View From the Phlipside - LeBron and the Decision

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, Radio, the Movies and more.  I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View From the Phlipside.


Well it lasted right around a month, claiming to be a major moment in sports and ended in a massive television event.   It was a huge splashy event that turned out to be a massive disaster.


Oh did you think I was talking about the World Cup?  Oh no I’m thinking about “The Decision”.  You know, that whole LeBron James thing.


In case you managed to avoid hearing about this (and you need to tell me how you managed that) James, one of the young stars of the NBA announced his decision on where he would be playing basketball for the next six years.   


Now I’m not a basketball fan and this is not a sports commentary program.  So what draws my attention is what a disaster it has become for LeBron James.


Start with making a simple decision into a major event.  Yes, he’s one of the top players in the league.  Yes the team signing him will gain a huge talent.  But players change teams every year.  Big name players change teams every couple years.  So is this REALLY that big a story?  Clearly Team LeBron wanted just that.  This was their script.  As it went along it just got worse.  Suddenly there was an hour long special dedicated to something that could be expressed in a single sentence.  Once the show started LeBron made a crucial mistake.  He began to refer to himself in the third person.  No one, not even the Queen, should refer to themselves in the third person.  It just sounds stupid.  At this point LeBron has made himself appear to be astoundingly self involved.  Yet, he wasn’t done.  After the decision was made and he arrived in Miami he tweets the words “The Road to history begins here”.  That’s probably the terms that LeBron’s advisors saw this whole little drama in, history.


The greatest players have always let their play make the statement and let history take care of itself.  They also remember that the road to history is filled with defeat and unfulfilled promise.  The smart man allows history to come to him.  It’s a lesson LeBron may learn the hard way.


Call that the View From the Phlipside.



"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010