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Wednesday, November 17, 2010 | 7:00am
SOUND OFF: Should Lebron James Be Named TIME Magazine’s Person of The Year?
Has he “influenced” our world enough to be the first professional athlete to be recognized?
@kingjames @TIME
So the latest buzz is that Lebron James is being considered for TIME Magazine’s prestigious “Person of the Year” cover story and its being met with a whirlwind of controversy. Since April when he fired his last shot somewhere off target in the playoffs to end his disappointing run with the Caviliers not much has gone right for the Miami superstar. He’s become a lightning rod for negative media attention and almost every public comment and press conference is being dissected with a microscope.
So should be be surprised that TIME Magazine is considering Lebron for much anticipated annual “Person of the Year” cover story? Many people are up in arms but when you consider to whom they look to bestow the “honor” does it make more sense. Unlike the NBA MVP of which Lebron has won two, the “Person of the Year” is given to the individual who ‘has done the most to influence the events of the past 12 months. Considering all the media attention surrounding his “decision” and his team’s lackluster start in Miami one could certainly argue he’s affected our lives.
But does he rank with past winners like Gandhi, F.D.R., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Pope John Paul II and Barack Obama? I certainly would hope not? Some might argue that how could Lebron win the award if Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali never did and neither has any other professional athlete so has sports now become that important in our lives that he would supplant some of the other 25 nominees like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan? That would be tough for TIME to justify but then again that’s why they do this. This issue is one of the most anticipated of any magazine all year long so to generate some buzz and controversy for the magazine in effort to compete for attention in the struggling print format, the nomination doesn’t surprise me. Hell, Lady Gaga‘s also on the list.
So what does Lebron think? He seemed a bit embarrassed when he learned of the nomination.
“I am who I am and I think I’m in a position of my life where I’m going to get better every day,” James said after Miami wrapped up its practice Monday. “But it’s too much.”
“That’s just crazy,” James said of the Chilean miners who collectively were nominated “What those guys did, the courage and what they stood for, I should be nowhere near that list. Nowhere near it.”
But we’ve been listening so much to what Lebron thinks lately. What do YOU think? SOUND OFF: Should Lebron James Be named TIME Magazine’s “Person of the Year?”
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I put the Time “person of the year” in the same category as the “sexiest person in the world” or “Miss Universe”: It’s a show. It’s entertainment. The fact is that there is a countless number of people who are doing great things, touching so many people around them, whom we don’t have a clue about. This society is always looking to detract attention from what is really going on by putting up sports and sex as entertainment. And we gobble it up…Guilty here! I love me some Fatback, and almost all sports…
I have a nominee for person of the year: how about a migrant farm worker, who damn near breaks his back picking fruit until his hands bleed, from sun-up to sun-down, seven days a week, lives in a rat-infested shack and eats one decent meal per day, in order to send his meager earnings back to Mexico or Guatemala so his family can eat. As a result, we can go to our nice, clean supermarkets and pick up our perfect fruits that often rot before our children eat them (because they’d rather have hotpockets)….
True story: I know a Doctor whose family traveled the country so that they could work in farms year-round, picking fruit. He is the youngest and something like 10 family members sacrificed so that he could go to school. He eventually became a Dr. and now runs a health clinic that treats everyone, even if they don’t have insurance. He is, in my estimation, a greater man than any of these jokers who can put a ball through a hoop….thank you, off my soapbox now.
E.L. Diaz,I agree that this is just entertainment. This actually means nothing in the grand scheme of things because Lebron is actually an idiot. So give him a paper award or a nomination for one. He will never will the nobel prize or do anything significant besides possibly donate money so other people could do things for him in his name. I don’t care. I say, play basketball and entertain me, boy!
As for Time, just another magazine..and I don’t read magazines.
@Left-EYE “entertain me boy!” That’s classic but that’s what it all is. We dress it up and call it NBA basketball but its all modern day shucking and jiving. They’re just paid more handsomely for it. Agreed.
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I think you raise a good point E.L. but I think the award is more about “impact” I think that migrant farm worker does more good in one day than Lebron will or can do in his life but no one knows him. Hell you didn’t even give him a name. That’s the troublesome thing about Americans. We idolize the wrong things. Like you said I’m guilty as well but maybe we should have HeroCenter instead of Sports Center. Sounds silly but if the media allowed more inspiration rather than entertainment we’d be a lot more motivated, skinnier and advanced culture.
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