Don't Blame LeBron or LaVar. Blame Yourself

Is LaVar Ball a fool for branding his kids,
or would he be a fool not too/

That's all I can stand. I can't stand no more. I am tired to my core of people hating on a 15 year old basketball player for scoring 92 points in a California high school game, as if any scrubs can make a team anywhere in Cali.  I am tired to my core of those who are mad about AAU players and parents and coaches, as though all of you basketball purists actually travel to summer tournaments or determine who gets to college or watch the game outside of the month of March.

Sure, basketball is watered down from back in the day when we played the game all day every day, weather permitting. If you think things are watered down because players don't stay in college long enough to learn the game, you are probably right about that too.  Basketball, in its current form, is a watered down sport in which supreme knowledge of the game has given way to supreme athletic ability and shooting talent. There are a handful of parents and hoop mentors that force kids to perfect their games. The rest of America's basketball playing kids are playing video games a little too much during the summertime, creating a widening gap between the Ball'ers and the gamers who hoop during the school season only.

All of that simply is what it is, but none of that has anything to do with Sebastian Telfair, or Harold "Baby Jordan" Miner, or even Grant Hill who also once carried the burden of being "next in line". I could be weary from the endless comparisons made between LeBron and Jordan, but LeBron is just the current one, and the one with the best chance of living up to the hype. What makes me tired the most is each and every one of you, who has been searching for the next Michael Jordan starting several years before Jordan hung it up. It was back then when LeBron was first placed under the heat of expectation, and you all ridiculed that kid for being too cocky, even though he actually passed the ball more than he shot at the time, and the name James actually begged to be preceded with the word King. Now, you deride him for calling himself King and not shooting the ball more like Jordan did.

Did he really believe himself of biblical proportions when LeBron pegged himself King James, or was it just a cool nickname from a young boy named James with cameras in his face all the time?  At this point in his career, he's come way too close to living up to the expectations that were piled on him,  with the obvious hope of forcing him to fail.

People are generally too uncomfortable with their own success- or lack thereof- to assume the next person will live up to their promise. Consequently, it's much easier to predict doom and then root for yourself to be right, then to think that anyone will ever be the next Michael Jordan, and wait for them to prove you right.

I don't blame LaVar Ball for exploiting the potential of his very talented sons,  nor do I blame him for the hunger of a very ravenous NBA fan base who all hope to witness greatness, just so long as it's not greater than Jordan.

The inescapable truth is that all of this- the scrutiny and the skepticism- is about Jordan, a man that many of you didn't even like that much when he first retired. Today, we refuse to even dream of crowning another NBA GOAT as he is the last true king. Maybe it is because NO ONE before Jordan realized that you could make so much money from a shoe contract, so, being next up means a lot more than it used to? The window for making money in sports has forced the hand of every great player and their family. Either you embrace the shine and learn to earn it, or it will go away of its own devices.

In the end, we simply can't help but scrutinize and be skeptical towards the next great young player who we hope isn't quite as good as Jordan was. The way I see it, Lavar's kids are simply next in line.

Sterling Family Selling But Magic Johnson Loses The Battle

Magic Johnson: Will he own the Clippers? 

As I reflect on the divine purpose of being black in America; I do this to remain humble in the face of things that would otherwise enrage, I often realize the value of those old Negro spirituals that anchored the souls of many who found themselves abused and mistreated.  In the face of oppression, their efforts and hearts remained prayerful for both the oppressor and the oppressed.

In the pursuit of divine purpose, you often realize that some battles are best fought in silence.  And the church said; "Victory, victory shall be mine.......victory, victory shall be mine.  If I hold my peace, let the Lord fight my battle(s).  Victory, victory shall be mine".

Somewhere in the melodic harmonies that ring in my head when I think on this battle cry, I wish my childhood hero had understood the importance of such a valuable song.  Magic Johnson was abused by the words of Donald Sterling who attempted his mistreatment of Magic through controlling and intimidating a "girlfriend". The outrage is beyond justified, and any response from Magic would be backed up and repeated by the masses who love and respect Earvin Magic Johnson for who he is, the good and the bad.......

........unless you plan to eventually buy the team yourself.

Suddenly, we of the Benghazi and Bridgegate influence, are instantly prone to assume the worse until the evidence says otherwise....and even  then we might just assume that you've done a really good job covering your tracks.  Will Magic be forced to conduct an independent investigation on himself as did Chris Christie in order to clear his name from any wrong doing?  How has that worked for Christie by the way?

I am not saying that Magic needed to go Mark Cuban on this one.  In essence, the message of Mark Cuban is let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.  In reality, Sterling began his exit from the NBA because Magic said "Enough".  Sometimes it takes a certain voice to force certain change.  In the beginning, that voice was Magic.  How dare this unknown curmudgeon insult a national treasure?  When we discovered that insiders called the man a lifelong racist, the weight of the most recent straw became peculiar to understand, but the camel has collapsed and fallen into the grave of his own creation. In the end it was the weight and the voice of the King that took this camel down.

Lebron James has instantly changed the spectrum of collective action as it relates to social morays.  The combined power of sheer economics; the Sterling's had to respond to the risk of lost value to their most treasured asset, and social pressure on the owners to ACT or face consequences themselves, forced this action by the NBA and the Sterling's, who recently waved the white flag by agreeing to sell the team.

Magic Johnson has instantly dampened his hopes of becoming an owner of an NBA franchise in the very town that he helped to build.  Currently, the cries for anyone, except Magic, as owner of this team are gaining momentum.  With the Sterling's moving to sell, the story instantly shifts into this realm of the conversation so we must quickly qualify the applicants, and Magic remains the most prominent of them all.

Will Magic get an opportunity to realize this impossible dream?  Had he remembered that spiritual we all grew up singing it would be a lock.  Everyone (and they mama) would line up to support the Magic Johnson ownership group and would eagerly watch as the war between the LA Clippers and the LA Lakers takes on new dimensions.  Magic Johnson as an owner of the Clippers would send Phil Jackson as head of the New York Knicks to the back page.

Despite all of the winning that Magic is notorious for; this man is the face of the ongoing war with AIDS/HIV, the victory of NBA ownership will be equally elusive. Whether he is guilty of anything more than expressing his anger is for those who think the worse of Magic to uncover. I, personally, will only accuse my hero of talking too damn much.

If he had only held his peace.......let the Lord (you know the rest).  For Magic sake, the Lord may have to work in mysterious ways.....again.