The Control Freak: LeBron James as the American Dream

Do you like LeBron James? For a long time, my answer to that question was a resounding no.

I hated how he stabbed Cleveland in the back in 2010, wielding the blade over his head in oblivious glee on national television. I couldn’t stand him talking about himself in the third person, and I recoiled when he said he was ‘taking his talents to South Beach’, still the world’s greatest euphemism for self-gratification.

Never has a move to a warmer climate been so cold. Choosing Miami was so gloriously soulless – abandoning his freezing, desperate, perpetually losing home state for the smoke, mirrors, hedonism and Drake of South Beach.

Then there was the Welcome Party, a self-indulgent exercise to test the earthly limits of ‘cringe’. There was the total lack of remorse for ‘The Decision’ and the juvenile Dirk Nowitzki coughing saga. Perhaps most impressively, there was the 2011 Finals, where James traded coughing for choking, and in the aftermath effectively told his critics ‘my life is better than yours, deal with it’.

The 2011 Finals were James’ nadir, and he’s come back into public favour since then. Antagonism eventually gave way to awe, and a begrudging respect for the self-proclaimed ‘King’ has developed after five consecutive trips to the Finals.

His approval rating sky-rocketed after returning to Cleveland last year, finally articulating some regrets about ‘The Decision’ in the process. But even still, weirdness and cold oddities about James’s personality persist.

There’s been the bizarre passive-aggressive media mind games with Kevin Love and the hijacking of the offence that leaves David Blatt looking like Join Voigt in ‘Varsity Blues’. James treats Blatt with a total lack of respect – a disdain that is as curious as it is petulant. There’s the fact that he basically took the first three months of the season off for no discernible reason.

There’s also all the sticky impurity about returning to Cleveland, a situation more or less analogous to a super model scientist leaving her overweight accountant boyfriend with a heart of gold to date Ryan Gosling, then coming back to the accountant to settle down after living the high life for a few years.

So, I’ll ask you again: do you like LeBron James?

We’ve forcibly attached so many roles to LeBron over the years. ‘The Chosen One’, ‘The Villain’, ‘The Leader’, ‘The Hero’, etc. But how about this one: ‘The Enterprising American’.

The one word that I most frequently associate with LeBron James is ‘control’. Whether it’s on the basketball court, during free agency, or eating pizza at Story Nightclub, LeBron James is always in total control. He exudes absolute power over everything he does – he assesses the situation and then dictates its outcomes. To paraphrase something Jack Nicholson once said in a bad Boston accent LeBron James has never wanted to be a product of his environment – he’s wanted his environment to be a product of him.

James chooses how much money he makes, the length of his contracts, what teams he plays for, who those teams sign and the style that they play. Keen to implement your intricate Princeton offence David Blatt? I don’t think so. LeBron is calling the plays in this house.

James doesn’t have a traditional agent and he keeps his own counsel. He’s crafted LRMR, an expanding marketing company, and he’s a huge figure in the community, making public stances on Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin.

James has never wanted to be ‘just a basketball player’ – the goal has always been ‘global icon’. Jay-Z, one of LeBron’s friends and major influences, created the blueprint for James, and LeBron’s state of mind has always been ‘empire’.

LeBron James is a symbol of self-determination. His majestic ability to control every ebb and flow of a basketball game is a perfect reflection of his powerful, decisive off-court persona. James grew up an only child with an absent father, raised by his mother in trying conditions. He’s the self-made man – a remarkable emblem of the American Dream. Life, liberty and the pursuit of triple doubles – welcome to the land of the free.

Some might find James’s single-minded obsession with control off-putting, but it’s hard to find fault in many of his decisions.

People lambasted James after joining Miami and celebrated Kevin Durant’s choice in the immediate aftermath to re-sign with Oklahoma City for five years with no opt-out clause. The dichotomy between James and Durant was characterised as indulgent self-interest versus admirable loyalty. The past five years have seen James win 73 playoff games, 17 playoff series and two titles; Durant has won 37, eight and zero.

Durant showed OKC complete loyalty and they repaid him by counting pennies, refusing to amnesty Kendrick Perkins and trading away James Harden. Kevin Durant will enter next season as a 27-year-old recovering from a career-threatening injury, with a first year coach.

Loyalty in the NBA is a fallacy and James has demonstrated an appreciation of this fact as impressive as any of his on-court talents. Why should he be loyal to something that has shown no loyalty to him?

After leading Cleveland admirably and borderline heroically for seven years, James had one bad game in the 2010 playoffs against Boston and all of a sudden his personality, his leadership, hell, even his manhood, was being doubted. By definition, James has been selfish, but he’s also been largely been justified.

LeBron James is not a character who inspires warmth. He lacks the wholesome sincerity of a Stephen Curry, the unadulterated, genuine emotion of a Kevin Durant, or the heart-warming humility of a Tim Duncan. And unlike Kobe Bryant, he’s never embraced his role as a villain.

I still cringe watching James in interviews. Like Andrew Sharp perfectly articulated, James often seems to confuse whether he’s playing basketball or starring in his own bio-pic. There’s a perpetual sense of theatre and arrogant entitlement that still makes James difficult to root for. Appalled that you only finished third in the MVP vote this year LeBron? Bro, you should have finished fourth. Disgusted by the cold reception you received in 2011? Man, you brought it all upon yourself.

And yet, outside perception and likeability have never been James’s primary goals (although whatever he says, 2011 tells us that he clearly does care about them). When your goal is ‘global icon’ and world domination, what the little voices of the public say don’t tend to be so influential. As a cultural persona, James isn’t especially warm or cuddly, but guess what, neither is capitalism. James has always done things his way, and that’s something to respect.

Build yourself up from nothing, rise to prominence and control your own destiny. That’s the essence of the American Dream – it’s the essence of America. LeBron has been obsessed with controlling his environment, but only because that’s what his environment has taught him to do.

So as the saying goes: don’t hate the player, hate the socio-economic framework.