Cleveland Cavaliers’ reaction to LeBron’s move to Miami is so extreme as to be suspect.

Cleveland Cavaliers’ reaction to LeBron’s move to Miami is so extreme as to be suspect.  In the words of Shakespeare, “methink he doth protest too much.”  Reportedly, James gets some of his career advice from Warren Buffet.  Is he a narcissist, too?  Just doesn’t fit, does it?  Professional sports are rough and tumble, on and off the court.  As my high school coaching dad used to quote, “to the victors go the spoils.”  I don’t feel sorry for James or for Cleveland.

To characterize LeBron as a narcissist is over-the-top.  Is anything more narcissistic than “owning” teams made up almost exclusively of African American hoops players, and trading the players like kids once traded baseball cards (or like slavers once traded men)?  Personal clashes aside, there are some serious lessons to be learned from this episode – the most important of which do not derive from Dan Gilbert’s hyperbole.
 
African American athletes can and should collaborate among themselves to make the best deals possible.  If I had a c-note for every time an athlete was called selfish because he sought a bigger contract, I could retire.  Instead, these guys, keeping their eyes on the prize of an NBA ring, agreed to (albeit temporarily) take less money.  Lesson:  money can’t always buy happiness.  But creating a strategic partnership with industry peers can.  I wish I could bottle and sell that lesson to minority entrepreneurs seeking to go to the next level.

LeBron has notably involved some of his high school pals in managing his various enterprises.  This may be the most enduring way to give back.  If B-ballers are to move beyond the court to the front office in significant numbers, they are going to need the management skills and negotiating savvy to stay there.  Lebron has effectively created his own management camp.   Lesson II:  give a man a fish and he can eat for a day….give him a set of highly marketable skills and his children won’t have to work.

The final lesson is still in the making.  Will rich athletes recognize and maximize their power to create positive change in the lives of kids like them?  I know they have foundations that do a lot of individual good.  What I have in mind is a more robust, coordinated effort to stand in the gap for the children of the 1,000,000 black men in prison, for example.   Or, perhaps a united campaign to promote public policy ending child poverty in the U.S. in this century.  We could do it.  They could lead us.  Jon bon Jovi and Brad Pitt are just a couple of celebs who use their clout to make the world a better place.  Suppose pro ball players started to realize how much joint power for good they have?  Watching the contract maneuvering makes me think it might just be the start of something good.

If I remember my Latin right, an oracle is a gifted person who can see the future.  Maybe LeBron’s nickname should be the Oracle of Basketball.  Just a thought.