Re: Ray of Light

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe wrote:

But this sure doesn't look like 1996 (Antoine's year), or 
even 2001. Has anyone actually seen clips of LeBron 
James, or know where to find them on the Net? I'm very 
curious how any high school guard could be this "can't 
miss".

--- end ---

I have tickets to see Lebron James and his Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary team
play Dec. 28 here in Columbus. It's part of some all-day high school
basketball event featuring some of the top teams in the country. I'll give
you my scouting report after the game, but here are a few impressions from
all the news coverage we get here in Ohio:

James obviously is a huge talent, but it sounds to me like he's surrounded
by all the wrong people. Up until his junior year, he had a very good high
school coach and the team was untouchable in the state. Last year, the good
HS coach was replaced by James' AAU coach. My thoughts on AAU basketball and
how it is ruining civilization as we know it are better left for another
post, but let's just say ASVSM suddenly became all about Lebron. The reached
the state championship game again last season, but they were beaten by an
unathletic, small, fundamentally sound team that may not have anyone even
play D-I college basketball, let alone be the first pick in the NBA draft.

Lebron's father is out of the picture, and his male role model seems to be a
shady character who has latched on to Lebron and his mother. And Lebron's
mother clearly sees dollar signs every time she looks at her son, if you
read any of her quotes.

It's a shame. All this fame and attention came far too soon. Lebron James
probably has too much talent to not be an impact player, but you get the
feeling that he's never going to be as good as he could have been unless he
gets lucky enough to land in the right NBA spot with the right coach,
because right now he's surrounded by a lot of bad influences.

Mark