Columnist Dean Juipe: James isn’t as innocent as portrayed

Dean Juipe

Friday, Feb. 7, 2003 | 10:13 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

For those who note and make an issue in the disparities of our backgrounds, here's a nod in your direction and my response: You're right.

LeBron James and I are nothing alike.

I grew up in a quiet town, the subject of nothing beyond ordinary attention, and into an adulthood in which little in the way of celebrity or financial security was assured.

James, at 18 years old, has lived the antithesis.

He has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated ... He is the finest high school basketball player in the country ... He is going to skip college and enter the June 26 NBA draft, in which it's widely assumed he'll be the No. 1 pick and be entitled (by the league's collective bargaining agreement) to a three-year contract valued at $11 million.

He's also about to sign with an apparel company, either Nike or Adidas, for a separate deal worth an estimated $25 million.

Oh yeah, he also has a new $50,000 Hummer H2 that his mother took out a loan to buy for him and he plays for a team -- St. Vincent-St. Mary of Akron, Ohio -- that used its regular season as something of a national tour with an asking price of $100,000 per game.

His every move has been studied, catalogued and dissected. The Hummer certainly drew considerable attention, as did his acceptance of two free sports jerseys (valued at $845) from a clothing store Jan. 25 in exchange for nothing but a picture.

When the latter issue surfaced, James had his eligibility questioned -- he did, obviously, break Ohio amateur bylaw 4-10-1(c) that states "an athlete forfeits his amateur status by capitalizing on fame by receiving money or gifts" -- and the state sat him out for a game and forced his nationally ranked No. 1 team to forfeit an earlier victory.

Through it all, James, who will be back in uniform Saturday (under a judge's temporary restraining order) and is awaiting a Feb. 26 hearing before another Ohio judge who will resolve his eligibility once and for all, has been portrayed as innocent and marginally misguided.

To which I say from my middle-aged and divergent background perch: Spare me.

If anyone knows and is aware of the rules, it's James and the posse that already surrounds him.

It's just that he has chosen to place himself above the rules in a show of disrespect for his school and authority, which only a young man on the precipice of vast wealth can so easily do.

This is an extremely talented basketball player who has been catered to every step of the way. And as part of that endless attention, his high school coach and the apparel reps that are so near to him have certainly made him at least vaguely acquainted with anything that might affect his eligibility.

But with riches assured and his senior season winding down, James became careless. Rather than say to his mom, "Maybe we should hold off on that Hummer for a few weeks," he took possession of it and challenged the Ohio Athletic Association to cynically examine the paper trail. Same thing with the jerseys.

James, it seems, just can't wait.

If I was on his high school team, I'd be thinking of swatting him in the head. But I'm just some old guy from another era, so what do I know about the intricacies of youth and stardom?