Obey Your Master

I am white. Like, really white. My skin resembles that of Edward's in "Twilight". I like heavy metal and whiskey. My tattoos have colors. So it goes without saying that 99% of the time, I cannot stand and am vehemently against the words that come out of Reverend Jesse Jackson's mouth.

Let me present to you, that rare occurrence of the 1%.

I know I am in the minority here (no pun intended), when I say that I actually agree with Jackson's take on LeBron James. Well, not completely. Let me explain.

In case you didn't hear, the Rev. had this to say about Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, and his tirade over LeBron choosing Miami over Cleveland:

He speaks as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave. This is an owner employee relationship - between business partners - and LeBron honored his contract.

Ah, the race card. Expect nothing less. You also should expect each and every individual in the country to come out to bash Jackson, and his love affair with making any issue about race. Of course, the LeBron James Fiasco (as I like to call it) has little to do with racism. But the idea of sports owners having a "slave master mentality" hit a chord with me. It made me think. Is he right?

I don't mean to suggest that owners think of their players as slaves. But why is it that Dan Gilbert reacted so strangely and violently to Lebron leaving? I am of the opinion that Gilbert took the whole thing personally, as if James was saying to him: "You are not good enough. You made me do this. You cannot run a business. I am better than you". And while I'm sure Mr. Gilbert has heard this before in his lifetime, I doubt he's heard it from a 25 year old black man who just proclaimed it in front of ten million people.

The problem here is role reversal, not just between blacks and whites, but of all owners and players. Long gone are the days of teams just buying and trading players, like, ahem, slaves. Now you must kiss the feet of King James. And in Gilbert's case, you might get kicked in the teeth afterwards. That is a hard pill for a rich and powerful man to swallow. So instead Gilbert spit back at the King. Wrong move, Dan.

I suspect what Rev. Jackson was trying to say, albeit poorly, was that Dan Gilbert felt entitled have LeBron James, a sentiment echoed by every sports fan in the state of Ohio. And why would he/they feel that way? It is a fact that Cleveland horribly managed their team, failing to put anything remotely resembling a championship roster around LeBron. So this sense of entitlement means that Ohioans believed that James belonged to them, whether he liked it or not; that it was not his choice to not want to play in Cleveland. They had already written his script. But LeBron freed himself of what they wanted and what we as sports fans wanted. He went after what he wanted.

Granted, when you consider the mouthpiece those quotes came from, and how scared Americans get when race is interjected in any conversation (especially sports), the common reaction will be "there he goes again...". But I see the validity in Jackson's overall point. LeBron James is an athlete who may have tarnished his legacy and his hero-status in his hometown to win basketball games. Not only that, but he rubbed it in our faces as well. He did exactly what everyone wanted him not to do. And we responded with disgust that he would dare not play by our rules.

But we play by LeBron's, and any other star athlete's rules now. He has set the precedent. He is our master.