LeBron James and the cult of the superstar

Well, I didn't watch LeBron's infomercial last night. Apparently it was something about expanding the LeBron James brand (something very, very important to everyone). And ESPN was right there, agreeing to, and relishing, every degrading act they were asked to perform, like a BDSM sub. This is what modern big-time sports looks like.

I'm surprised there wasn't a sideline interview afterward, given by a 23 year old hottie with a BA in communications from USC, with questions like, "King James, what emotions went through your head as you became even more wealthy than any of the people watching will ever hope to be?" Maybe there was. I didn't watch.

Who here is sick of the way Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin are the only players the NHL consistently promotes? Well, if the NHL ever moves back to ESPN, guess which two players are going to be even more relentlessly promoted? That's what ESPN does. Stuart Scott will quickly go through the highlights before putting SidCros on the Budweiser Hot Seat and then counting down Alexander the Great's 10 best goal reactions. They're less about sports journalism and more about sports PR and marketing. It gets viewers, I guess, but, to me, makes the whole undertaking so hollow and unenjoyable I just can't watch SportsCenter any longer.

I mean, sports is meaningless enough without having the utter vapidity of it all rubbed in your face. Big time sports coverage now is millionaires hundreds of times over preening and mugging for the cameras, and sycophants hanging on their every word and facial reaction. It's a convention of self-important assholes of the type I can't stand in real life. I have no idea why this makes as much money as it does, but all I know is that the NHL's virtue has been being incompetent enough to avoid becoming another Gigantic Douche like the NFL, MLB, and NBA.

So, stay boring, NHL! Keep that TV contract on Vs. or Lifetime or that channel that's just footage of the space shuttle orbiting earth. At least you won't turn into a narcissist factory.