The Life Lessons of LeBron James

Start of the workday, everybody's looking for excuses not to check that pile of emails, to give themselves five minutes before the chaos begins. So what do we talk about? Basketball. LeBron James. Say what you will about the guy (and I will) but he gives us something to talk about.

So I tell my colleague, "You know, after Game 5, I'm starting to feel bad for the guy. It's like watching a train wreck. It's painful to watch him fail." And he responds, "Huh, you're just like my dad. Letting him off easy. The man brought this on himself. I don't feel bad for him. He's getting his life lesson. What you are watching is someone going through a life lesson."

I thought about that a lot. LeBron's going through his life lesson. There are things that he just doesn't get yet. He's still only 26. And try as hard as he might to say all the right things...with him they just come out wrong. It seems so phony and fake. Maybe that's why so many people don't like him.

When LeBron speaks he comes off, in the words of Holden Caufield, as a phony. He says he's about Team. He says he's about Loyalty (or at least he used to be). He stays humble. Says Jordan is the best. But no one believes him, because it looks like he's never totally believed the shit he's saying. It's like you can almost see through the act.

Just as we aren't buying it, life isn't buying it. The only thing is that life isn't buying it. And life is the one that is pushing LeBron to own up to what it really means to be a man, to really be about team, to really be about loyalty, to really be humble.

That's what we're watching here. A man going through his life lessons. We've all had them. We've all been kicked in the ass by life at one point or another. And you know, at least in my opinion, we're all better for it. Once we get the lesson we become better human beings. So we get to be witnesses of someone going through their life lesson. There was a time when Kobe went through his. We all got to witness it. It wasn't pretty. But we were all there.

That's one of the things I find fascinating about sports. You watch these players develop. You watch them go through their own personal trials and tribulations. It's like watching the arc of a soul's life, or a personalities development. And you don't know who they are going to become. You just get to watch as it happens. And like anything, what you think of that development really is a reflection of yourself. The things people see in LeBron, the things they like, the things they hate, are really a reflection of themselves, what they value, and what they feel, maybe more so than of LeBron himself.

ESPN had this great video of Skip Blayless and Chris Boussard arguing over LeBron and his legacy, and in it you can really see how people are piecing together LeBron's life, who he is, and what he is about, and how what we think of it really is a reflection of ourself.

Game Six tonight. Another glimpse of who LeBron James will become. I'm sure it will leave us with plenty to talk about tomorrow morning.