The Works: LeBron's Tone-Deaf Ways; Hard Cap as a Solution?

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In The Works today: why Ted Leonsis' hard cap pitch is disingenuous and previews for the 76ers and the Pistons.

But first, deconstructing The Decision again, this time with race as the hammer.

Color Bind

Ring the alarm! LeBron James, who like his off-court model Michael Jordan has always been slow to express any kind of political, or even socially conscious, opinion, said the r-word. During a CNN segment that gave James and sidekick Maverick Carter a chance to do a little late damage control for their disastrous ESPN "Decision", both the King and Mav said, unequivocally, that race played a role in the way the media covered James this summer. From CNN.com:

Soledad O'Brien (on camera): Do you think there's a role that race plays in this?

LeBron James: I think so at times. It's always, you know, a race factor.

Maverick Carter: It definitely played a role in some of the stuff coming out of the media, things that were written for sure.

Not that this is possible, but the object here is not to get into whether or not race mattters. Since that fateful day in July, I've come to the conclusion that it both does and doesn't. The Dan Gilbert episode, and the invocations of slavery that followed, were as much about power and economics as LeBron's ethnic background. If any player had held the league in thrall like James, then made his announcement in such a garish fashion, he would have to some degree, been ridiculed for it. He would also have been called a lazy coward for going to someone else's team. At the same time, the breakdown of James' Q Scores -- widely reported as having plummeted like a felon's -- suggest that African Americans judge black athletes less harshly. You can guess at the other side of that equation.

What's so notable here is not that James stated the obvious (if you disagree, you were likely just waiting for him to "play the card"), but that he waited until now. As Joey Litman put it, James is a smart guy with opinions who also happens to be completely tone-deaf.

DannyHarf DannyWay DarrenShapiro DaveMirra DeanRandazzo