At least Obama’s popularity tanked slowly over a year in a half. LeBron plummeted in less than two months.
It wasn’t a rape charge, a secret affair, steroids or dirty politics that turned America against James.
According to the newest Q School ratings, only 14 percent of Americans polled view LeBron in a positive light. He dropped 41.5 percent this year. If you root for James these days, you’re either related to him, a Miami Heat fan, or you’ve been held captive in your father’s Austrian basement dungeon for the last couple of months.
Don’t blame racism, at least in LeBron’s case – Kevin Durant, choosing to re-up in Lil’ Ole Oklahoma City, thrust himself into the NBA’s most likeable spot.
LeBron’s crime was his ego. We hate egotistical maniacs, although our hatred makes them that much intriguing. We hate Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, but Google their names nearly as frequently as God and sex. Who doesn’t want to stare at a train wreck?
LeBron’s mistakes have been well-documented. Whoever found it prudent to stick LeBron on national TV to announce he was tearing the hearts out of his hometown team to play on a super team must have attended the Lawrence Taylor School of Public Relations.
Taking the perceived easy way out of winning a NBA championship by teaming up with your buddies for a game of “Let’s Cheat the Salary Cap Legally” won’t go over in a country who want to see a Michael Jordan-like player sucking oxygen courtside while suffering from a flu at a Noon game after staying out in Vegas until sunrise.
But much like with our president, the haters will twist the truth and form a picture of LeBron that ends up warping the reality that he's a young, rich basketball player who wants to win.
He will see a popularity spike once he wins a title or two, but it will never be near its peak numbers. Kobe Bryant, more liked than the year or two after his rape charges when he was viewed as a sexual predator who couldn't win a championship without Shaq, is still in the Q School's Top 10 least liked athletes.
Like Kobe, but for very different reasons, LeBron is officially the bad guy, the hated one, and maybe he needs that to thrive.
He already sent out a Tweet bomb that he’s compiling mental notes of his haters, only to bust his ticked off nut on the rest of the NBA in less than two months.
Pat Riley and Erik Spolestra are producing and directing an Oscar-caliber drama. You have the loveable star in Dwyane Wade, the hated but respected villain in LeBron James (at least the respect will come when he starts to win), and the key supporting character who pops up from time to time to steal the spotlight in Chris Bosh.
Obama might never reach like Clinton-like popularity numbers, but the money is on him to win the presidency again in 2012. LeBron will never be loved outside of Miami, but he’ll take the titles and hundreds of millions of dollars and women and South Beach mansions.
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