Sport: Why Are We So Upset About LeBron James?

LeBron James isn't the first wonder child of sports, just the latest. And the tallest. Sarah Hughes was 16 years old when she became the darling of the country and the whole world at the Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

Mike Lupica
From the Print Edition:
Cuban Models, May/June 03

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But LeBron James isn't a bad thing. This may all go wrong for him someday. He might not want to work hard enough or he might end up with the wrong team or the wrong coach or he'll have his money but he won't have the career he wanted. He won't have Michael's championship rings. Or Kobe's. Or Shaq's. He may have the wrong people around him, and that might even include Dear Old Mom, who seemed to get a lot more interested in this kid back in grade school when somebody pointed out to her that she had a basketball prodigy in the house. He may not show up in the NBA with the impeccable basketball values and work ethic that Kevin Garnett has.

It will all be in the finding out. For now people have to relax. The kid can be arrogant sometimes, and act stupid. Teenagers do, even when they can stroke the jumper and throw the no-look and lead the break and demand the attention of a busy public. Mostly, he has handled this all as well as you can, and even gotten good grades. Better than John McEnroe handled early fame once, or Andre Agassi or Jennifer Capriati. I hope he enjoyed the last months of high school basketball, and high school in general, because he will never be able to buy them back, no matter how much money he makes. It is impossible to call this the last innocent time for him. That ship sailed a long time ago. Or, more appropriately, when that SUV left the lot. But it is the closest he will ever come to any kind of innocence for the rest of his life.

We don't get to pick the face of sports. We don't get to set the rules anymore. Kids do. LeBron is just the latest one, certainly not the last. If you didn't worry about Sarah Hughes trading her childhood for a shot at a gold medal, don't worry that the kid from Akron is breaking some kind of law by reaching for the brass ring.

Mike Lupica writes a nationally syndicated sports column for the New York Daily News.

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