No matter what happens in the NBA Finals, LeBron James will be free shortly thereafter to play for pretty much whichever team he wishes. What club wouldn’t want the best player on the planet and perhaps — dare we even entertain the possibility? — the best basketball player ever? And while it’s typically good form for players to stay right where they are, playing for their incumbent team, the team for which and with which they’ve worked and sweated and competed, supposedly building a bond, maybe it’s time for James not only to switch teams, but to switch sports.
As an individual player, for LeBron, basketball is just too easy.
He, like a fellow who came before him, the only other player in his most dominant talent class, a guy known by his initials, needs to find a new challenge.
Who hasn’t looked at LeBron’s abilities, his speed, his hand-eye coordination, his touch, his strength, his build, and thought, man, what a tight end this dude would have made? Just as he can — and does — play every position on the basketball floor, he likely could do the same in football. That might be an exaggeration, but not that big a one.
You don’t think James could play tight end or offensive line or running back or even quarterback or defensive line or linebacker? You don’t think with his agility and athleticism and precision he could stop the run or facilitate it? You don’t think he could disrupt the passing game or buttress it?
From a sheer physical-ability standpoint, and a mental-toughness one, the man could. Lack of training would be the only hurdle.
Could you see James playing hockey? Imagine being a defenseman and having him skating toward you with the puck. Egads. Or the opposite, skating toward LeBron and having him check you? Hmm.
Or what if he followed in the exact footsteps of MJ and headed off to minor league baseball? Don’t know if he could hit the curve, but, for the love of Casey Stengel, he definitely could hit for power. Or maybe throw more than just a can of Sprite. That would be fun to see.
The thought came into consciousness when the story first arose that the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, a Triple-A team affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies, is going after LeBron hard. They’ve already expressed to James that the only way he can surpass Michael Jordan as the greatest ever is to step into baseball, the way His Airness did back in 1994.
The team indicated to James it would be in touch with him at the start of NBA free agency, when he officially is clear to entertain offers. And it reportedly put up a billboard featuring LeBron’s jersey.
Lehigh Valley is planning a LeBron Night later this month, with activities centered on the basketball icon.
Can’t you hear it now, blaring over the loudspeakers at the park? “Now batting, No. 23 for the IronPigs, Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnngg Jaaaaaaammmessss.”
It’s perfect. The only way to true exceptional greatness.
OK, so it’s a promotional ploy by the Pigs. We get that. It’s not going to happen. LeBron is 33 years old, going to get paid more than King Farouk, so he’s not going to switch up and get up to speed at that level in a sport as complicated skill-wise as baseball.
But what if he tried? What if he had tried back in the day? It would be or would have been cool to see if all that extraordinary athletic talent transferred to a different game.
It makes you appreciate the abilities of, say, Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders, who did football and baseball, and how remarkable it was that they could do it the way they did. And it might even encourage young athletes to resist the temptation, and the pressure coming from youth or school coaches, to specialize in one sport and one sport only at an early age.
How many great and good and even average athletes have been forced to pick a sport too soon and commit all their efforts and energies to it because someone in some position of influence and power made them? What if a guy like Jordan had been pressured into playing a different game, foregoing everything else, including basketball, when he was 10? It’s like wondering what would have happened had Mozart’s parents or instructors forced him to take up painting, instead of music.
It’s something to think about, especially for those who guide kids.
It’s something to wonder about, for everybody else — what an athlete like LeBron James might have been able to do had he gone a different direction. Or had he spread his wings a little more.
He made the right decision. And we can be grateful for that, for the chance to watch such a great talent do what he does better than anyone else on God’s green earth. But you have to wonder … what else could he have done?
GORDON MONSON hosts “The Big Show” weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone.