royalty again.
Bummer. The 18-year-old kid, who has been the tool of television stations, newspapers and all media outlets imaginable, couldn’t take it. The man-child who’s been straddling the tenuous line between amateur and professional all season finally fell a little too far away from the amateur side than the OHSAA could allow.
What amazes me is the way people seem to be blaming everybody but James. People are actually upset that the ruling came down the way it did.
But how could this have ended up any other way? As his stardom rose and his sense of reality went the way of all things, there was nobody there to bring him back to reality. Nobody there to say, “”Hey LeBron, why don’t you wait until the season’s over to pick up that Hummer or those jerseys.””
His mother certainly didn’t do anything to curb what James beat writer Susan Vinella called an “”atmosphere of entitlement”” when she got a loan and bought him a $50,000 car that made his profile even higher.
And the rest of James’ support system (is there any other support system?) apparently hasn’t been much better.
“”We get celebrities in here all the time,”” said Derrick Craig, the manager of the clothing store that gave James the infamous jerseys. “”They spend a lot of money, and sometimes you just got to give them some love.””
That “”love”” could have cost James the rest of his high school career.
But you can’t convince me that James wasn’t aware of the rules or that he just didn’t know he was doing something wrong. If he wasn’t aware, then it’s a damn shame, and he’s a damn fool.
“”He knew what was going on,”” said Tim Rogers, another writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer in an ESPN interview. “”He knew exactly what was at stake.””
This isn’t a stupid kid. He has a 3.5 grade point average. But acting dumb and saying he thought it was only a gift for good grades, or that he didn’t actually know what was going on, has been the only thing that has been able to reduce his suspension.
If an athlete, albeit a high school athlete, is going to welcome stardom when it comes his way, he and the people around him have a responsibility to know the rules and abide by them.
“”If I had known I was violating anything, I would’ve never done it. I would’ve never jeopardized my eligibility. I would’ve never jeopardized my team,”” James said.
He should have known. Simply by not knowing, James did jeopardize all those things. It was his responsibility, and he couldn’t handle it.
His mom could get a loan to buy a Hummer. Maybe James and his “”support group”” need to see if they can get a low-interest loan and buy themselves a clue.
