Why Lebron Really is a King Amongst Men (Light Work #3)

Lebron James just won his 4th NBA Championship with his 3rd team (in the middle of me editing this!) He did it in a season marred by a global pandemic, massive civil unrest, and the biggest civil rights movement we've seen in 50 years. This should end the debate on who the GOAT is between Lebron and Michael Jordan. But of course it won't. The question is why? Well in this video Fiq presents a hypothesis on how the way Lebron performs masculinity will always render him secondary in the eyes of some of his critics. More will be explained after the jump in this episode of light work.


Transcript

In my opinion, Lebron James is the greatest athlete of all time. Not just better than Jordan and Kobe, but also, Brady, Iron Mike, Babe, Willie, Serena, Agasi, Tiger, Phelps, and whomever is good at hockey. And I know immediately there will be people who bristle at this notion, and I get that.
My opinion on any sport that isn’t football should be taken with enough salt to cause hypertension, so feel free to not just disagree but completely ignore my ranking of Lebron. However there’s one thing that’s inarguable, in terms of redefining what an athlete is for the modern era, there is no athlete that has done more than Lebron James has. And I think for a portion of his haters, this undeniable truth is also a significant reason why he has received so much criticism.
There are legitimate reasons to dislike lebron as a player, or at least to say he’s not as good as Jordan or Kobe was in their heyday. And maybe the majority of his detractors rely on these reasons, But there’s also an undercurrent of criticism that speaks to something bigger than the sport. I’m not just speaking to how all icons will always have vocal detractors, or the racists and bigots that he persistently triggers with his outspoke political opinions, which have not always been above reproach. I think the issue under the surface here is about what Lebron represents as a man especially as a man at the very top of a masculine hierarchy. It’s what greatly seperates him from the other athletes who attain GOAT status. What am I getting at? What aside from the flopping and numerous finals losses differentiates Lebron and fuels a significant portion of his criticism. That’s what I’m going to explain today with a little bit of light work.

I grew up in Chicago in the 90s which meant that the spectacle of Micheal Jordan was a significant part of my childhood. I sometimes wonder what that must have looked like to the rest of the world. Probably not all that different to be honest. Jordan was like the sun, he was so ubiqoutos it dodn’t matter what perspective you witnessed him from, he was going to shine bright, Jordan changed what it meant to be a professional athlete.
However, there’s one thing that I knew growng up in Chicago that maybe most of the world wasn’t aware of until this past spring with the release of Last Dance. Jordan was kind of awful as a person.
I think this is probably the key to his superstardom, the fact that Jordan the NBA, and his handlers were able to so successfully hide the fact that Jordan was kind of a dick. It’ helps that Jordan’s vice was just being competitive and singleminded and not drugs or women so he never courted severe scandals. But the reality is that the smiling vibrant Jordan that was sold hid the sociopathic tendencies that drove him to greatness.
If you know sports, then you know that jordan’s intensity is not unique. It seems like in order to maintain the level of focus and competitiveness needed to be a true icon, you can’t just be good at the sport, you can’t just be a hard worker, you have to legit have a few screws loose to never relent, to always keep an edge. This is seen in almost every athlete I mentioned. The best of them just seem a bit off, and the wosrt of them had ugly and unfortunate scandals follow them.
Most of them… except Lebron. To me, this is at the core of Lebron’s criticism. It’s not an explicit thing, I don’t think that many dudes are consciously aware of how this difference affects their perception, but I definitely think this is a key ingredient.
Athletes are our modern day warrior class. And Throughout history, civilizations have always been perfectly fine with accepting flaws and collateral damage from men who act as warriors and gladiators. If you were a spartan, or gladiator, or bull fighter, or soldier, then society will give allowances for you sometimes breaking other social contracts. And on some level that makes sense. We ween warriors on violence and conflict, it’s in a way unfair to assume it’s possible to immedieatly turn that off. We want them cut off from portions of their humanity that may impede their performance....

Prochain épisode

S01E08 - What to do with Ice Cube (Light Work #4)