Loyalty

[The Gipper]

Here is something you must know about LeBron. He actually IS a loyal guy. But his loyalty is NOT to his team, or to his town, or to his fans, or really even to his school, St.V/St.M. His loyalty is ONLY to his inner circle of friends and family and not to anyone else.

Example...he allowed the disrespect that Chris Bosh gave to Cleveland to go unreprimanded. No one who was loyal to his town or team would have tolerated that, but because Bosh was his friend, he allowed Bosh's ideas, and not any feelings toward the Cavs, its organization, the city or its fans to dictate what he was going to do.

 

Also, FYI, my nephew was a fellow classmate of St.V-M. They both graduated the same year. There were ONLY 116 kids in that graduating class. As you know, LBJ was celebrated from his sophomore year onward. But the fact is, he would have nothing to do with anyone else in his class or school except for that inner circle of friends. He was very tight with those few guys, as was shown in that movie, but he would have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of his classmates.

My nephew believes that if he ran into James today James would neither recognize him and if he reminded that he was a High School classmate of his his response would be "yea, so what".

I don't know about you, but I graduated 40 years ago and had a class of about 250. And if one of those 250 came up to me I would probably recognize about 225 of them (and hell, we have had at least 25 of them die). I would probably have a friendly, elongated conversation with any of them and do a certain amount of reminiscing. But my nephew says that no such thing would happen with LBJ.

 

Another anecdote: LeBron's main adviser is a guy named Maverick Carter. I am sure if you paid attention you have heard the name. Also, Maverick lived, or his mother lived either in or adjacent to the town that I served as traffic court magistrate for 18 years, so he was always traveling through my town. Also, in case you hadn't heard, Maverick is/was a notorious speeder. The first couple of times he was caught speeding in my town, it was agreed by the prosecutor that he would be given a "break" with a no point deal. The third time it happened, the prosecutor was reluctant to give another break, so Maverick got a lawyer and was trying to fight it, and we ended up transferring the case to Municipal Court where I think he either pled or was found guilty. The fourth time it happened he came in on his own and said "I'm not going to ask for any favors this time. Just let me know what my fine is and I'll pay it." I heard later that he got caught up in Middleburg Hts. who gave him a rough time.