Do you want to see LeBron James turn out to be a bust?

pathetic actually, I don't care what your reasons are,

 

Pathetic that I don't want him to fail? Oh, ok.

 

im looking at this 18 year old to make a difference. not just fail. If he turns out to be a bust, much more good will come of it than not. The media machine, which exploits young players such as lebron will lose so much credibility. you saw in last years draft the number of highschoolers drafted as opposed to the year before decreased. Because of the performances from currys chandlers kwames. GMs got scared. Highschoolers stocks fell. The same will happen to that stock if lebron doesnt turn out well. This is a good thing. It forces these kids to go college and refine their skills at the same time get a free quality education.

 

Uh Okay, I am agreeing with you. You wrote sad, I'm taking it further, pathetic.

As far as people's reasons, yeah LeBron is being exploited, but he benifits from the exploitation no matter how he ends up. The only thing is if he does fail, just hope it doesn't scar him to the point he can't function. But as far as the $90 million, hey I hear a lot of people complain about shoe prices and endorsements before athletes prove themselves, one of the easiest products to boycott or just stop buying is Nike. So take it out on Nike, not LeBron. I'm sure all of us would gladly except that $90million at age 18.

 

No it won't. As long as the NBA teams still draft these kids out of HS with #1 picks (with contracts that are guaranteed).

The only thing that will stop HS kids from ditching college to the NBA, is if the NBA teams colluded and agreed to not draft HS players in the 1st round. Or if the 20 and over rule comes into fruition.

The only thing I foresee in the future is quite opposite of what you are saying. I think there will be HS kids who play in Europe out of HS directly. Or teams will be able to draft a HS kid, then ship him to Europe or wherever, while retaining their rights. Europe could serve as a minor league for the NBA. The NBDL is too small, imo to be able to serve that purpose.

 

after I voted it was 26-24 in favor of wanting Lebron to be a bust.

amazing how so many want him to fail. instead of pulling for him to do well in the NBA. The Lebron hating has just begun in the BBS.

truly a shame.

 

2001 who is drafted number 1? A highschooler, who is drafted 2nd? a highschooler...who is drafted 4th? a highschooler.

all of them have a sub par year.

2002 where is the first and only first round highschooler drafted? 9th.

lets fast foward to this year now. 2003 who will be drafted first, a highschooler. If he fails, do you honestly believe that a highschooler would be selected first after that? Do you think the media will go out on a limb once more for an unproven kid putting all its credibility on the line? No, it will take a down turn, and shift....until there is another "Best highschooler Ever" a few years down the line....and when we get there, ill hope for the same thing.

you dont realize that good will only come from this. Highschoolers go to college, get a free education...and thats truly a blessing. Not everyone makes it in the NBA. How many low first rounders or 2nd rounders drafted 5 years ago can you remember? Getting an education is an insurance policy.

 

I picked yes. Probably because I am just jealous.

That said, I dont know how he can live up to the hype. Consider Kobe, the guy has 3 rings and is arguably the best player in the L, but he is still second fiddle to Michael...and probably always will be.

So here comes Lebron, who is already annointed as the "King". What is he going to have to do to live up to his billing? 3 championships? 5? 7? 9? It wont happen. Plus you can bet that next year, every vet and every ref will be gunning for him. He won't sneak in the backdoor like other rookies. IMO, he is in for a shock.

 

Apparently you don't realize that HS kids will come out if they know they will be 1st round draft picks. It doesn't matter if they go #1 overall, really. When there are 6 kids or so a year leaving HS for the NBA, 5 of them obviously know they can't be #1 overall.

If HS kids only left because they thought they could be #1 overall, then you'd only see 2-3 kids leave a year. Just being a 1st round draft choice is enough.

Moreover, many of these HS kids live in single parent homes, where poverty exists. As long as that is the situation, the $ from the NBA is too hard to resist. And I can't blame them.

Now, if the top HS kids year in and year out have CEOs as a father, and $ isn't an issue, then you have a point.

 

A-Train, let's face it, the drug lords aren't going away any time soon. So we hope they succeed?

Here's what I said in another thread:

 

So you are compaing LeBron or the media or both to drug lords?

Good grief.

 

double post

 

let me reitterate once more. if lebron fails to succeed, highschoolers stocks drop. For instance, 2001 draft. 3 highschoolers in the first 5 picks. none have success. next year only 1 highschooler taken in the first round.

apparently you dont understand, considering that many highschoolers could have declared last year, but did not because the stock had dropped so low.

if lebron fails to succeed, gms will lose confidence in highschoolers abilities to adapt and perform at the NBA level so early. They will not declare for the draft if they are expected to be drafted low because GMS will shy away from highschoolers as seen in 2002. This will force them to go to college, and refine their skills, and get an education.

 

I see Lebron James played. He's got a lot of potential, however his skills are really raw and he has a lot of work to do before he's a solid contributor in any team.

Personally, I think the Hype is too much and it's bad for Lebron James. However, I sure hope that he's as good as he's hyped to be, if he's ever that good it certainly is good for the game of basketball. IMHO, Lebron doesn't deserve the 90 mil. shoe contracts simply because he did not even play one NBA game yet.

Nike just got lucky when they signed with MJ when he's relatively unknown and Nike was a pretty small start up business at the time.

 

No elephant, the high school kids won't go to college to "get an education", they'll go to college for one year and THEN declare for the draft, taking a scholarship away from a player who might have actually used that opportunity to get his college degree, but that's an entirely different subject...

 

I don't know about his skills being very "raw." That will be the case in the NBA, certainly. The games I saw on ESPN and ESPN2 showed me that this kid is for real. I don't think he has a chance to be a bust. (So many people were saying that about Apocalypse Yao.)

But one can never really live up to too much hype (*cough* Matrix Reloaded *cough*). By now the media has this kid walking on water. Go ahead and name him Jesus Shuttlesworth instead.

 

No, I'm using an obvious counter-example to show the absurdity of a not-so-obvious argument. (BTW, it's a standard method in philosophical debate, in case you don't know.)

I was responding to A-Train's point that even though the media driven society is not fair, we shouldn't hope for its failure BECAUSE IT IS NOT GOING AWAY. My counter-point is that if something is wrong, you should still hope that it fails even though the hope might not change anything.

 

I voted yes because I hate all the hype around him. No doubt the dude can ball, and he will probably ball well, but I just hate how the NBA insists on hyping marquee players with promos, commercials, etc. They probably had a heart attack when "Shaq, Kobe and the Lakers" didnt make it past the second round. For the same reason I hated the hype around Michael Jordan, I will hate the tremendous hype about an unproven High School phenom in James.

Best of luck, but I hope this experiment proves that KIDS SHOULD GO TO COLLEGE!!!

 

I hope hes is the real deal. His passing and leaping skills are already among the best in the league. Once he develops his shot he is going to be scary. I just hope he stays out of the west!

 

I do understand. However, even guys like Tony Key, Korleon Young, etc. STILL haven't deterred HS kids from leaving early. As long as there are financial issues, kids will leave.

What you don't realize is that even if a kid doesn't make an NBA squad, the 60k a year he can get in the NBDL or whereever is more than what he can get as a college basketball player, unless you play for Michigan.

If these kids had more financially stable backgrounds, then your theory or whatever would have more credibility.

Also, these high school kids are fighting for draft spots against college UNDERCLASSMEN, for the most part. Therefore the disadvantage isn't really as steep. Most good to great college players are underclassmen who eventually leave early. By default, NBA teams will be stuck with picking either high school players, 18-21 year old Euros, or underclassmen.