Lebron James, a NBA player for the Miami Heat is recently all the talk in sports news, but why? I think it is all just a lot of hype for no reason, I mean all this publicity for a single basketball player seems kind of outrageous. Miami’s season tickets were sold out after He made the trade to the Heat. Who buys season tickets to see one player? People really thought that he was going to change that team and make it an unstoppable force. He has taken advantage of this attention and banked off of other’s stupidity with all the publicity he’s received. I can see why people can get so caught up in it though.

The media caught a lot of people up in the Lebron James trade. Even though I didn’t get caught up in the Lebron events I know a lot of people have and I understand how easy it is to get sucked into the media because of how they portray it. I mean that’s their job, to make people read what they write and believe what they say. They show us what they want us to know and twist it around to occupy us. Lebron does deserve a lot of recognition though.
He is an amazing player and that cannot be denied. Lebron didn’t even play in the NCAA, he jumped straight from high school into the NBA draft in 2003 which is pretty damn impressive. There is no doubt that Lebron is a great basketball player. He severely helped the Cavaliers while playing for them and his stats are up there with some of the biggest NBA names out there. His nickname “The King” is easily lived up to by James while sitting at the top with Robertson, Jordan and Bird in the history books for the NBA. He did make the Cavaliers work and help their franchise out a ton, so I guess the same could be true with the Miami Heat (Measurement). The week Lebron was to decide his signing Jill Seward from NESN said “The world’s most-talked about basketball player will sit down in an ESPN special titled "The Decision" in Greenwich, Conn., at 9 p.m. ET, and millions will be watching.” (Seward). Millions of people sat down to watch an entire ESPN show just to hear whether the speculations of James signing with the Miami Heat were true. They had an already pretty strong team last season and with Lebron they could bring home the trophy (Seward).
Wrong. Yeah Lebron is a great player, but he couldn’t pull through and put enough on the board to beat the Boston Celtics, so much for the unbeatable force of Lebron James and the Miami Heat. All the hype was on one player at the start of the season, causing a huge overlook of the Boston Celtics and their new bench. Miami is in the fifth slot in the Eastern Conference right now with the Celtics tied for first place it looks like the media and popular opinions about the Heat was bogus (Division). What irritates me the most about Lebron getting all the “heat” from the media is that it draws the attention of some of the upcoming players and teams who should be in the spotlight and are instead pushed aside for one player. Why him? Why are so many teams willing to empty their pockets to get him on their roster? Do the interviews and media attention mention the fact that he hasn’t even won an NBA finals game yet in his career? Of course not, and the NBA doesn’t want them to know either. They love this attention, especially in the off-season. Some of the other franchises however are losing money because of this fiasco. Miami Heat’s season tickets sold out fast, but what about the teams that are actually winning games like the Boston Celtics? They are losing ticket holders because of this Lebron James attention and they’re tied for first place with only one loss so far (Seward).
Lebron James is no doubt a great basketball player, but should all the attention be turned towards him? Should the NBA use him to capitalize during the off season? Should the Miami Heat take the attention from top NBA franchises because of one player? The answer to all of the above is no. James was blown out of proportion. He hasn’t even won an NBA Finals game in the six years he’s been in the NBA. Why all this glory for a player who can’t even clutch what the season is all about? Today’s media takes things and blows them out of proportion so they can benefit from the drama and repercussions to follow. Companies, organizations, and people benefit from this drama the media puts into society and you wouldn’t even realize it. Money is the real reason why Lebron is so hyped and it’s ruining the sport of basketball. The NBA, Miami Heat, Lebron James, and Magazines are all benefiting from our society being so easily manipulated and giving so much attention to one subject when the basketball season isn’t even going on.