"If people feel that way, that's great to know," James said. "I'm nowhere near on a level as a Grant Hill because I haven't had that adversity that Grant Hill has had his entire career by going through all these injuries and still having the determination to come back and still want to play this game. I'm working on being a good person, but he's a great person."
Asked if he was ready to spend his life in the spotlight, James did not hesitate. "I've been in (the public eye) for a long time now, since I was a sophomore or junior in high school. So I'm very comfortable with it."
The transcendent one
"So you can't blame jazz musicians or David Stern with his NBA fashion issues."
-- Rapper Nas on the NBA's dress code
"White America has shut the NBA out. They're not interested in the NBA ... for a variety of reasons. Tattoos, behavior, hand guns, the fight (between) Indiana and Detroit. All those reasons are why the white fan is not interested, for the most part, in the NBA. I couldn't get a white (sports) fan in some of the towns that I've been around to even talk about the NBA. They're not interested."
-- New York radio talk show host Chris Russo, who is white
Is it possible that many other whites feel the same way? Or is this a false issue disgorged by the media?
Critics of Stern contend his recent measures and rules, such as adding a dress code, are an effort to create a palatable league -- translation, more appealing to whites, they say -- which will bring back white viewers.
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| 'He is just a likeable guy,' says commissioner David Stern, who no doubt understands James' value to the NBA. (Getty Images) |
Stern also denied there is white flight from arenas.
"Our season-ticket base is as white as can be," Stern said. "They clap their hands, they enjoy the games, they listen to the music, so it's not so."
What is not in doubt is that professional basketball is held to a different standard than other sports. It is an amazing phenomenon, actually. There are nasty altercations in hockey and bench-clearing fights in baseball that would put NBA scrums to shame.
Yet when NBA players get their brawl on, it seems to resonate more in the public domain. People in the NBA admit the reasons are complicated.
One has to do with the proximity of fans. Fans at hockey and baseball games are seated far from the fights and protected by significant barriers. In both the Detroit and New York brawls, large, formidable athletes spilled into the stands, thus endangering fans. In the Detroit melee, they fought them.
The elephant under the basket is the topic of race.
If you believe players and executives in the NBA, it is a prism that disfigures almost everything basketball. One basketball player arrest or gunfight or Iverson-like act of defiance is treated like the end of Western Civilization; when an NFL or hockey player commits an unsocial act, the public opinion consequences are not so harsh.
Stern laughed at remembering how years ago the fact players wore Afros were considered bad for the league's image.
"It is sitting there, obviously," Stern said of the issue of race. "But what can you do? You just work through it."
Stern has two choices. He can either let the people who are turned off just continue to be, and accept the fact that the television numbers will be smaller. Or he can take steps to limit the damage. Stern is definitely doing the latter.
This is where players like James enter the picture. Like Woods and Jordan before him, James is not seen as black or white, just a star. His athletic prowess seems to armor him against racial double standards.
"He is just a likeable guy," said Stern. "Just look at that smile."
